This Is Why We Don't Let Students Run Law Schools
Try reading these ideas without ramming your head into the wall.
So Tipping the Scales has this article, How Law Students Would Reform Law School, and it’s basically a rhetorical artifact for why we don’t let students run law schools.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a few good ideas here, and generating feedback is always important. But on the whole, this piece just screams “people who’ve never practiced the profession this professional school is trying to teach.”
It wasn’t always like this. The law was once an apprentice industry, no different than the training of plumbers and electricians. Future lawyers spent years “reading law” under the tutelage of a judge or seasoned attorney to prepare for practice. Eventually, law evolved from a vocation to an academic discipline. The result: law graduates can churn out briefs in droves — just don’t ask them about procedure.
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Spoiler: It still is. Perhaps it’s not the most efficient system in the world, but most law grads are leaving the academic halls to serve in an apprenticeship, whether it’s with a firm or the government or a non-profit. The problem with law school isn’t that it’s not practical enough, it’s that it drags on (expensively) too long in a world where we all know the graduates will get their practical training after they leave.
Oh, and “graduates can churn out briefs in droves — just don’t ask them about procedure”? Have these people ever heard of transactional work?
And Duke Law’s Seth Pearson, a former White House intern, believes schools should focus more heavily on practical skills. “I think many law students leave law school with no idea what it means to be a lawyer,” Pearson says. “Duke Law has made great strides in creating opportunities for students to practice the skills they learn in the classroom, but the opportunities are optional and can be seen sometimes as a distraction to your education instead of a critical piece of the academic experience. I would like to see professional conduct and practical skills become a pillar of legal education. It would make us all better at what we will be asked to do in practice.”
You know who else sees it as a distraction? Employers! Every time the “practice-ready” thing rears its head, we have to remind people that employers choose grades in core classes over “my super-cool clinic helping underprivileged ferrets qualify for car loans” every damn time. There is an argument for a truly revamped legal academy or a model that integrates the apprenticeship into the school as something of an externship, but without a sea change this is just calling for another clinic for students to serve as glorified paralegals.
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When I was in third grade, I played on a basketball team of disaster. We ran fundamental drills in practice and won our first game. Then the team revolted and demanded that we transform practice into a scrimmage. We stopped winning. Like… we were abysmally bad after that. “We need more practical education” is the “let’s just scrimmage” of the legal academy.
In fact, graduates like William & Mary Law’s Katie Chounet contend that clinical or externship experiences should take place early on, even in the first year of law school.
No.
On the other hand, Tomer Vandsburger would de-emphasize bar exam prep.
No.
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“If the law school system weren’t so built around numbers, I think employers would be forced to place a greater emphasis in personality, work-ethic, and professionalism when interviewing candidates for positions,” [Andrea] Clavijo says.
Oh, do you?
Hence, USC Law’s Tania El-Bayar has a piece of advice for law school professors and administrators: Ease up. “I think there is a belief that you need to run yourself into the ground to excel. While I completely understand that timing can be critical and there is a lot of detailed work involved, I think that the intensity can be too taxing, and it causes the profession to lose talent.”
Law school can be easier? Fun fact for any students stressed out by law school: it’s infinitely easier than practicing. Oh, is waking up for a noon course too demanding on you? Well, don’t worry, because unlike a deposition you can just sleep through the class and still pass.
Boston College’s Robert Rossi suggests a more expansive grading system. “My favorite classes in law school and the ones in which I have learned the most have been the ones that base grades on multiple assignments over the course of the semester, rather than on one exam at its end.”
OK, this is actually a pretty good idea. There’s really no pedagogical excuse for keeping students in the dark until the end of the course.
And the pressure is even greater for students entering public service, adds the University of Washington’s Manmeet Dhami. This could ricochet back onto low-income individuals —the people most in need of legal help.” It is difficult to serve as an advocate when you are riddled with law school debt,” Dhami observes.
Very, very true. And also why I’m shocked “eliminate the third year” hasn’t come up yet. Instead of more “practical education,” let’s send students into their functional apprenticeships faster and with less debt. Biglaw hires people based on their 1L grades. If one year is good enough for Cravath, why the hell do we need three?
Oh, they do raise the issue:
Although some activists have proposed a two-year law curriculum to cut debt, George Mason Law’s Peter Donohue believes such ploys would be misguided. Instead, he suggests a four-year program.
Ugh. All right, let’s hear what ASS Law kid has to say…
“After three years, I feel like I am leaving school having only touched the tip of the iceberg,” Donohue says. “Four years would allow students to dig a little deeper into the wealth of knowledge law school has to offer. In a four-year program, the first year could be focused on learning to write and think like a lawyer. The second could continue academic coursework while adding a focus on extracurricular activities like journals and competitions. The third year could be more practice-oriented, where students would go out into the workforce and really learn an area of law through hands on work while also beginning to pay down loans; this would make students more open to all opportunities after graduation because they would not feel as burdened by law school debt. Finally, the fourth year could be more high level legal academic work, where students could take classes which dig deeper into the theoretical side of the practical work they had done in their third year.”
I… I… have no words.
Sure. I’m sold. Let’s make it five years!
How Law Students Would Reform Law Schools [Tipping the Scales]
Here’s How Law School Grads Would Fix Law School [Fortune]
Earlier: Making Law School Millennial-Friendly
What If Law Schools Were Really Serious About ‘Practice Ready’ Grads?
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
