Should Law Schools Put More Emphasis on Practical Legal Skills?

p strongLaw faculty favor a stronger practical-skills component, but they are much less united about replacing classroom time with clinics or internships./strong/p p Primary Research Group surveyed 134 faculty members at 80 North American law schools. More than 51% agreed or strongly agreed that the curriculum should place greater emphasis on practical legal skills. Support was particularly strong among assistant and associate professors and among adjunct and clinical faculty&mdashthe groups often closest to current classroom experimentation and practice-based instruction./p p That support does not translate into a mandate to shrink conventional coursework. Only 29.85% favored reducing classroom time in favor of internships and legal clinics, while 45.52% disagreed. Faculty appear more comfortable integrating practice into the degree than treating doctrinal and experiential education as competing alternatives./p p Law schools can respond by identifying where students repeatedly struggle when they enter practice: interviewing, drafting, negotiation, research verification, project management and client communication. Simulations, supervised fieldwork and practice-based assignments can be placed inside existing courses as well as clinics./p p The useful planning question is not whether doctrine or practice should win. It is which competencies graduates should demonstrate, where each is taught and how the school will know that students can transfer classroom knowledge to a professional setting./p p  /p