Wall Street Journal on Changes in Legal Education. More Hands-on Training for Today's Law Students?
By Jamie Bence
Today, the Wall Street Journal examines a growing trend among law schools to offer more practice-oriented courses in the wake of the recession. The article points out that these changes are largely in response to employers’ criticism of newly minted attorneys:
“Law firms are saying, ‘You’re sending us people who are not in a position to do anything useful for clients.’ This is a first effort to try and fix that,” says Larry Kramer, the law dean at Stanford.
The moves come amid a prolonged downturn in the legal job market. Only about one-quarter of last year’s graduating law-school classes—down from 33% in 2009—snagged positions with big law firms, according to the National Association for Law Placement, an organization that collects employment data.
The article also points out the incongruities between law schools and other professional schools, which typically take a more practice-oriented approach. Changes being implemented at several law schools are highlighted in the article:
Indiana University Maurer School of Law started teaching project management this year and also offers a course on so-called emotional intelligence. The class has no textbook and instead uses personality assessments and peer reviews to develop students’ interpersonal skills.
New York Law School hired 15 new faculty members over the past two years, many directly from the ranks of working lawyers, to teach skills in negotiation, counseling and fact investigation. The school says it normally hires one or two new faculty a year, and usually those focused on legal research.
And Washington and Lee University School of Law completely rebuilt its third-year curriculum in 2009, swapping out lectures and Socratic-style seminars for case-based simulations run by practicing lawyers.
A few elite players also are making adjustments. Harvard Law School last year launched a problem-solving class for first-year students, and Stanford Law School is considering making a full-time clinical course—which entails several 40-hour plus weeks of actual case work—a graduation requirement.
As the PSLawNet Blog has noted in the past, it will be interesting to see how a movement to more experiential learning models may impact public interest programming at law schools. Clinical programs, externships, and pro bono work are already among the main avenues through which students can get hands-on legal experience, so it’s possible that a push toward more experiential learning programs may lead to a boost in public interest opportunities.
For more information on specific changes that schools are implementing, read the complete article here.
