New York Times Editorial: Legal Education Reform

This was brought to my attention by Professor Irene Scharf, a frequent author on this blog.

The New York Times has an editorial yesterday on Legal Education Reform. It also appears in the paper on page A16. Here is a piece:

Addressing these issues requires changing legal education and how the profession sees its responsibility to serve the public interest as well as clients. Some schools are moving in promising directions. The majority are still stuck in an outdated instructional and business model.

Give it a read and tell us what you think!

2 Responses

  1. This editorial certainly goes beyond the front page reporting on the significant issues and problems facing legal education discussed in posts earlier this week. During this current economic downturn, we have the potential to graft together revitalization of the best values of our profession – such as the commitment to increased access to justice – with revitalization of the legal academy and its potential to develop “heroic” lawyers –heroic in their commitment to clients, in their defense of constitutional rights, and in their devotion to improvement of our justice system. But to do so, we will need to carefully develop educational models which allow for institution-wide and profession-wide responsibility for both access to justice and professional development of our junior members. There are some really creative experiments starting to happen nationwide and these little hopeful projects need just as much NYT attention as the problems identified and documented recently. Please use this space to tell us about your latest project!

  2. So much of legal education is shaped by the expectations and requirements of state bar examiners. They have to be included in this dialogue. And, as states adopt a uniform bar exam, the creator of that exam must also be included in this conversation.

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