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ERIC Number: EJ826022
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jan-9
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-5982
EISSN: N/A
Law Schools Customize Degrees to Students' Taste
Schmidt, Peter
Chronicle of Higher Education, v55 n18 pA1 Jan 2009
Going to law school to get a law degree has become a little like going to an ice-cream parlor for a scoop of vanilla. Plenty of people still do it, but many schools' brochures--like the elaborate flavor-and-topping menus on ice-cream parlor walls--now tempt them with something different, something more. Law students can have their "juris doctor" credential flavored with a concentration in a specialty like environmental or intellectual-property law. Or they can go for a double, mixing their J.D. with a master's degree in some other field like business administration, clinical psychology, or the geosciences. If they wish, they can top their selection off with a master of laws (LL.M.) degree, signifying expertise in some subfield like alternative dispute resolution. This article reports that the curriculum at law schools has undergone a major transformation in recent years, as many have set up niche programs to attract students. A few critics, however, are beginning to speak out against the trend, arguing that it is driven largely by marketing considerations and hurts legal education.
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A