California bar considers mandatory skills training

Law.com carries the news. Not surprisingly, some law schools deans disagree. Key graf:

A state bar task force will soon begin examining whether new attorneys must attain a certain level of hands-on training before being admitted to practice in California. The discussion is still in the early stages, but ideas being kicked around include requiring an internship or mentorship program; a set number of skills-training hours; or a year-long course for 3Ls that covers real-world lawyering skills.

Comments

[David Hricik]

"We're against teaching people what they need to know." Sounds, um, awkward.

[John Steele]

There's an irony here, because a couple of months ago, when David Segal's NYT articles were big news, we had some law professors protesting that clients and biglaw firms were foisting practical skills training on the schools rather than pay for it themselves. Now we're hearing other profs and deans argue, "hey, we already do all that."

Still, I completely understand why law school deans don't want the state bar further affecting the curriculum. Who likes to be regulated by a bureaucracy, especially if you're a tenured professor who values intellectual freedom? But that's a parochial concern and not one that appeals to society as a whole.

Larry Kramer, the outgoing dean of Stanford (and, in my view, one of the "good guys" on most of these issues) is right that state bars should take a hard look at what's actually being taught in law schools these days rather than rely on stereotypes. But I suppose that the bar committee will do just that and that the law schools -- eager to fend off regulation -- will make detailed presentations to the committee.

To me, there's a missing voice when we get into these debates between the professors and the practicing bar. What do the students want? They're the ones who are taking on the non-dischargeable debt that feeds the schools. If we trust students with the choice to enroll in law school, how can we not trust them with choices about curriculum? Poll the students about their curricular needs after letting them hear from panels of profs, alums, judges, hiring partners, and clients about what courses make sense. Then the schools ought to meet the students at least halfway.