Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

7-20-2012

SSRN Discipline

Economics Research Network; Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Law & Society eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; Cognitive Science Network; Humanities Network; IRPN Subject Matter eJournals; Innovation Areas eJournals; Innovation Research & Policy Network

Abstract

Everyone engaged in legal education and not utterly asleep agrees that there is a law school crisis Building on recent works by Brian Tamanaha and Walter Olson this paper discusses its causes and potential solutions using a typical dichotomy in recent populist movements the one percent versus 99 percent meme as a lens It examines arguments that the problem is economic and that it is primarily cultural although I conclude the problem is economic and structural far more than cultural I also argue that one of Tamanahas primary recommendations for reform that law schools ought to display more experimentation and institutional pluralism and that ABA accreditation requirements ought to make this more possible goes some way toward addressing both diagnoses The paper is more descriptive than prescriptive although I offer some thoughts on solutions I emphasize three things 1 law schools would be better off focusing on regional than national markets although the US News rankings make regionally oriented approaches more difficult 2 a serious increase in meaningful faculty governance and involvement is needed and 3 the role and needs of the client have been surprisingly marginal in recent discussions of law school reform The client needs to be a prominent part of reform discussions which suggests contrary to some extant views that curricular reform ought to continue to be part of the discussion along with economic and structural reform This is an early and imperfect draft intended for discussion and feedback given both the importance of the issue and the need for increased public discussion Comments are welcome

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