Law Commons^™

Golden Gate University School Of Law Ranked Among Top 20 In Nation For Practical Training, Lisa Lomba

Press Releases

The National Jurist this month unveiled its honor roll of law schools offering the best practical training, naming Golden Gate University’s School of Law among its top 20 nationwide. GGU Law ranked 19th out of over 200 ABA-accredited schools. The magazine based the rankings on the number of students engaged in faculty-supervised clinic positions, field placements, externships and simulation courses, and gave bonus points for innovative program efforts dedicated to experiential learning.

Practical Training In Law In The Netherlands: Big Law Model Or Clinical Model, And The Call Of Public Interest Law, Richard Wilson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article identifies two models now at work in the Netherlands, models that present potentially competing visions of practical training for law graduates seeking entry into the legal profession. The first is the Law Firm School, a new innovation in 2009, designed and funded by 14 major Amsterdam law firms, firms that make up part of what is often called Big Law. The Law Firm School model is embedded within the traditional apprenticeship training for all lawyers, but is available only to associates of the participating firms. The second model is clinical legal education, which ideally is offered as part …

More Than Just Law School: Global Perspectives On The Place Of The Practical In Legal Education, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Foreign experiences remind us that legal education is not just law school. They inform us that we should seek for ways not just to integrate theoretical and practical teaching, but to assure that our students or our graduates get real experience with practice. The assumption that law schools are the exclusive place for preparation for the profession of law is bad for students, bad for bar, bad for law schools, bad for the legal system and bad for society. We should look to see what we can do best and should encourage other institutions to do what they can do …

Integrating Practical Training And Professional Legal Education: Three Questions For Three Systems, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

This address deals with integrating theory and practice in practical professional training in US, German and Japanese systems of legal education.

The New Japanese Law Schools: Putting The Professional Into Legal Education, James Maxeiner, Keiichi Yamanaka

All Faculty Scholarship

In April 2004, more than sixty law schools began operation in Japan. Legal education, previously treated as a combination of undergraduate education in law and extra-university training in professional skills, will now be concentrated in new professional law schools. The reforms of Japanese legal education are intended both to produce more attorneys in a nation that has a shortage of legally trained professionals, and to help increase the role of law in Japanese society generally.

In order for Japan's new Jaw schools to achieve their educational objectives, they must successfully address a host of conceptual, pedagogical and organizational challenges. Foremost …

An Alternative Model To United States Bar Examinations: The South African Community Service Experience In Licensing Attorneys, Peggy Maisel

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the system of educating and licensing attorneys in South Africa to determine whether that country’s experience can provide guidance to jurisdictions in the United States that are considering proposals to reduce or eliminate the importance of bar examinations. The analysis set out here is supplemented by a companion article, providing a first-hand account of the South African system by Ms. Thuli Mhlungu, who was educated and sought admission to the bar during the last years of apartheid and the early years of the new democratic regime.

Examining the situation in South Africa makes particular sense because South …

American Law Schools As A Model For Japanese Legal Education? A Preliminary Question From A Comparative Perspective, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Law faculties in Japan are asking whether and how they should remake themselves to become law schools. One basic issue has been framed in terms of whether such programs should be professional or general. One Japanese scholar put it pointedly: "[a] major issue of the proposed reform is whether Japan should adopt an American model law school, i.e., professional education at the graduate level, while essentially doing away with the traditional Japanese method of teaching law at university." American law schools are seen as having as their fundamental goal "to provide the training and education required for becoming an effective …

The Professional In Legal Education: Foreign Perspectives, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Japan is about to change its system of legal education. In April 2004 Japan will introduce law schools. Law schools are to occupy an intermediary place between the present undergraduate faculties of law and the national Legal Training and Research Institute. The law faculties are to continue to offer general undergraduate education in law, while the law schools in combination with the national Institute are to provide professional legal education. A principal goal of the change is to produce more lawyers. Law schools are charged with providing "practical education especially for fostering legal professionals." But just what is professional legal …