A year ago, I made a giant leap of faith when I transitioned out of BigLaw and decided to make a big difference in education. Knowing critical thinking was one of the most important aspects of education, and knowing that in practice, critical thinking was still a luxury good, I combined everything I knew from my teaching and legal career to create thinkLaw: a Common Core aligned program that helps educators teach critical thinking to all students.

14 schools and 1,000 students later, I’ve been overwhelmed by the impact thinkLaw has had for schools in Las Vegas. I’ve had one teacher tell me, “[m]y class was 100% involved because they were the ones in charge here, while I took a back role and merely offered guidance instead of telling students what to think.”

A 7th grade thinkLaw student said, “[t]he cases were really difficult; it was hard to choose one side for a case when the other side is just as reasonable.You really had to find a lot of tiny details to make one side just a little more reasonable than the other.” And I’m even more excited that these testimonials are supported with powerful data showing consistent growth in student’s persuasive writing and analytical abilities.

We also received lots of recognition for our initial impact, from being honored with the ACLU of Nevada’s Community Juvenile Justice Award and winning Teach for America’s Shark Tank: One Day Challenge to being selected as a finalist for Teach for America’s Social Innovation Award and the prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship.

It is my pleasure to announce that a year after launching in Las Vegas, thinkLaw is going national! We will be serving over 5,000 students in 30+ schools in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Oakland, the Rio Grande Valley, New York City, and Denver.

I’m also excited to announce that we just launched our thinkLaw STEM edition, where teachers are leading students through real-life cases that turn on critical thinking issues involving various STEM concepts. And I’m thrilled that thinkLaw is launching in our first two juvenile education facilities in Las Vegas and Tucson!

Our ultimate goal is create a world where students can walk to their neighborhood schools and receive the same rigorous critical thinking instruction they would get at an elite law school.

Thank you to all of our supporters who have joined us on this journey by launching thinkLaw at their schools, engaging with us on social media, and connecting us to schools and organizations looking for powerful tools to close the critical thinking gap. Together, we will create a world where critical thinking is no longer a luxury good.

Click here to schedule a 20 minute call to learn more about using thinkLaw at your school!


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