Benjamin V. Madison III, J.D.

Bio

Professor Benjamin Madison serves as director of the Center for Professional Formation. His pretrial practice casebook, Civil Procedure for All States: A Context and Practice Casebook (2012), has drawn praise as one of the first casebooks designed according to the recommendations of the Carnegie Institute in its groundbreaking work, Educating Lawyers (2007).

Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, an initiative of the Institute for the Advancement of the Legal Profession, elected Madison a Fellow as a result of his casebook and efforts to improve legal education. Madison was also selected to be a contributing author in the Building on Best Practices in Legal Education (2005), a book that evaluates methods to implement the recommendations of the Carnegie study.

More recently, Professor Madison has published a second casebook, FEDERAL CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE (Seventh Ed. 2023).

Madison was a founding member of the New Law Teachers’ Committee for the Southeastern Association of Law Schools and continues to present annually as part of that Committee’s program designed to help new law teachers develop best instructional practices.

Madison—along with Professor L.O. Natt Gantt—led the formation of the Center for Professional Formation. The Center began a mentorship program in the 2012-13 academic year, in which first-year law students were paired with judges or lawyers to assist in allowing students to probe those outside of law school with experience in ethical challenges. The Center also organizes presentations, Continuing Legal Education seminars, and workshops focused on the importance of developing ethical boundaries as a professional, and the degree to which that will affect one’s sense of integrity and fulfillment.

In addition to the casebook and Building on Best Practice in Legal Education, Madison has written and continues to write articles on improving legal education. As a former litigation partner in the law firm of Hunton & Williams, a past bar association president, a long-time member of the James-Kent Inn of Court, and someone who in practice devoted thousands of hours to pro bono cases,

Madison brings his diverse experience into both teaching and, in particular, into his exploration with students of the scenarios that test lawyers’ ethical values and—he believes—determine the degree to which they find satisfaction in the legal field.

Credentials

J.D., College of William & Mary; Managing Editor, William & Mary Law Review, 1984-85 M.A., College of William & Mary B.A., Randolph-Macon College

Publications

Scholarly Publications:

Morals and Mentors: What the First American Law Schools Can Teach Us about Developing Law Students' Professional Identity, 21 REGENT UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW (2019) (publication forthcoming) (co-author with Benjamin V. Madison III).

Professional Identity and Professionalism, THE PROFESSIONAL LAWYER, VOL. 24, No. 3 (2017)

Self-Directedness and Professional Formation: Connecting Two Critical Concepts in Legal Education, 12 UNIV. ST. THOMAS L. J. 14, 498 (2018) (coauthored with L.O. Natt Gantt II) https://ir.stthomas.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1422&context=ustlj

The Rubric Meets the Road in Law School Assessment: Program Assessment of the Degree to Which a Law School’s J.D. Program Is Achieving Its Learning Outcomes, 94 U. DET. MERCY L. REV. 343 (SPRING 2018) (coauthored with Marie Hamm and Ryan Murnane)

The Rubric Meets the Road in Law School Assessment: Program Assessment of the Degree to Which a Law School’s J.D. Program Is Achieving Its Learning Outcomes, 94 U. DET. MERCY L. REV. 343 (SPRING 2018) (coauthored with Marie Hamm and Ryan Murnane)

"Teaching Knowledge, Skills, and Values of Professional Identity Formation," in Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World (2015) (book chapter; coauthored with L. O. Natt Gantt, II)

"The Emperor Has No Clothes, But Does Anyone Really Care? How Law Schools Are Failing to Develop Students' Professional Identity and Practical Judgment," 27 Regent University Law Review 339 (2015) (symposium article, coauthored with L.O. Natt Gantt, II)

Civil Procedure for All States: A Context and Practice Casebook (Carolina Academic Press 2010).

"Color-Blind: Procedure’s Quiet But Crucial Role in Achieving Racial Justice," 78 UMKC L. Rev. 617 (Spring 2010). PDF

"The Military Commission Act of 2006: An Unnecessary Scheme for Second-Class Justice or an Essential Means To Prosecute People Who Otherwise Would Escape Accountability?" 55 Naval Law Review 213 (2008). PDF

"The Elephant in Law School Classrooms: Overuse of the Socratic Method as an Obstacle to Teaching Modern Law Students," 85 University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 293 (2008). PDF

"Trial by Jury or by Military Tribunal for Accused Terrorist Detainees Facing the Death Penalty? An Examination of Principles that Transcend the U.S. Constitution," 17 University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy 347 (2006). PDF

"Rico, Judicial Activism, and the Roots of Separation of Powers," 43 Brandeis Law Journal 29 (2005). PDF

"Appeals to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Virginia," Ch. 2 in Appellate Practice: Virginia and Federal Courts (Virginia CLE Foundation 5th ed. 2012).

"The Implications of Presuming Reliance in Class Action Litigation," Class Action Litigation Vol. I, No. 15 (BNA 2000).

"Looking for a Sign on Trade Dress, Intellectual Property," Legal Times 2000 (co-authored with Scott Thompson, Esq.).

Affiliations

Founding Member and Continuing Participant in the Committee on the New Law Teachers Program for the Southeastern Association of Law School Annual Conference

Fellow, Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers, part of the Institute for the Advancement of the Legal Profession, https://iaals.du.edu/educating-tomorrows-lawyers-fellows

Member, Holloran Competency Milestones, a project of lawyers from variety of schools to develop rubric to use in evaluating Program Learning Outcomes adopted by law schools and assist those performing program assessment according to ABA Standard 315, https://law.stthomas.edu/about/centers-institutes/holloran-center/competency-milestones/index.html

Awards

Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015)

Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship (2009)

First-Year Class Teacher of the Year, Regent University School of Law, 2010-11

First-Year Class Teacher of the Year, Regent University School of Law, 2006-07

Second-Year Class Teacher of the Year, Regent University School of Law, 2006-07

First-Year Class Teacher of the Year, Regent University School of Law, 2005-06

Appointed to VA Bar Association's Committee on Core Competencies in Legal Education (2011)

Appointed to Virginia Supreme Court Task Force for Implementation of Electronic-Filing in Virginia Courts (2010)

Elected Fellow of Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL) (February 2012), an initiative of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System; course featured at ETL’s website (https://iaals.du.edu/educating-tomorrows-lawyers/projects/resources/state-civil-procedure)

Master, Executive Committee Member & Chair Programs, James Kent American Inn of Court (Exec. Comm. Member, 2004-2009, Chair Programs, 2005-2007)

Hunton & Williams E. Randolph Williams Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service (2004-2005)

President, Fed. Bar Ass’n, Tidewater Chapter (1995-1996)

Honors/Appointments:

Selected as Member of Professional Identity Formation Subcommittee for BUILDING ON BEST PRACTICES (2015), sequel to Clinical Legal Education Association’s BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION (2007)

Southeastern Association of Law Schools’ Beginning and New Law Teachers’ Committee from 2013 to present