How The New ABA Standard Affects Legal Education

George Washington Law School, Washington, DC

Law School To Offer Increased Experiential Learning Opportunities

The George Washington University Law School is expanding its practical learning offerings.

The GW Hatchet reports that law school officials launched two new “fundamentals” courses for law students and updated a number of courses to include more “practical and experiential” learning for students.

“These enhancements will better prepare our students for success in today’s legal profession and position them to become leaders in the field both nationally and globally,” Emily Hammond, the law school’s Jeffrey and Martha Kohn senior associate dean for academic affairs, tells the Hatchet.

DEDICATED COMMITTEE

The law school is serious about ramping up its efforts of practical and experiential learning offerings.

According to the report, it has formed a 15-person committee made up of faculty, associate deans, and students to increase the number of experiential learning opportunities and train faculty to prepare students.

NEW COURSES

The law school will be debuting two new courses this semester: “Fundamentals of Lawyering” and “Legislation and Regulation.”

According to the Hatchet, “Fundamental of Lawyering” will be a six-credit, two-semester-long course for first-year law students that “teaches research, writing and legal analysis through a professional lens and includes a focus on the lawyer-client relationship.”

“Legislation and Regulation” will introduce students to “the modern legislative and administrative state and is designed to build students’ skills in working with statutes, regulations, and other similar sources of law,” according to the Law School.

INCREASING ENROLLMENT

The new changes are being implemented, in part, because the law school has been struggling to attract applicants in recent years.

Applicant numbers declined for a number of years, according to the Hatchet, before finally increasing in the past two years.

Michael Schwartz, an associate professor of law and the director of the Disability Rights Clinic at Syracuse University, says the increase of hands-on learning opportunities could help to attract more applicants.

“Law becomes concrete, not abstract, and working with clients helps the students see the impact of their strategizing on behalf of the client,” Schwartz tells the Hatchet.

Sources: GW Hatchet, GW Law

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