Preparing for the legal profession

March 11, 2008

One of the most common complaints among young lawyers is not the high cost of obtaining a J.D. (though for some, including this writer, it ranks #1), but rather that they were not adequately prepared to actually practice law. In other words, law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer, but doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer.

One (relatively local) law school is trying to change that. US Newswire has reported that the Washington and Lee University School of Law is revamping its third-year curriculum. The Lexington, Va. school announced Tuesday that third year will be devoted to transitioning students from academia to the practice of law.

Dean Rodney A. Smolla calls the new third-year program a “creative blend of intellectually rigorous study of legal theory and doctrine—the traditional focus of law schools in the United States—with the development of professional identity, ethical sensibilities, problem-solving, and the exercise of judgment in action.”

In other words, through simulated and real-life experiences, law students will actually learn what it’s like to be a lawyer—both practically and professionally.

What do you think of Washington and Lee’s new curriculum?

Are they on to something, or is experience the best teacher?

CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor

Sphere: Related Content

Posted by Jackie Sauter, Web Editor | Filed Under law, law school 

Comments

3 Responses to “Preparing for the legal profession”

  1. Susan Cartier Liebel on March 11th, 2008 12:49 pm

    I would have to say it is a start. But what type of practical business skills will they be teaching? That is a big questions.

  2. rjc on March 12th, 2008 6:16 am

    Law schools announce “new”curricula with about the same regularity and frequency as swans coming back to Capistrano. And the funny thing is, they’re never new (not the swans either). The W&L program looks like a hybrid of the recently announced “new” Harvard and Stanford Law School curricula, though Harvard’s was for first year students - perhaps illustrating the difference between Harvard and W&L students, and Stanford’s was for both second and third years, and again, there wasn’t anything in either of these programs that dozens of law schools hadn’t been doing for years. I wouldn’t be surprised to see MSM run with a story like this, what do they know about law schools, but I’m a little surprised to see a legal newspaper fall for it. What’s experience for if it doesn’t help separate news from spin.

  3. Anonymous on March 12th, 2008 3:46 pm

    It’s the swallows, not the swans, that return to San Juan Capistrano.

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