Thoughts on American Legal Education: Past, Present, and Future

In this piece, Dean Marc D. Falk off recounts the history of modern legal education in the United States in order to better understand the nature of the challenges that law schools currently face and to assess the wisdom of proposed reforms of the American legal education system. He notes in particular the historical tension between law as a practical or technical endeavor and law as an academic discipline worthy of a place in the university. American academics have never fully accustomed themselves to the hybrid nature of law and legal education, with the result that they have failed to provide their students with an ideal balance of practical training and an advanced liberal arts education. Making particular reference to structural changes in law firms and the legal employment market, Dean Falkoff proposes a half-dozen reforms for contemporary law schools.