What if you really could learn how to practice law in law school?
Two law professors have come up with an admittedly radical proposal, designed to help law students learn real world lawyering skills before they graduate: law schools that operate their own law firm.
The thought is akin to what doctors do by working in teaching hospitals. You get hands-on experience working on real cases for real clients, under the supervision of real attorneys. What's radical about that?
Visibly, law students need the experience of working with real clients, and maybe I'm missing something, but how is this thought better than working as a law clerk while you're in school? As a replacement for, why not simply mandate so many hours of clerking experience during law school, and maybe after, as a condition precedent to issuing a license?
All knows that law schools do a poor job of preparing graduates for the actual practice of law. I'm willing to hear more about the law school firm thought but right now, I say let law schools lecture theory and law firms lecture practice.
A comment to the ABA Journal's post about this tale sums it up best: "For 70 years, law schools have “trained” lawyers how to be not ready-for-prime-time. What makes you reckon THEY know how to practice law. More ivory tower fantasy."
What do you reckon? Is this a excellent thought?