Page 6 - Law Schools

S6 | Monday, august 17, 2015 | Law Schools | nylj.com
Education
Rebalancing the Curriculum
To Give Students a Competitive Advantage
By Jennifer a. Gundlach and kevin Mcelroy
In the past several years, the model of legal education has undergone dramatic changes. most notably, law schools have been under pressure to increase emphasis on practical skills training. The american Bar association (aBa) recently adopted revised Standard 303(a)(3) for accredited law schools, which requires that students
now receive a minimum of six credits of expe-
riential courses before they graduate.1 The
California Bar is proposing a new rule that
would require applicants seeking admis-
sion to have taken 15 credits of experiential
courses.2 The New York State Bar association
3
(NYSBa) and the New York City Bar asso-
ciation4 released reports within the last few years, studying the changing nature of the legal profession and suggesting changes for legal education and reform of bar admission standards. Notably, the NYSBa Committee
on Legal education and admission to the Bar (LeaB) recently proposed that, as a require- ment for admission to the bar in New York, each candidate should be required to take 12 credits of skills training.5 Recent publications such as The Carnegie Foundation Report6 and Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal education in a Changing World,7 have called on law schools to reexamine and rebal- ance the curriculum to ensure equal devel- opment of students’ substantive knowledge, practical skills, and professional values. Legal
employers, pressured by changing business models, technological innovation, and direc- tives from clients, are calling on law schools to do more to prepare their graduates for the practice of law to ensure their own competi- tive advantages. many recent graduates are increasingly finding employment in small law firms or legal services practices that require them to be “practice ready.” and legal educa- tors and students, drawing on adult learning theory from other disciplines, are recognizing the value of applied learning opportunities. as a result, the legal academy has had to take a serious look at its curriculum to ensure that students receive the education that they need to succeed in today’s legal profession.
In response to these internal and exter- nal forces, some law schools have begun to reexamine their curriculum with an interest in expanding experiential education. In that process, it is essential to understand the nature of experiential education, to consider the desired learning outcomes for students, to study how and when to introduce experiential learning, and to identify what types of practi- cal training should be offered by a particular school. For example, if first-year students are to focus on analyzing and synthesizing cases and statutes, how best is that achieved and through what teaching methods? In addition, what educational grounding should law stu- dents have before enrolling in clinical courses and externship placements, where they will be working directly with or on behalf of clients? For those students pursuing study through a concentration, what substantive knowledge or foundational skills do they need before more advanced study or practical training? and what new areas of substantive knowledge and professional skills should be incorporated into the curriculum to ensure competency for new lawyers?
given the changing legal environment, it seems appropriate for law schools to identify an intentional sequencing of their curriculum to carefully orient students’ edu- cational and professional development. The sequence should, of course, draw on the lat- est understanding of how people learn, as well as careful consideration of the requisite foundational knowledge necessary to ensure optimal growth and development for learn- ing more advanced substantive material and professional skills. a law school may also have unique factors to consider, such as their stu- dents’ interests and experiences, the fields
JENNIfER A. GUNdLACh is senior associate dean for experiential education and clinical professor of law at Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hofstra University. KEvIN McELROY is associate professor of legal writing.
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