| There's a great deal of criticism lately as to whether | | | | and walk me through everything as if I'd never |
| law schools should provide an education that better | | | | attended law school, and I definitely felt like I was |
| prepares students for practice. The Legal Satyricon | | | | starting from close to zero. |
| says: | | | | We do need to remember, though, that the bulk of |
| "When you learn how to be a doctor, you work on | | | | quality litigation training in law school is farmed out to |
| cadavers until you learn how to work on real people. | | | | adjunct professors, as the full time faculty is mainly |
| When you learn to fly a plane, you spend some time in | | | | focused on research and writing, as well as the rather |
| the simulator. If you want to be a lawyer, you still need | | | | amorphously defined skill of teaching students to "think |
| to attend law school. Unfortunately, most of the legal | | | | like lawyers." What I find interesting is that, instead of |
| academy doesn't think it should stoop to actually | | | | defending oneself by pointing to the useful litigation |
| teaching students how to be lawyers." | | | | training currently offered, some people seem to think |
| I actually think that we need to divide the critique into | | | | that no actual practice skills need to be taught at all. |
| litigation and transactional areas. | | | | David Papke noted that "We don't want law school to |
| As to litigation, I'm not sure it's fair to say that law | | | | be lawyer-training school." And PrawfsBlog notes that |
| schools do a poor job of training law students. Most | | | | the entire law professor profession is biased against |
| law schools have elaborate moot court programs, | | | | practice, such that having substantial legal experience |
| offer trial practice and have litigation focused legal | | | | can prevent one from being an attractive candidate in |
| writing classes. Perhaps they could focus more on | | | | the professor hiring market, saying that the "division |
| document review skills (though that would be mighty | | | | between academia and practice seems as great as it |
| boring) or, better yet, motion practice and deposition | | | | has ever been." |
| training as well. Nevertheless, when I graduated from | | | | What I find most interesting about this yawning divide |
| law school and clerked for a judge in a trial court, I | | | | between academia and practice, is that, for the life of |
| was definitely not lost and found the proceedings | | | | me, I can't understand why this needs to be the case. |
| approachable. But I did find that learning state rules of | | | | If you are a professor focused on the empirical legal |
| procedure, amassing necessary forms, and, obviously, | | | | studies movement, why can't you teach actual |
| learning substantive law to be the areas I needed to | | | | practice skills in the context of your research? If you |
| improve upon. Perhaps these skills could be added to | | | | write about discourse analysis, why can't you analyze |
| law school litigation training. | | | | a contract negotiation? If you are an economics and |
| However, I ended up practicing as a transactional | | | | the law scholar, why can't you instruct students on the |
| attorney, and I could not have been less prepared. I | | | | economic administration of law firms and explore the |
| was surprised to discover that the vast majority of a | | | | nature of perverse incentives? |
| 1L contracts course does not help you much in drafting | | | | It seems to me that, as a profession, we can bridge |
| and negotiating deals. Senior attorneys had to sit down | | | | this chasm. |