Legal News

Recession is forcing law schools to keep it real

By Richard Binder

The movement to incorporate practical skills into legal education isn't new, but legal educators and researchers report that the floundering economy is increasing incentives for law schools to revamp their curricula to prepare students for the realities of the legal profession. Among those schools with revamped curricula are the UCLA School of Law and the new UC Irvine School of Law.

UCLA's new Transition to Practice LL.M. is designed to give recent law school graduates the skills their predecessors would have developed as starting law firm associates.  The college unveiled the program last spring, as a number of law firms announced deferrals for their incoming associate classes. In addition to helping students secure externships in corporate legal departments, the school is adding a Chapter 11 bankruptcy clinic and a course on the practical aspects of being an attorney.

First-year students at the new University of California, Irvine School of Law are required to take a yearlong course called The Legal Profession that will meld traditional professional responsibility coursework with instruction about different practice settings, the role lawyers play and the major issues facing the legal profession. The course will include a series of panel discussions at which practicing attorneys will talk about everything from criminal defense and prosecution to working in a solo practice, large law firm or in-house setting.

These are not the only schools adding new courses to their curricula this year.  Click here for the full story at the NLJ.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on September 09, 2009 (boomark / email).