I don’t practise law and I’m not an American so you could be forgiven for wondering how I managed to find myself writing a piece for the ABA Journal Legal Rebels project. Twitter. The power of social media.We have too many lawyers and we have too many law schools taking on too many students.
This last statement is pregnant with many possibilities and is intended to provoke and, possibly, irritate those with vested interests in the education business, academics at traditional law schools and may even irritate a few practising lawyers as well. Be that as it may, as we say over here when we wish to push a point fearlessly….
If you wish to … you can read my contribution to the ABA Journal project here…. as I say at the end of my piece… I’ll get my coat…
As I read your note I couldn’t help but think of Savio Mario’s famous speech.
Bear in mind that not all law students regard themselves as product, Charon. One chap decided to embark upon a law course (CPE/GDL) when he was seventy-six: he always wanted to have a deeper understanding of law but until then he never had the time nor money.
Some of my compatriots were quite happy to frame and stick their certificates in the smallest room in the house. As for me, I’m pleased that I have a greater understanding than I had before I went into the course.
Of course, upon further reflection of myself and my cohort; when it came to LPC/BVC, your comments are apt.
I commented on this. Didn’t agree
The oversupply of students – as well as practising solicitors and barristers is a huge problem. You can look to this blog in the states http://temporaryattorney.blogspot.com/ and feel the pain. This disaster isn’t far off our shores.
I agree that some people do law degrees/qualifications out of interest. However, the vast majority study law because they want to be lawyers.
Somehow, the great and the good of this country got the idea that opening the study of law up to any institution going would open access to the profession. That brilliant plan, coupled with the wholly counterproductive funded pupillage only rule, ensured thousands would end up chasing fewer than ten places in solicitors’ firms and barristers’ chambers.
The upshot is you have to be exceptional. Put it this way, if you aren’t a top Oxford graduate, you’d better have a first and have done a years’ pro bono at the Hague and/or LLM at Harvard to guarantee pupillage interviews at any rate.
Erm, how many kids from the estate do you know can afford to do that?
I’m not about squashing anyone’s dream – quite the opposite – but the Law Society and Bar Council need to be getting a grip on the situation – before it gets even worse for us all.
Very bold article Charon. I agree with a number of points and also agree with John Flood’s point about diversity.
I think it is fair to say a number of law schools on both sides of the pond see law students as little bags of money on legs and often like a smooth seducer tell a seductive tale that entices them to submit the cheque and once it clears give little guidance for careers or actually develop the skills required to practice law, they see law courses as information dumps and simply impart all the black letter law with a bit of context, it’s hardly a clinical education.
So there is a requirement for law schools to be better and more distinctive in their approach to legal education, to truly develop skilled lawyers beyond the academic. I have strong feeling on the concept of intellectual aptitude and don’t believe it can be purely measured in IQ and academic attainment, it’s a flawed concept.
Given that practising lawyer skills are going to have to diversify much more than pure law with the advent of the Legal Services Act as pointed out in your excellent podcast with Tom Kilroy, it would be wise for law schools to actually demonstrate how their students are going to be trained for a new world of law rather than well designed brochureware of grinning law students with little substance.
With this there will need to be a re-evaluation of fees given the likely changes to salary structures of those working in law, there will need to be more flexible ways to study the law and in a more modular way to allow diversity entrance not just those that can afford the fee and a year out of any gainful employment. This is not just an issue facing the law, it is facing all post-graduate education and will soon face under-graduate level too.
Additionally maybe law schools could actually start exploring viable longtail legal education models for anyone wanting to know more about the law, we have an ever burgeoning problem of a disconnect with general public and the law, why shouldn’t legal educators have more public offerings for module study of law, many US educators have started doing this with iTunes University as just a small example or the bolder University of the People http://www.uopeople.org/. This alludes to the sentiment of gyges above and the best chapter in Susskind’s The End of Lawyers?
You are right to query the practices and models of today, but I don’t think restrictive practices are the way forward. New models of education need to be explored in the same way that new business models do to.
A fair number of students read law for pleasure or to complement their existing professional work. I have taught many such students over the years – many are mature students – and they were a pleasure to teach because they brought their own experience to discussion in seminars for the benefit of others attending. Law is a fascinating subject – almost incapable of precise definition, covering pretty well every field of human endeavour and it is right that university law schools continue to provide a wide syllabus.
The requirements of the profession are, of course, addressed by the ‘core’ subject requirement for a degree to be a ‘qualifying degree’.
I am a firm believer in access to education and agree that diversity and equality of opportunity is extremely important.
I do think it is important for law schools to reflect on whether they are taking on some students who are unlikely to be taken on by an employer but accept that this is a difficult and complex issue to address.