Monthly Archives: November 2011

We’ve written before about legal education reform as well as the “first-year dilemma,” the thorny issue of how to train new associates to become good lawyers while clients are objecting to those same associates staffing their matters for as much as $300 an hour.  All of which is really asking, “Why don’t they teach this stuff in law schools?”

A front-page article in this week’s Sunday New York Times has raised the question again, but shines some light on a couple of additional points.  The author, David Segal, writes that “Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful” and that “[p]rofessors are rewarded for chin-stroking scholarship.”  While many schools have used legal clinics as a way to provide practical training, the nuts-and-bolts practice of law is something that many law school professors know little about. 

“The fundamental issue is that law schools are producing people who are not capable of being counselors,” says Jeffrey W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, a Houston company that makes oil drilling equipment. “They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.”

Segal argues that the upper echelon of the legal academy is valued more for its volume of law review articles than real world experience.  There are more than 600 law reviews in the U.S., a number that has doubled since 1985, and they publish about 10,000 articles per year, few of which are considered noteworthy and citable.

Law school hiring also plays an important role, with schools chasing “superstars” that are often former Supreme Court clerks or candidates with both a J.D. and a Ph.D. in another discipline, such as economics.  And having no experience actually practicing law is perceived as an attractive quality.  Segal writes:

This might seem a paradox — experienced people need not apply — but the academy views seasoned pros with a certain suspicion. In fact, a number of veterans of legal practice who failed to land tenure-track jobs say that experience was a stigma they could not beat.

So what does this mean for recent graduates, many of whom have spent up to $150,000 to get their degree?  The legal landscape has changed in the last few years and there is not going to be a return to business as usual.  It’s a buyer’s market and the market is awash in JDs.  Big Law associate positions are fewer than they were a few years ago, while there appears to be increased demand for contract and staff attorneys.  To be successful, according to Segal, law school graduates will need “entrepreneurial skills, management ability and some expertise in landing clients. They will need to know less about Contracts and more about contracts.”

Posted by Marianne Purzycki