Solo Practice

Just today I heard an ad on CBS news radio for Touro Law Center.  I wanted to jump for joy but nearly drove into a tree instead because I was so giddy.  The radio spot (and I'm paraphrasing) said:

All law students get an education.  Our law students are prepared to practice law.  Our students get training in their first year, meet judges, do pro bono work and basically can hit the ground running as competent trained associates and practitioners of law.

Can you imagine my stunned but euphoric state when I heard this law school on the radio promoting their students to potential employers (as it was to employers) not through grades but their practical training?  (And for those USNWR snobs, I don't know or care where this school is ranked.) Whatever the motivation, the school listened to what employers wanted and what their students wanted. For employers, experience and training in school so the students would come out with practical knowledge the employers were requesting. For the students, this in turn helps them find jobs!  (Which also, by the way, prepares them upon graduation for solo practice.)

I was truly impressed.  Maybe, just maybe, not every law school aspires to be the next Yale.  Maybe, just maybe, more positions will open at these law schools for adjuncts who actually practice law.  Maybe, just maybe more law schools will opt out of competing for artificial ranking in U.S. News and World Report.  And maybe, just maybe, as we preach to new lawyers to fashion practices centered around the client those same law schools will fashion educational programs around the needs of their clients, the students.  And maybe, just maybe, the ABA will loosen up or revamp their accreditation process to mandate more skills training so the education makes more sense in the real world.

Or maybe, just maybe, I'm tired and delusional and I didn't really hear the radio ad. (No..I heard it. I really did :-)

(And in case you didn't see, check out our first faculty announcement at Solo Practice University.)

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