Over in the forum, we’ve talked about the idea of restructuring the third year of law school. Some of us were strongly in favor of including more practical experience in place of classroom time during the final year of study. Well Washington and Lee School of Law is going right ahead with such a plan, and it recently received a major donation to devise its experimental third year, which will consist largely of practical training, client interaction, and law practice experience.
John Huss, a 1965 graduate of the law school, and his wife Ruth donated $2 million to develop and run the innovative program that will focus on ethics, civility, civic leadership, pro bono work, and law firm economics. A third of the school's full-time faculty as well as judges and local practitioners from top firms will take part in the new initiative, which will begin on a voluntary basis with the 2009-10 academic year. The program will become mandatory for all third-year students in 2011-12.
Will other law schools follow this lead? Is it time for more law schools to accept that students want to be prepared to be practicing attorneys when they graduate?
Comments
It’s about time. Kudos to Washington & Lee.
I agree Chris; I look forward to reading feedback about the program in action.
Thanks for commenting!
I remain a bit skeptical about the success. There are so many classes to take, and it is sufficiently difficult to get the classes in during the second and third year. Having to get them all in one year will be very difficult. Plus, I question the type of internship experiences that are possible for a school located in rural Virginia. If W&L were located in Northern Virginia or a larger city with public transportation, then it might be a different story. This makes it very difficult for students without cars on campus to find internships that they can complete. It also creates an environmental conundrum as students drive hither and yon to satisfy the requirements. It also raises questions for me regarding the exploitation of students’ time by local firms and agencies.
All very good concerns, Alum.
As someone who has never owned a car, you have me wondering whether I would be less likely to attend a school who only sort of offered internship opportunities for some students.
On the exploitation issue, one would hope that those firms, etc., involved in the program would be giving something to the school, even if it were just to cover the costs of organization.
I certainly look forward to hear student feedback as the program plays out; if you get any updates from W & L newsletters and the like, please feel free to forward them!