Legal Research

Training Law Students for Real-Life Careers

By jlutz99

A recent New York Time's article discusses curriculum reform in Law Schools.  Here's a quote from the article:

For years, law students have focused on judicial opinions, explaining why a case was decided in a particular way. But many lawyers today must read laws and regulations that have not been explained by a judge and advise clients on how to comply with them.

So both Harvard Law and Vanderbilt University Law School have modified their traditional first-year requirements, like contracts, civil procedures and torts, to include a class that teaches students how to interpret statutes and regulations.

Stanford Law and other schools are also making it easier for students to take courses in other graduate-level programs at their universities, recognizing that lawyers often need specialized knowledge in areas like business, technology, biology, international relations, engineering and medicine. Many lawyers today practice across international borders and must be familiar with foreign laws and legal systems.

?Globalization means you have to better prepare lawyers to work in a global context,? said Larry Kramer, dean of Stanford Law.

Read the entire article here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on November 02, 2007 (boomark / email).