Creating New Models for Legal Education

If you could blow up the current legal education system and start over, how would you redesign a more effective way to train attorneys?  This is the question 75 law school deans, practicing lawyers and professors debated at a meeting recently in New York City.    The conference was called "Future Ed: New Business Models for U.S. and Global Legal Education."  According to Law 360.com the event launched a year long quest aimed at finding ways to train new lawyers who can hit the ground running.  It also is looking for a solution to the high cost of a legal education amid recessionary times and a tight job market.

As the Lexis Hub has previously reported, schools such as the University of Buffalo School of Law, University of California at Irvine Law School have already started new skills-based legal education models.   (See Some Law Schools Adopting Skills-based Legal Education and  How Will Law School Adjust to Diminished Job Prospects for Graduates?)   Northeastern Law School has been using a practical training model for nearly 40 years. And these schools are not the only ones looking to reform legal education. 

Law 360.com reports that distance learning was mentioned as one way to reduce the cost of a law school education.  As law firms are under increasing pressure from clients to end the practice of being billed for the training of inexperienced young associates, the firms in turn are seeking better-prepared graduates.