Bloomberg Law, How Law Schools Are Preparing Students for the New World of Work:

Law schools have been under increasing pressure to produce practice-ready lawyers for more than a decade, but as many top law schools launch new programs, it seems a tipping point has arrived.

While some institutions have long had clinical training, primarily in litigation, schools are evolving their offerings in areas like transactional practice, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

The expectation that law graduates be prepared for work on day one is growing. With soaring billing rates, firms and clients are less willing to pay for long associate apprenticeships, the firm model for more than a century.

“I think it is a responsiveness to students and to firms not wanting to have to pay for people to learn on their dime. Schools want to add as much value for their students as they can,” said Kellye Testy, executive director and CEO of the Association of American Law Schools.

Law schools have always taught students to “think like lawyers,” but increasingly schools are being called upon to train students to act like lawyers, as well. …

Through dozens of interviews, many of the country’s top-ranked law schools told Bloomberg Law they have significantly overhauled their curricula over the last roughly seven years to include experiential learning opportunities and training in skills such as client counseling and contract drafting, or business skills like how to read financial statements.

It’s a shift that accelerated in the years after the Great Recession—the period around 2007 to 2009—when firms canceled associate classes and laid off thousands of lawyers.

Early-adopter law schools began offering transactional clinics, simulations and various business classes to give students more skills and training for legal practice, sometimes as early as the first year of law school. …

The American Bar Association added momentum to the idea of more practical training when, in 2014, its law school accreditation requirements were adopted, requiring six credits of experiential learning.

The ABA’s legal education council is continuing to push the change even now, as it considers upping the current number of required experiential learning credits from six to 15, and the 2026 NextGenBar exam is expected to have practical skills questions.

Also driving the shift: technology. …

Many law schools are preparing students by adding more clinics and simulations, externships, and internships to help students get more practical experience before graduating.

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