ERIC Number: EJ951358
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jun
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0895-4852
EISSN: N/A
American Legal Education and Professional Despair
French, David
Academic Questions, v24 n2 p157-166 Jun 2011
Lawyers are among the most unhappy, least respected wealthy people in America. There are, no doubt, many reasons for the morale crisis in the legal profession. After all, not many people like lawyers. Further, many aspects of legal work are objectively stressful. Litigation is rife with conflict even in the most courteous jurisdictions, and trials are known to tax the endurance of even the most seasoned litigators. But there's another culprit in legal despair, another force working in the hearts of young lawyers-to-be, a force with outsized influence in their future success but with seemingly minimal awareness of their looming professional reality: law schools. In no other professional school is there a starker gap between the profession as practiced and the profession as taught. Not only does law school fail to prepare students for their professional life, it often actually sets them up for defeat and disappointment. In short, law school promises more than it can deliver financially, professionally--and perhaps most critically--emotionally. If lawyers are on a path to despair and disappointment, law schools put them on that path and give them a hardy shove down the way. The author concludes with some suggestions for reform. (Contains 18 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Legal Education (Professions), Law Schools, School Effectiveness, Failure, Outcomes of Education, Lawyers, Educational Change, Student Costs
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A