The verdict is in: A recent study found law schools guilty of not providing their students with enough of the practical skills they need after graduation.
A study to be released in February found that law schools rely too heavily on one method of teaching and need to make better use of the second and third years of law school.,”
The verdict is in: A recent study found law schools guilty of not providing their students with enough of the practical skills they need after graduation.
A study to be released in February found that law schools rely too heavily on one method of teaching and need to make better use of the second and third years of law school.
The study, entitled "Educating Lawyers: Preparination for the Profession of Law," was conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is part of a larger five-part Preparation for the Professions Program. The program looks into the way students are taught to go into the professions of law, engineering, clergy (Christian and Jewish), medicine and nursing.
The study looked at 14 law schools in the United States and two in Canada.
"We used a cross-section of different kinds of schools at different locations," said Judith Wegner, professor of law and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of the study. "We tried to get some public, some private, some urban, some not urban and so on."
The study made the observation that law school is divided into two main parts. During the first year, students are intensively taught how to "think like a lawyer," through a series of core courses. However, during the remaining two or three years, students choose from long lists of elective courses.
"We found that because of the emphasis on thinking like a lawyer, they don't think as much about equity and social justice," said William Sullivan, primary author of the study and senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, an education policy and research center in Stanford, Calif.
Wegener said members of the study who were not lawyers were surprised at how quickly law students progress in their critical thinking skills.
However, she also mentioned that teaching other aspects of law practice is abandoned for teaching the students how to think.
"Law students learn that they shouldn't have conflicts of interest, mismanaged funds, and so on, but you need to work with the whole person a little bit more. They need to know the aspects of what it is to be a good lawyer," Wegner said.
The primary method of teaching in law schools during the first year is the case dialogue method in which a professor asks students questions about a previous case so they learn analytic thinking.
"We try to help people see what the nature of their thinking process is and it's very effective. It's such a powerful tool and is so widely used, that it is much harder to try other methods," Wegner said.
While the study said that learning the proper way to think like a lawyer is important, there is still more to being a lawyer that needs to be addressed when teaching law.
"We want students to get a better idea of what it means to be a practicing lawyer," Sullivan said. "The goal of law school ought to be to produce grads that have a good overall understanding of that."
While the study says that there are certain aspects of law schools that definitely have room for improvement, some schools are already adequately preparing their students. Marquette is one of those schools, according to Peter Rofes, associate dean for academic affairs in Marquette's law school.
"There are pockets of American legal education that are already committed to the practical skills that lawyers need," Rofes said. "The findings of the report depend upon the school they are being held up to. At some schools, the report is absolutely dead on. Our school is proud of the fact that we produce effective, practical lawyers."
Rofes said he thinks the Marquette School of Law stands up "exceedingly well" to other law schools.
Still, Wegner and Sullivan said they hope law schools will seriously think about the study's recommendations.
"We are not expecting all law schools will immediately adopt these ideas, but we hope they will take them into consideration," Sullivan said.
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