Reuters, ABA Plan to Boost Law Students' Hands-On Experience Spurs Criticism About Accreditor Overreach:

The American Bar Association's proposal to double the number of hands-on learning credits that law students must complete to graduate has sparked criticism that the accrediting organization is going too far in controlling the curriculum for legal education.

Under the proposed change to the ABA’s law school accreditation standards, the number of credits for hands-on learning, known as experiential learning, which students must take would go to 12 from the current six. Students would need to earn at least three of those credits in a clinic or a field placement. And none of the experiential credits — which include clinics, externships, or simulation courses that aim to recreate real legal work — could be taken in a law student’s first year.

The ABA, which says that the change is necessary to produce practice-ready graduates, adopted the six-credit experiential learning requirement in 2014, but surveys of recent graduates and legal employers continue to find that young lawyers are unprepared, according to the proposal.

The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar is gathering public comments on the proposal through June 30 with final adoption possible in August. If approved, the changes would go into effect in 2030.

Supporters [Robert Kuhn (Washington University)] and opponents [Daniel Rodriguez (Northwestern) and David Yellen (Miami)] are making their cases now, before the comment period closes.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• ABA, Legal Ed Council Proposes To Double Experiential Learning Accreditation Requirement To 12 Credits
• Barry Currier (Former Managing Director, ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar):
  •  Attacks on Law Schools and the Regulation of Legal Education, Part 1
  • Attacks on Law Schools and the Regulation of Legal Education, Part 2
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), Law Schools Should Oppose an ABA Proposal to Double the Experiential Learning Credits From 6 to 12
• Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Inside the ABA's Relentless Quest to Make Law School Accreditation More Tedious and More Expensive
• Daniel Rodriguez (Northwestern), ABA Accreditation Once More: Are They Making Me Eat My Words?
• David Yellen (Miami), The ABA Standards And Regulatory Modesty

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