Ohio

Would You Have Wanted to Finish Law School in 2 Years?

By Cleveland Law Library

It probably won't cost any less, but Northwestern Law School has launched a new program where law students can become lawyers in only 2 years instead of 3. Click here to read an article from the Wall Street Journal about the new program. However, students will still have to have prior work experience before entering and take the same curriculum as a 3-year student, only on an expedited basis. This accelerated program ought to keep students studying non-stop to finish in 2 years. Balanced against the likelihood that it will probably be hard to work while going to school, and student loans will come due that much sooner, students will enter the work force earlier and have the possibility of earning the 'big bucks' sooner. Interestingly, according to its Press Release,as the only law school in the country trying a 2-year JD degree, Northwestern is also going to beta test a few new classes on quantitative reasoning (i.e., money, accounting and statistics) and legal services behavior (i.e., teamwork and project management). Among other skills these classes may teach budding lawyers, they may help graduates 1) better evaluate the financial aspects of cases, 2) make more logical and realistic settlement demands and offers, 3) better communicate with clients, and 4) resolve more cases through ADR. 

Full post as published by Cleveland Law Library Weblog on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).