Dueling Law Professors.

Over at Balkanization, Brian Tamanaha, one of my favorite "outside the box" thinkers among law professors, has another of his interesting posts in which he takes to task the current model of legal education. As Brian notes, this model emphasizes "interdisciplinary study" over professional training for law students and academic research and writing over teaching for law professors.

Another law professor I admire greatly, Daniel Solove, posts this counterpoint over at Concurring Opinions, in which he defends the current educational model.

Both of these dueling law professors make some excellent points but on balance, I'm siding with Professor Tamanaha on this one. I grant Professor Solove's point that studying the history, philosophy and sociological impact of the law is not a bad thing. (A point succinctly made in the movie "Animal House" with Faber College's motto - "Knowledge is Good.") However, granting that point, the problem is that most law school graduates actually plan to practice law - a profession they are ill equipped to engage in after three years of purely "academic" study in today's law school school environment.

The result is very bright, well educated men and women who, unless they get substantial additional training in a law firm or government agency, don't know how to properly advise or represent a client in the real world outside the halls of academe.

In the 30 years I have been a lawyer and judge, I have observed a steady deterioration in the overall level of professional competence in the way in which lawyers interact with clients and with each other and I attribute that decline directly to the lessened emphasis in law schools on instilling professionalism and teaching professional skills.

As an accrediting agency, the ABA has resisted any experimentation which might provide more balance between academic study and nuts and bolts professional training. Can you imagine the result if the AMA forced the country's medical schools to focus on the history, philosophy and sociological impact of medicine and the healing arts but neglected teaching medical students how to properly examine, treat or operate upon a patient?

Brian and Dan have performed a tremendous service to the legal profession by beginning a dialog that needs to continue. I fervently hope that it will.