Spurred by clients who balk at paying for work done by brand new lawyers, bar leaders have looked to law schools to get better at producing so-called “practice-ready” graduates. But like the proverbial defendant charged with civil contempt who holds the key to his cell in his hands, it is the profession’s leaders who are best positioned to partner with law schools to solve the very problems legal employers so often identify. Law deans owe it to our students to enlist these valuable partners even as we find ourselves also under useful pressure to focus on broader university goals. Here’s what a team effort might produce.
Where Are We Now?
Step one is recognizing what’s happening at all but the very richest law schools. Slight rises in 2016 law school applications and entry level jobs cannot be allowed to mask the significant shift in the place law schools hold within universities and within the profession. Class sizes are down, and scholarship funds for high achieving students are substantially up. So it’s financially challenging for most schools to achieve customary excellence let alone fund new initiatives. Yet applicants, employers, ABA accreditation teams, and university leadership are demanding changes to law schools, with pulls and tugs coming from multiple directions. Applicants chase higher rankings, derived largely from scholarly reputation, thus pressing schools to invest in research. Employers talk of the changing skills needed to thrive while continuing to pursue graduates with top grades and law review status. New accreditation standards are demanding renewed emphasis on quantifying the quality and outcomes of instruction. Bar examiners are demanding additional requirements from students. And University leadership often prizes joint appointments with Ph.D.’s far removed from the world of practice. Finding resources to confront these competing demands will require all hands on deck.
