‘Jobs! Give us the jobs!’
People have been critiquing the usefulness of the third year of law school for what seems like time eternal, and ever since law students began to graduate with crushing loads of debt with no sound repayment options through employment, the chorus of complaints has grown even louder.
While some schools have offered students the option to condense their three years of education so they’ll graduate faster and have more time to find a job in their preferred market, one school just introduced a program that will allow law students to get to work in their preferred market before they even graduate from law school.
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Say hello to Washburn University School of Law’s “Third Year Anywhere” program.
To increase practice readiness, students admitted to the school in fall 2019 or later will be able to get ahead of the competition by completing their third year of law school anywhere they intend to practice after they graduate, so long as it’s more than 35 miles away from campus. Here are some additional details on how this unique program will work, courtesy of Washburn Law:
Students will earn academic credit while gaining real-world experience practicing law under the supervision of a licensed lawyer 20 hours per week in one of six sectors: corporate, government, higher education, judicial, law firm, or public interest. Opportunities also exist for students to participate in an externship in underserved rural locations.
Third year coursework will be completed through substantive online law courses, including a course in Law Practice Competencies which will teach students successful project management skills, how to use legal technology, how to read financial statements, and other competencies essential for successful law practice.
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According to Dean Carla Pratt, Washburn’s program is the first one of its kind. “In fact, we’re not aware of any other law school offering this option right now,” she said in a statement. “Placing students in the legal market where they intend to practice will position them to join the local bar association, network with lawyers who will become their professional peers, and interview for jobs in that market prior to graduating.”
Turning the third year of law school into an apprenticeship program of sorts is really what all law schools should be doing right now. What better way to ensure that law students will be practice-ready shortly after graduation than by putting them into practice before graduation? Per Dean Pratt, “[T]he Third Year Anywhere enrollment option will build on that [Washburn’s practice-ready] foundation by affording students more in-depth practical experience during law school.”
Right now, enrollment in Washburn Law’s program is competitive and will be limited to those students who the faculty believe are ready, willing, and able to receive the most impact from distance learning while completing an out-of-residence practicum. Perhaps the opportunity will be made more widely available when the administration sees the benefits and rewards students are able to reap thanks to this program.
Congratulations to Washburn Law on its innovate new third-year program!
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.