Many have been taking law schools to task due to the impracticality of their education, the latest being Georgetown University Law Center adjunct professor Brent Evan Newton, whose article, “Preaching What They Don’t Practice: Why Law Faculties’ Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical Competencies Obstruct Reform in the Legal Academy,” is to be published by South Carolina Law Review. According to New York Lawyer, the article cites findings from previous reports by the ABA and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which had both concluded that law schools do not sufficiently prepare its students for practicing law in the real world.
By examining entry-level tenure track hiring, Newton discovered that new professors only had an average of three years of practical experience, and that the higher-ranking schools tend to hire faculty with even less practical experience. Newton posited that law schools’ strong emphasis on law review publication leads to faculty members concentrating more on scholarship than on teaching.
Although law schools have been attempting to make their programs more practical, with clinical faculty and adjunct professors, their efforts are not enough, since these additions only make up a small part of the faculty and tend to be undermined by traditional tenure-track professors, according to Newton.
He proposed a division of law faculties into two tenure tracks. Research professors would make up one-third of a faculty and teach fewer classes, while teaching professors would account for the other two-thirds and have “extensive practice experience,” teaching “doctrinal, clinical and legal reading and writing courses.”
Newton’s article has generated much debate, with some law professors defending the value of legal scholarship. As Newton reiterated, “I do not propose getting rid of theoretical professors or theoretical law review articles; I believe they have value. I simply propose reducing their influence and increasing the percentage of ‘practical’ professors and ‘practical’ scholarship.”
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Read the full article: Irrelevance of Legal Education and What Can be Done
