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Full-Text Articles in Law
What Ails The Law Schools?, Paul Horwitz
What Ails The Law Schools?, Paul Horwitz
Michigan Law Review
In January 2012, law professors from across the country arrived in Washington, D.C., for the annual conference of the Association of American Law Schools ("AALS"). It was an opportune moment. The legal economy was struggling. Graduates were begging for jobs and struggling with unprecedented levels of debt. The smart talk from the experts was that the legal economy was undergoing a fundamental restructuring. For these and other reasons, law schools were under fire, from both inside and outside of the academy. Judges - including the keynote speaker at the AALS conference himself! - derided legal scholarship as useless. Law school …
The Future Of Legal Education Reform, James E. Moliterno
The Future Of Legal Education Reform, James E. Moliterno
Pepperdine Law Review
As a historical matter, the legal profession obstinately resists change. Its ponderous, backward-looking and self-preservationist characteristics are embodied in the ABA's Ethics 20/20 Commission, which endeavors to protect, preserve, and maintain. But the profession suffers from such thinking. It must look forward; grow more attuned to outside events and trends; and become a player in how change is assimilated into established ways, and how established ways are replaced by more effective ones. Law schools require reform. The academic focus bears little relation to the reality of practice. Graduates must better able to contribute to clients of law firms and to …
Legal Education: Rethinking The Problem, Reimagining The Reforms, Deborah L. Rhode
Legal Education: Rethinking The Problem, Reimagining The Reforms, Deborah L. Rhode
Pepperdine Law Review
Whether or not law schools are in a crisis, it is certainly true that legal education currently faces a number of significant challenges. The fundamental problem is a lack of consensus over what the problem is. Legal educators and regulators are developing well-intended but inadequate responses to the symptoms, not the causes of law school woes. In addition to identifying the problem, this Article discusses potential reforms. Financial issues represent a significant source of much of the current criticisms face by law schools today. Tuition rates have increased at a pace far outstripping the steep hikes seen at universities as …