From added clinical programs to the messages of incoming deans, a growing trend in legal education – driven in part by economic conditions and the job market – is the call for further development of practical “lawyering” skills.
An article Tuesday in Law 360 examines the trend, indicating the pervasiveness of inquiry into educational reform efforts.
The article first discusses the desire of private law practices to see relatively well-trained hires. Therefore, according to the University of Miami School of Law’s Laurence Rose, making young lawyers job-ready trickles down to law programs.
Paul Lippe, CEO of Legal OnRamp and a fan of practical legal initiatives, tells Law 360 that while past hiring was largely credentials-based, that is now shifting to more ability-based hiring.
From there, the article offers a number of example top-tier programs that have taken steps to reform their practical education. Stanford Law School began efforts in 2006 with a clinical rotation and by facilitating multidisciplinary courses. Northwestern University School of Law launched an accelerated J.D. and has proposed a 3L semester that would be devoted entirely to practical exposure. Harvard Law School now requires all 1Ls to work through a problem-solving exercise involving a residential dispute.
“It doesn’t mean they’ll be ready to go into practice tomorrow,” said Todd Rakoff, a HLS professor, to Law 360, “but it’s trying to get them to see [what] law looks like from the practicing point of view as opposed to the law school point of view.”
The aforementioned messages from incoming deans support this trend. For example, in December, the University of California, Hastings College of Law’s new dean, Frank Wu, stressed career-oriented skills in the school’s announcing press release. Earlier this month, the University of Chicago Law School’s Michael Schill said that students should possess the “skills necessary to hit the ground running.”
