Legal News

Erwin Chemerinsky talks about the future of UC-Irvine law

By Jason Siegel

UC-Irvine's new law school plans to take cues from how medical schools teach their students.

Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky told Los Angeles City Beat that he plans to require law students to get clinical experience by working directly with clients, similarly to how medical school students begin seeing patients before they graduate.

Schools are good at teaching how to read cases, understand legal doctrine and make arguments based on legal doctrine, but they do a shabby job at preparing students to practice law, he told the newspaper.

Chemerinsky also hopes to better instill a sense of public service.

"I think that many students hear about public service from the dean who welcomes them the first day and from the commencement speaker at their graduation on the last day," he told the newspaper. "We could do much better within the school."

Chemerinsky also believes law students should be trained in other fields, like psychology and economics.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).