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Law School Education Works : In the Setting of Legal Clinics, it may be TOO GOOD

By Andis Kaulins

Are people versed in the law and armed with knowledge comparable to an attorney a force to be reckoned with, even if they are only law students in a clinical program at a law school? You bet they are.

That is the name of the game. Money, power, etc.

Ian Urbina at the New York Times writes that School Law Clinics Face a Backlash:

"Law school students nationwide are facing growing attacks in the courts and legislatures as legal clinics at the schools increasingly take on powerful interests that few other nonprofit groups have the resources to challenge."

Let's be frank. Law school education works, especially in a clinical setting - in fact, as it turns out, it is too good, not only instructing bright young people how the legal system works but also inculcating in them the capacity for critical thinking, a commodity too often lacking in the rest of the humanities [disciplines such as archaeology etc. come to mind here] and often also lacking in many organizations and institutions.

It is no wonder then, as Urbina writes, that:

"Law clinics at other universities ? from New Jersey to Michigan to Louisiana ? are facing ... challenges. And legal experts say the attacks jeopardize the work of the clinics, which not only train students with hands-on courtroom experience at more than 200 law schools but also have taken on more cases against companies and government agencies in recent years.

?We?re seeing a very strong pushback from deep-pocket interests, and that pushback is creating a chilling effect on many clinics,? said Robert R. Kuehn, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, citing a recent survey he conducted that found that more than a third of faculty members at legal clinics expressed fears about university or state reaction to their casework and that a sixth said they had turned down unpopular clients because of these concerns."

Rather than cutting the funds for legal clinics, we should be supporting them with even more money and putting those law students on the tails of the people who are greedily plundering our society solely for their own benefit and at the cost of the common weal. It would seem that "the law" is there in very large part in order to achieve exactly that objective. If law clinics are able to do it, more power to them.

Full post as published by LawPundit on April 05, 2010 (boomark / email).