Comments on: Reengineering Law School? http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/07/13/reengineering-law-school/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:23:08 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Sean Samis http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/07/13/reengineering-law-school/comment-page-1/#comment-25035 Sean Samis Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:23:28 +0000 http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/?p=6055#comment-25035 Lippe’s complaints (assuming they are accurately presented) are incoherent. If law schools are too long, too expensive and too theoretical, then the comparison to medical school is extraordinarily inapt. Medical school is longer, very expensive, and highly theoretical (technical). As Prof. Esenberg points out, medical school graduates have completed a longer course of training than the three years a law school graduate did. And even then few med school graduates immediately join an established practice with senior physicians, much less go out on their own to start their own practice. Most if not all med school grads go on to their Internship (of one or two years) in which they practice medicine on real patients under very close supervision of experienced physicians. Multi-year Residency often follows for specialized training (even for family medicine). Compared to a physician, a newly minted lawyer reminds me of some of the newly minted officers I met in the Navy; whom we lowly blue-jackets referred to as “shake and bakes”. This was not a complement. If law school grads are inadequately prepared, only some of the blame could be put on law schools; certainly not because law schools are too long or too theoretical or too doctrinal. What the legal profession needs is the equivalent of Internship and Residency. This is a job for Law Firms, not Law Schools. The profession needs to get organized and not be afraid of change. Lippe’s complaints (assuming they are accurately presented) are incoherent. If law schools are too long, too expensive and too theoretical, then the comparison to medical school is extraordinarily inapt. Medical school is longer, very expensive, and highly theoretical (technical). As Prof. Esenberg points out, medical school graduates have completed a longer course of training than the three years a law school graduate did. And even then few med school graduates immediately join an established practice with senior physicians, much less go out on their own to start their own practice.

Most if not all med school grads go on to their Internship (of one or two years) in which they practice medicine on real patients under very close supervision of experienced physicians. Multi-year Residency often follows for specialized training (even for family medicine).

Compared to a physician, a newly minted lawyer reminds me of some of the newly minted officers I met in the Navy; whom we lowly blue-jackets referred to as “shake and bakes”. This was not a complement.

If law school grads are inadequately prepared, only some of the blame could be put on law schools; certainly not because law schools are too long or too theoretical or too doctrinal.

What the legal profession needs is the equivalent of Internship and Residency. This is a job for Law Firms, not Law Schools. The profession needs to get organized and not be afraid of change.

]]>