Reuters, ABA's Plan to Double Hands-On Credits for Law Students Is Rife With Flaws, Deans Say:
An American Bar Association proposal to double the hands-on coursework credits for law students is facing sharp criticism from some legal educators as being too costly, too constraining, and an overreach in controlling curriculum.
Under the proposed change to the ABA’s law school accreditation standards, the number of credits for hands-on classes, known as experiential learning, that students must take would increase to 12 from the current six. Students would need to earn at least three of those credits in a clinic or a field placement. …
[S]upporters were outnumbered by opponents who warned that the proposal would have unintended negative consequences. Of the 37 public comments the ABA received, 21 opposed the plan or requested a delay, while 12 were in support. Several other commenters took issue with one or more aspects of the proposal but did not oppose it outright. …
Deans at more than a quarter of all ABA-accredited law schools — 52 — submitted a comment asking the ABA to delay the proposal and take a more incremental approach to increasing experiential credit requirements, citing upheaval in higher education due to federal funding cuts, uncertainty over international student visas brought on by the Trump administration, and other financial constraints.
“Imposing these changes at a moment of unprecedented change for both higher education and the legal profession, however, is counterproductive at best and may be self-destructive to our shared goal of delivering high quality education and expanding experiential opportunities,” read their letter, whose signatories include the law deans at Yale, Stanford, and New York University.
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- ABA, Legal Ed Council Proposes To Double Experiential Learning Accreditation Requirement To 12 Credits
- ABA, Survey on Credits for Experiential Learning Courses: Summary of Results
- Barry Currier (Former Managing Director, ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar):
- Joseph Kearney (Dean, Marquette), Brian Leiter (Chicago) & Derek Muller (Notre Dame), ABA Should Withdraw Proposal To Double The Number Of Required Experiential Learning Credits
- Brian Leiter (Chicago), Law Schools Should Oppose an ABA Proposal to Double the Experiential Learning Credits From 6 to 12
- Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Hard Questions About Experiential Learning, Legal Education, And The ABA
- Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Inside the ABA's Relentless Quest to Make Law School Accreditation More Tedious and More Expensive
- Reuters, ABA Plan To Double Experiential Learning Accreditation Requirement Spurs Criticism About Accreditor Overreach
- Reuters, ABA Proposal To Increase Number Of Experiential Credits Required Of Law School Graduates
- 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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