Law school unveils new curriculum that gives third-years experience
Medical students learn how to be doctors by working with patients. Journalism students learn their profession by writing stories.
And now, Washington and Lee University Law School students will learn how to not just think like lawyers, but to act like them, too.
The law school recently unveiled a dramatic revision to its curriculum. Third-year students will use what they have learned in their first two years to undergo simulated and real practice as lawyers.
Law school education has remained essentially the same since Harvard Law School Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell created the model more than 100 years ago. Since then, law schools have focused on pragmatism and doctrine: thinking rather than doing.
"It gets old," said W&L Law School Dean Rodney Smolla. "After three years of [this traditional model], law students have gotten the hang of thinking like a lawyer, so there’s nothing new happening in terms of their growth."
"But more importantly," he continued, "being a lawyer is a lot more than simply understanding law as an intellectual discipline and understanding how to think like a lawyer. Being a lawyer is solving people’s problems."
In the new third year, practicum courses that will include practice simulations and real client experiences will replace lecture-style classes. Students will have professors from new sources, too, as current lawyers and judges will join permanent faculty and adjunct faculty to teach the program. Participation by current law students is optional. After a few years, the program will be mandatory.
Law school Associate Dean Robert Danforth agrees that it’s a big undertaking for professors, many of whom have been teaching from the same lesson plan for years, to reconfigure their courses.
Yet he sees this as a challenge that most professors, including himself, will find exciting.
"I think teaching will be more energizing because there will be much more interaction as opposed to lecturing and listening to questions," said Danforth. "There will be a shifting of responsibility for the learning from me to the students so that the students will now become the primary players in that process."
The law school’s existing clinics and externship programs will be expanded and become mandatory. All third-year students will also be required to obtain a Virginia practice certificate and engage in an extracurricular law-related service activity, such as participation in law reviews and journals, moot court competitions, or pro-bono activities. A practice certificate allows students to try cases under the direct supervision of lawyers.
Smolla said that the overriding theme of the third year will be professionalism. The program will serve as a transition year between school and the profession.
Danforth said that when he first went into practice, employers put a larger effort into molding young lawyers, making the first couple years in a law firm like an apprenticeship.
But now, law firms are largely abdicating the responsibility of training new lawyers, arguing that law schools should be the ones taking on that burden. W&L’s new third-year program will provide students with the preparation they need.
"We’re responding to not just the failing of the law schools but a changing in the complexion of the way the law profession works," said Danforth.
The new third-year program will be phased in over the next three to four years. And while the program was eventually unanimously approved by the law faculty, Smolla said that at first, people were reluctant to change.
"I never expected people at the beginning to say, 'Oh yeah, this is the greatest idea on Earth, we’ll of course do this,’" said Smolla. "I expected cautious, skeptical analysis of it, and that’s what we’ve had."
While Danforth believes the faculty will react positively to the new third-year program, he is unsure how current students will react to the program.
"For better or worse, the third year of law school has often been a bit of a vacation," said Danforth. "So for those students who want to continue to have that third year of kind of kicking back and not worrying about life, this probably won’t be the place for them."
Caitlin Cottingham, a first-year law student at W&L, believes most students will be aware of the benefits the new program will provide them.
"At the end of the day, I think people won’t be that sad," said Cottingham. "Most people are paying for [law school] themselves and are well aware what they are or are not getting out of their tuition money."
Smolla and Danforth agree that the new program will positively affect W&L’s admissions. Danforth believes that the program will bring in a more self-directed, self-motivated group of people.
Smolla said he also believes W&L’s actions will influence other law schools across the nation to rethink their education strategies.
"If it works out the way we think it will and the way we are confident it will, I think it will have an impact," said Smolla. "I think it will be a good thing for the public that consumes legal services. I think it will be good for the legal profession. And I think it will be good for legal education."
For more information, visit http://law.wlu.edu/thirdyear/
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