Sarah Kellogg, a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., recently published a very interesting and timely article about the ever increasing challenges U.S. law schools face in adapting their curriculum and training to the needs of the market.
The entire article can be viewed here (cut and paste, sorry): http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/resources/publications/washington_lawyer/may_2011/legal_education.cfm
This from the introduction to Kellogg's article:
"Forces at work in the world are fundamentally transforming the legal profession. A riptide of 21st–century social and economic trends—the ascendancy of information technology, the globalization of economic activity, the blurring of differences between professions and sectors, and the increasing integration of knowledge—has driven the transformation. More systemic than cyclical, these changes have only been intensified by the 2008 economic crash.
"Law schools have been somewhat reluctant partners in this drama. Many schools have made nuanced modifications in their programs, while others have retrofitted much of their curricula, adding new programs on professionalism and ethics, focusing on building practice–based skills, and expanding their international outreach.
"'This is a time of change for the legal practice. The change in the economy precipitated changes that would have come inevitably,' says William M. Treanor, executive vice president and dean of the Georgetown University Law Center.
"'It does cause us to rethink how we prepare lawyers. Again, it’s accelerating a process that had already begun. Classically, law schools taught people to think like a lawyer. That was what the Socratic Method was about. It trained people very well, but for one part of what lawyers do. It didn’t train them to write, problem solve, and exercise judgment. We’re looking more broadly to train people for every facet of the law,' Treanor adds.
"The first official warning shot for law schools came in 2007 with the release of Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The report urged law schools to revamp their curriculum to reflect the real-world needs of the legal community, including emphasizing practice-based skills such as writing briefs, interviewing clients, and understanding legal ethics.
"Since then, rethinking the preparation of young lawyers has become a cottage industry. Law school calendars have been littered with forums, seminars, and panel discussions about the future. The most prominent among them has been the 'contest of ideas' effort known as Future Ed between New York Law School and Harvard Law School. Paradoxically, it seems that the 200 U.S. law schools accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) have taken 200 different routes to address the turmoil.
"Yet there is a feeling among some that law schools have spent more time discussing the future than moving in a straight line toward it. 'A lot of law schools are talking a good change game,' says Larry E. Ribstein, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law and associate dean for research at the University of Illinois College of Law, who has written regularly on the future of legal education. 'At least it shows the recognition of the need to make change, but they’re not actually doing it. But then, it’s justifiable to not try to turn on a dime without knowing what the legal market is going to look like in five years. And nobody is quite sure of that.'
"Still, law schools are on a trajectory toward the future, whether they like it or not, pulled along by the restless and worried students they serve and the law firms they feed. Those schools that fail to keep pace with the profound changes upending the legal profession will find themselves out of sync with the new demands on lawyers and law firms.
"While it is hard to know for sure, many believe the future of the legal profession won’t be some fanciful Star Trek–type utopia, but rather a pragmatic, considered, and evolved state, where law schools will be called on to reflect the changes in society and the profession, serving both as leaders and followers.
"Ultimately, law schools in the future, like the legal profession itself, will be at once more collaborative, diverse, international, technologically friendly, and entrepreneurial than they are today.
"'It is hard for us to comprehend, but today’s students are likely still to be practicing law in the last half of the 21st century,' wrote Thomas D. Morgan, the Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law at The George Washington University Law School, in his paper 'Educating Lawyers for the Future Legal Profession.'
"'None of us knows much about what the world will look like in 2050, but the challenge of legal education is one of helping students navigate toward that indefinite future. To meet that challenge, we must think about what future lawyers will do. Conversely, as we think about coming changes in legal education, we may also get a richer sense of what kind of people tomorrow’s lawyers are likely to become.'"
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