Academic

Christine says:

I would posit that the law school of the future should position themselves as the school that can identify, recruit and train law graduates that will have the confidence and personality to be "client-ready" at graduation.  This may require changes in how we do law school, and also on how we do admissions.

Yes, absolutely.  We are going through a period of creative destruction.  How do you train people who will succeed in that environment?

First, as Christine says, you select for that: start giving a lot of extra points to applicants who have started, or at least worked, in a business, or shown equivalent initiative (e.g., started a non-profit, invented something or just figured out a new way to solve a problem).    

Second, offer a course in legal entrepreneurship.  I envision that as starting with but going beyond "law office management" to conceiving of ?law practice? as fundamentally the conveyance of legal knowledge, and then considering alternatives to conventional law practice that fit this model.

Third, ensure that all law students have basic business knowledge.  I?m not talking about a semester traipsing laboriously through the Delaware fiduciary law cases (which could be an elective).  I mean elements of accounting, finance, and possibly how to construct a viable business model.