Sophie M. Sparrow, a visiting professor at The John Marshall Law School, has been named a finalist in the National Jurist magazine’s 2012 list of most influential people in legal education.
Sparrow, who is teaching Lawyering Skills I and working with the faculty on student assessments, is a consultant to the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning. She is the only finalist teaching at a law school in Illinois.
The National Jurist requested nominations from every law school in the country and its editorial team narrowed the original pool to 50 before putting that group to a vote by people in the legal education field.
“The list is a who’s who of the people who have shaped the discussion over the past year, which has been a challenging and pivotal year,” said Jack Crittenden, editor in chief of the National Jurist.
The finalists will be published in order of influence in the magazine’s January issue.
A noted expert in the field of student performance assessments, Sparrow is the former director of the University of New Hampshire School of Law’s Career Services Center, and a former director of Legal Skills there. She has co-authored Techniques for Teaching Law 2 in 2011, and Teaching Law by Design for Adjuncts in 2010. The Harvard Law School graduate has given dozens of workshops and presentations on teaching, professionalism, assessment and writing.