Page 3 - Law Schools

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Law Schools | Monday, april 20, 2015 | S3

competencies.
ing through documents, predicting judge understands the world in which her client practice of law becomes less court centered,

The Nature and Structure of the Profes- and juror behavior, storing and accessing operates. accordingly, huge advantages student understanding of how to use facts
sion. The best place to start in preparing law information, and even reviewing case law will flow to those law schools who show must go well beyond the traditional evi-
graduates for the demanding and rapidly have all been permanently altered through how interdisciplinary can be more than an dence course. The interplay between rel-
changing world they will enter is to enlist the advent of exciting technology tools. it’s aspect of grant-funded research or a buzz- evant and prejudicial is fascinating, and
students from day one in exploring and under- far too easy for law schools to ignore these word tossed out to make the school sound questions of admissibility are a fine way
standing the legal terrain. Law degrees now tools on the theory that the students will hip. The law school of the future will have to introduce students to the challenging
open doors in auxiliary fields such as com- learn to do what the teacher did and change deep ties with every corner of the univer- question of how something is proved. But
pliance, human resources, insurance claims, on the job later. This is not acceptable. every sity (or other partners) not just the political lawyers appear in countless venues where
procurement, public health, higher education law school should be looking as hard as it science department. and the goal will be to the rules of evidence are not binding, and

administration, and many more. and there are can for people who can train students to graduate students who learn how to immerse are often called upon to lead investigations
many settings in which to practice. The legal use technology in the most efficient and themselves in other professional languages that unearth the facts. every law student
landscape should be a subject for explicit productive ways.
even as they are mastering the law.
should have at least one experience in
study, not background noise to be briefly which finding, as opposed to just working
sketched by the career office.
with, the facts is part of the task.
21st Century Communication. clarity in Entrepreneurship. a core value of the The legal landscape should be a subject for explicit study, not
oral and written expression long prized at law legal profession is an understanding that background noise to be briefly sketched by the career office.
school remain in high demand. But lengthy the lawyer is there to serve client wishes
memos and court briefs are increasingly and needs. Thus the typical relationship is

expensive to produce and may be too time that the client generates a set of objectives The Language of Clients. Lawyers will Institutional Design. as individual dis-
consuming for key decision-makers to read. and action steps and the lawyer helps make continue to have a comparative advantage pute resolution via the adversary system
Similarly, the gifted orator who tells a great them happen. Some might say this is part in reading and interpreting cases, statutes becomes increasingly unaffordable, designing
story can still hold a jury or a boardroom of the lawyer’s professional identity. But in and regulations even if the text of these institutions that produce fewer disputes and
spellbound. But the vast majority of us will the 21st century, this identity will have to sources of law are now readily available. Just speedier resolutions will be a key task. From
find our audience losing patience unless there change a bit. Lawyers will still do all we can think how easy it is to overreact to medical game design to psychology, law schools here
are pictures to look at during the presenta- to pursue client objectives, but we must also symptoms when you try self-diagnosis over too have much to learn from other parts of
tion. From pie charts and bar graphs to more pursue our own. most lawyers graduating webmD. But it won’t help the lawyer to be the university in how laws can be crafted to

compelling visuals, law students must acquire from law school now will have many jobs dur- better at reading the law than her client, if provide appropriate incentives to produce
the tools of contemporary communication ing the course of long careers. our graduates only the client understands the language desired behavior. and law school curricula
even if they now remain unfamiliar in the need to manage those careers. accordingly, spoken in his business or other enterprise. must be reformed to provide students space
world of the law.
offering opportunities for students to chart a From the language of computers to the world to work on writing new rules, not just time
Technology. it’s not merely the means course and make something happen is vital of biotech, the lawyer who succeeds now to interpret existing rules through the lens
of communication that are being radically to their (and ultimately our) success. This will be the one who not only skillfully speaks of the case method.
transformed by the computer age. Search-
can be done nicely within intel- » Page S11
the language of the law but who thoroughly
Gathering and Marshaling Facts. as the

ST. JOHN’S LAW IS ON THE RISE

We’re making strides in ways that matter

most to students, alumni, and employers.

90%
overall employment rate for the class
of 2014, a 4% increase over 2013

4th
for bar exam passage in New York,
just behind NYU, Columbia, and Cornell,

on the July 2014 exam

$6.5M
in record fundraising focused on
student scholarships

1 of 2
law schools in New York where the
median LSAT and GPA went up

for the entering class of 2014

#1
greatest rise out of schools
nationwide in the 2016 U.S. News

Best Law Schools rankings
To learn more about St. John’s Law,
58
new endowed scholarships
visit us at law.stjohns.edu
established as part of the Brennan
Family Scholarship Matching Program