Sessions Information

  • January 5, 2017
    1:30 pm - 3:15 pm
    Session Type: AALS Discussion Groups
    Session Capacity: N/A
    Location: Hilton San Francisco Union Square
    Room: Union Square 1 & 2
    Floor: 4th Floor

    Discussion Groups provide an in-depth discussion of a topic by a small group of invited discussants selected in advance by the Annual Meeting Program Committee. In addition to the invited discussants, additional discussants were selected through a Call for Participation. There will be limited seating for audience members to observe the discussion groups on a first-come, first-served basis.

     
    The importance of preparing law students for practice by creating opportunities for experiential learning in law school has been recognized for many years. The MacCrate Report, which was released in 1992, specifically called for increased teaching of skills in order to prepare students for practice. More recently, the ABA emphasized practice-readiness in their 2014 Standards governing experiential learning, which stressed the importance of practical training and mandated that law schools provide students with at least six credit hours of hands-on education.  

    Partly (or perhaps mostly) in response to this call for practice-readiness, experiential learning opportunities have burgeoned in both number and diversity. Clinics are an obvious curricular offering to provide experiential learning and to expose students to practice skills. With live-clients and lawyering activities, a clinic allows students to experience practicing as a lawyer in the context of supervision and classroom education. But a variety of other curricular offerings also provide opportunities for practice experience in the context of traditional law classes, practicums, and externships. 

    This renewed call for practice-readiness renders this a critical moment to ask two key questions: First, how are law schools responding to the call for practice-ready lawyers who are poised to enter today’s challenging job market? And second, is it sound pedagogy for practice-readiness to be the central goal of programs that have experiential learning components?

    In this discussion group, we will delve into what practice-readiness actually means in the context of the contemporary legal profession and how the practice of law in clinics, practicums, and externships differ from the practice of law post law school.  

Session Speakers
Yale Law School
Discussion Group Participant

University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

University of Missouri School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

American University, Washington College of Law
Discussion Group Moderator

University of North Carolina School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Elon University School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Washington and Lee University School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

The George Washington University Law School
Discussion Group Moderator

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
Discussion Group Participant

The University of Michigan Law School
Discussion Group Participant

The George Washington University Law School
Discussion Group Participant

University of California, Irvine School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Concordia University School of Law
Discussion Group Participant

Boston College Law School
Discussion Group Participant

Session Fees

Fees information is not available at this time.