The phrase "practice ready" is something of a misnomer. It was popularized by The New York Times in late 2011 in a feature about law firms teaching law graduates how to practice law because law schools give it short shrift. The Times borrowed the phrase from the American Bar Association’s resolution about legal education, adopted that summer. Since then, the phrase has made dozens of appearances online and in print.
Interestingly, the very sentence in the ABA’s three-paragraph, 105-word resolution containing the now-famous phrase actually defined "practice ready" based on a concept of client. But much of the client part of it all seems to have fallen by the wayside in the rush to point fingers at the demons or angels of law school curriculum committees. The sentence, which is also the whole of the second paragraph, reads: "FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges legal education providers to implement curricular programs intended to develop practice ready lawyers including, but not limited to enhanced capstone and clinical courses that include client meetings and court appearances."
