Blog Glob: "Carnegie Examines the Education of Lawyers and Calls for Change"

A press release from the Carnegie Foundation describes a study of law schools and legal education undertaken by the Foundation.

The authors reexamined "thinking like a lawyer"—the paramount educational construct currently in use—and the Socratic, case-dialogue instruction used in the first phase of every student's legal education, and found problems in the creation of a "conformity in outlook and habits of thoughts among legal graduates."

"The dramatic results of the first year of law school's emphasis on well-honed skills of legal analysis should be matched by similar skill in serving clients and a solid ethical grounding," the authors note. "If legal education were serious about such a goal, it would require a bolder, more integrated approach."

In response, the authors call for law schools to offer an integrated, three-part curriculum: (1) the teaching of legal doctrine and analysis, which provides the basis for professional growth; (2) introduction to the several facets of practice included under the rubric of lawyering, leading to acting with responsibility for clients; and (3) exploration and assumption of the identity, values and dispositions consonant with the fundamental purposes of the legal profession.

Read the rest of the press release from which the above is an excerpt or a summary of the findings and recommendations in pdf.

Comments

[Sharon Lippincott]

Thanks for being here with your continuing stream of insight and wisdom!

[Ellen Weber]

Great insights, thanks Stephanie. Change can be rewired into the brain - but it starts best with motivation. I like to run retreats for leaders and chase down 2-footed questions, that call on wonderfully different parts of the brain. Change follows:-)

One question I'll use soon asks: What is the high vision of your department in the coming term, and how will you reboot your brain to energize its peak performance?

Change is the outcome -- but folks invest in its magic:-) Thoughts?