The Clinical Legal Education Association has published a revised draft of its Best Practices for Legal Education. Here is the opening of the Executive Summary and Key Recommendations:
There is a compelling need for significant change in legal education in the United States. Law schools do some things well, some things poorly, and some things not at all. While law schools help students acquire some of the essential skills and knowledge required for law practice, most law schools are not committed to preparing students for practice. It is generally conceded that most law school graduates are not as prepared for law practice as they could be and should be. Law schools can do much better.
Our key recommendations for improving legal education are listed below. One can quickly grasp the full breadth of our recommendations by reviewing the table of contents.
We divide our discussion of best practices into six categories: 1) setting goals, 2) organizing the program of instruction, 3) delivering instruction, 4) specific methods of instruction, 5) assessing student learning, and 6) evaluating the success of the program of instruction. We also include an example of a “model” best practices program of instruction.
We call on law schools to make a commitment to improve the preparation of students for practice, clarify and expand their educational objectives, improve and diversity methods for delivering instruction, and give more attention to evaluating the success of their programs of instruction….
It may not be possible to prepare students fully for the practice of law in three years, but law schools can come much closer than we are doing today. It is especially important for law schools to make an institutional commitment to do the best we can to prepare our students for practice.
An important step is to articulate clear educational objectives for the program of instruction and, preferably, to describe those objectives in terms of desired outcomes. Outcomes-focused education is becoming the norm throughout higher education. In fact, regional accrediting agencies are requiring institutions of higher education, including some law schools, not only to state educational outcomes but also to prove their students are attaining those outcomes. Law schools in the United Kingdom and other countries, as well as a few law schools in the United States, have made substantial progress in becoming outcome-focused. It is time for all law schools to make the transition.
Descriptions of desired outcomes of legal education should include statements of what graduates should be able to do and how they should do it in addition to what they should know. We describe some general outcomes that all law schools should seek to accomplish, including our conclusion that the primary goal of legal education is to produce graduates who can solve legal problems effectively and responsibly.
The key recommendations in this document are set forth below.
