Law schools are always striving to build and maintain comprehensive curricula that meet the needs of all students and that reflect the realities of the legal profession. Turmoil in law firms and the profession, reports such as the MacCrate Report and studies like the recent Carnegie Foundation effort have motivated law school deans and faculty members to examine how law schools can better prepare graduates for today’s global market. What should the law school’s role be within the educational continuum? Should traditional pedagogical approaches to legal education be modified to respond to the realities of today’s legal world? Should law schools be balancing the various pressures to provide a combination of legal reasoning, substantive law and preparation for practice?
The “Critical Issues Summit” sponsored by The Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA) and the American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI-ABA), involving law schools, judges, practitioners, CLE providers and regulators focused on these and other issues in October. The discussion begun at that Summit will continue at this session, giving members of the academy an opportunity to contribute to the dialogue and exchange ideas about the future of legal education and the appropriate role of law schools. Some law schools have already begun implementing innovative changes to their curricula and this panel provides a forum to discuss these developments and competing visions.
Topics include:
- Innovations in teaching practical skills at law schools
- Should law schools help with graduates’ transition to practice?
- What law schools can learn from other professions about preparing its graduates for practice
- Should law schools be embracing opportunities to cooperate with the Bar?
- What role should law schools play in preparing graduates for an increasingly global environment with an expanding diverse client base
- How law school pro bono requirements can contribute to access to justice
- Funding challenges posed by implementation of clinical programs and how those challenges might be overcome by cooperative arrangements with the Bar
Business Meeting at Program Conclusion.