Quality Of JD Applicants Slipping

law school gradsOpen Letter to Law Schools: What Law Students Need to Learn to Be Hired By Tomorrow’s Largest Legal Employer

So you think you’re going to work at a big law firm? You can imagine it now: Racking up big billables, making partner, and having your associates do all the grunt work.
Sounds like you’ve watched too many episodes of Suits.
Chances are, you’ll start at a small specialty firm that claws for every scrap of business. At this firm, you’ll probably work for someone like Carolyn Elefant, a Cornell-educated head of a D.C.-based practice specializing in energy. And she has a message for those haughty law schools (and the entitled graduates they churn out):
“…many of your students are, quite frankly, useless to me; lacking the basic skill set necessary to incorporate them quickly and seamlessly into a busy and frequently resource-constrained practice like mine.”
Sounds pretty damning, huh? Well, Elefant is just getting started. She chastises graduates for showing an “utter lack of curiosity,” demonstrated by their failure to use free online legal briefs and memos, let alone read legal news and blogs. She laments that she can’t find students “who can keep a pulse on my industry and inform me of what’s new”, deriding them as “potted plants waiting for the next assignment.” And Elefant wonders why law schools don’t pay more attention to small firms, noting that, “Maybe we don’t have the resources to hire your students long term or for much pay, but at the very least, we’re a safe harbor where they can gain valuable experience before they move on to a more permanent and stable position.”
Based on her practice experience, Elefant worries that law schools are failing to adequately prepare students in these six areas:
1. Analysis and Legal Writing: “…legal analysis, research and writing are hands-down most important skills that law school can teach. I need someone who understands the importance of seeing a case from a million different sides and building a persuasive argument out of the disparate pieces. I need someone who can write with confidence and power and purpose, cogently and void of jargon…and I’m not seeing it in many (but not all) of today’s grads.
It’s fairly easy to reinforce analysis and writing skills into law school.  Each time you read a case, why not take a look at the underlying briefs. Which arguments persuaded the court and why? What kind of writing was most understandable or sufficiently unique that it generated a “shout out” (i.e., a direct quote) from the court.  It’s this kind of stuff that ignites curiosity in law students – and by having them figure out how to find briefs online, using briefs to amplify cases instills resourcefulness too…”
2. Blogging: “…the discipline of writing regularly combined with the urgency of getting timely posts to press – has improved my legal writing immensely. Incorporating blogging into legal education  is moronically easy.  Professors could assign students to blog about the daily lecture, relevant topics (e.g., students could blog about bankruptcy law)….”
“The importance of blogging isn’t limited to writing blogs. Students gain insight from reading. If you want to learn about criminal law – both the substantive issues and the practice,there is, hands down, no better place than the criminal defense blogs listed here, most of them by lawyers in the trenches. “
3. Social Media: “…I run a resource-constrained trade association and the easiest way for us to stay current is through twitter. That’s how I keep my firm in front of potential clients as well.  Social media also works for traditional networking events. It’s a no-brainer to set up a Facebook page for a monthly networking group….Professors should be setting up Facebook groups for each class where students can ask questions and continue dialogue out of class.”
4. Video and Visuals: “…Video integrates easily with law school.  Video record “witness” testimony and practice admitting it (or presenting it) on an ipad in trial advocacy. Students can record moot court, interviews and an array of other interactions and review and critique them to improve performance. Video production capabilities are almost as important as word processing skills in today’s law office- so student should start mastering them.”
5. Online research: Solos and smalls don’t have unlimited Westlaw accounts. Most of us use a variety of tools (here, I use LEXIS for energy, HeinOnline through Jenkins Law Library and SSRN for law journals, Google Scholar for lay of the land research and FastCase app for on the road research) – and what’s most important is the ability to segue way seamlessly from one to the other and then manage knowledge from multiple sources in one place. Easiest solution – ditch the LEXIS/Westlaw addiction and use a variety of research tools from the outset.”
6. Practice Management Tools and Cloud: “Todays’ lawyers need fluency with cloud technologies. Not a specific system per se, but the concept of uploading, downloading, synching and sharing files and of course, security.”
And Elefant concludes by throwing down the gauntlet to law schools:
“We solos and smalls are, and have always been cutting edge and ahead of the curve of the profession. Because of technology, we can now ably handle complex, sophisticated matters that might not have been possible a few years back and increasingly, we are the choice of many large firm clients who are less concerned about pedigree than you law schools are.  We can help rescue our profession from this mess (brought on, largely I might add, by large firms who never thought that the day of reckoning would come). But to help, law schools need to do their part by producing graduates who can serve our needs so that we can serve our clients.”
Question is, are any of them listening?
Note: To learn more about Elefant’s practice, click here. To read her blog, click here.
Source: myshingle.com

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