AALS Discussion Group

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Session Type: AALS Discussion Groups

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: Hilton New Orleans Riverside

Room: Grand Salon Section 18

Floor: First Floor

The ABA and the legal profession increasingly call for law school graduates to be practice ready. Despite the Carnegie Report's recommendation for legal education to more fully integrate skills, professionalism, and doctrine, years later many law schools continue to offer separate skills courses and traditional "podium courses," with little intersection of the two. Why do doctrine and skills remain so separate in legal education? What have law schools done to reform their curricula to allow students to learn law in a practical context? This Discussion Group will provide a forum for sharing how some law schools are bridging the gap by incorporating legal writing, simulations, client-based programs, or other experiential learning opportunities into traditional doctrinal courses. Topics include pedagogy, benefits and challenges of integrating skills and doctrine, and whether the legal academy's longstanding divide between podium and practice best serves our students and our profession.