AALS president Rachel Moran
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Incoming law school association president sees strong role for lawyers in Obama's stimulus plan
January 8, 2009
The Association of American Law Schools, made up of 160 of the country's law schools, is holding its annual meeting this week in San Diego and will usher in Rachel Moran as its new president for a year-long term. Moran, who replaces Boston College Law School Dean John Garvey as the head of the AALS, is helping launch the new University of California, Irvine School of Law as a visiting professor. She continues as a full-time faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
The National Law Journal caught up with Moran, 52, who was in San Diego on Wednesday, and asked her about her plans as the leader of the organization and her thoughts on where legal education is headed.
NLJ: There's a lot of talk about what law schools are doing wrong in terms of preparing students to become lawyers. What do you think they're doing right?
RM: Clinical legal education is remarkably active. I also think technology has increased the number of ways to reach students, to give them different ways of learning. I'm also impressed with how entrepreneurial our students are.
NLJ: As the incoming president of the AALS, what is your focus for the organization?
RM: Our nation finds itself at a moment of crisis. I'm hoping to raise the profile of the citizen lawyer. There is a call for the incoming administration to include lawyers in the monitoring of the expenditure of vast sums of money. We need citizen lawyers with the skills to oversee and manage the distribution.
NLJ: What is your definition of the "citizen lawyer"?
RM: A lawyer who recognizes, in counseling an individual client, that there will always be larger issues at stake, an interest in the context of collective good. I think the citizen lawyer brings that perspective to all judgments and advice. The citizen lawyer can help prioritize obligations.
NLJ: What do you see as the AALS's role in promoting the idea of the citizen lawyer?
RM: A cadre of citizen lawyers is waiting in the law schools. We need to reinject the idea that we are more than just advocates to our clients.
NLJ: Are you calling for a new government agency in which lawyers can participate or for their service in existing agencies?
RM: [President-elect Barack] Obama has already talked about a National Service Corps where people would participate in the process of building business structure. But it's been talked about in terms of engineers for highways. No one is talking about lawyers. It all involves the law in a critical way. Their involvement should be part of the stimulus program.
NLJ: Why did you want to lead the AALS?
RM: When the opportunity came my way, I felt that I had been in legal education for a very long time and that I've seen some the wonderful things and some of the systemic challenges.
NLJ: What do you see as some of those systemic challenges?
RM: Access to legal education, increasing cost, debt loads.
NLJ: Is there anything else you'd like to add about your new role?
RM: Just that the success of legal education is integrally linked to the success of the profession. We welcome working with the [American Bar Association] on issues that face our graduates. We really welcome the chance to work with people in practice.
Editor's note: Interview condensed and edited.
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