Publication Date

2014

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The Carnegie education masters, legal employers, and the ABA have appealed for more experiential teaching in law schools. The time is now; every school will soon have to provide at least 6 credits of clinic, field placement, and skills courses for each of their students according to the ABA’s most recent amendments to the Standards for Approval of Law Schools. Many educators and commentators proclaim the successes of the experiential courses to date, and assume that our current offerings just have to be expanded to accommodate the influx of students. However examination of the nature of the experiential coursework of 2,132 attorneys reveals that experiential courses have not been comparably pursued or valued by our former students as they have headed to careers in different settings and types of law practice. There are dramatic contrasts between public and private lawyers, litigators and transactional lawyers in the types of courses they took (or avoided) and in the lasting value they reaped. The Experiential Learning Opportunities and Benefits Survey and Study provides important insights and questions for deans, faculties, and curriculum committees to consider as they reorient their curricula to meet the new ABA requirements.

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