ABA Pressed to Boost Law Students' Practical Training

Clinical education transformed Rutgers Newark Law School in the 1970's.  We called it People's Electric Law School.  Clinical professors had enormous impact on the law - as did the activism of a more traditional professor - Ruth Ginsburg, who spawned the Women's Rights Litigation Clinic. I chronicle the impact of their efforts in a new article in the Fordham Urban Law Journal.  Despite becoming a part of every law school clinical teachers remain in a second tier, without tenure and at lower salary than tenure track professors who generally have outstanding academic records but little if any practice experience. - GWC
ABA Pressed to Boost Law Students' Practical Training:

Should the American Bar Association require that all law students graduate with at least some practice skills training under their belts?A group of clinical law professors thinks so. They have asked the ABA’s Counsel of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to amend its law school accreditation standards to require that students complete 15 credit hours of real-world lawyering coursework.The Clinical Legal Education Association also asked that would-be lawyers complete at least one clinic or externship before they graduate.In a letter to ABA officials, CLEA leaders wrote that legal education lags far behind other professions when it comes to hands-on training. Moreover, a national standard would likely prevent lawyer-licensing bodies in different states from adopting conflicting rules, they argued. The State Bar of California appears poised to adopt its own 15-credit practical skills training mandate later this year.

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