Liz Ryan Cole

Professor Liz Ryan Cole specializes in clinical legal education and legal ethics. As director of the Semester in Practice and the Environmental Semester in Washington programs, she supervises students and mentors in full-time clinical externships.

Professor Cole received her BA degree from Oberlin College in 1968 and her JD degree from Boston University in 1973. She worked as a practicing attorney in San Jose, California, from 1974 to 1977, both with Community Legal Services and as a partner in the firm of Katz, Cole and Beam. Professor Cole served as training coordinator with the Legal Services Training and Advocacy Project in New Haven, Connecticut, from 1978 to 1980, and as regional training coordinator with the Legal Services Corporation of New York, from 1980 to 1983. She has been a member of Vermont Law School's faculty since 1984, when she became director of the Semester in Practice program and director of the Office of Career Services. Professor Cole has been a trustee of Vermont Legal Aid and has served on several committees for the Vermont Bar Association. She was a founder and first president of the Clinical Legal Education Association and in 2002 received the association's Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Legal Education Award. She writes and speaks on legal education, including comparative and clinical legal education, legal ethics, and the training and supervision of law students and lawyers. Professor Cole has significant experience with instruments used to help lawyers understand how they take in information and how they make decisions, particularly the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. She also conducts workshops for lawyers and judges on improving their ability to give feedback on supervisee performance.