Legal Commentary

Over the past year, there has been a significant amount of news coverage over two-year JD programs. TIME Magazine ran an article on Northwestern Law School?s newly launched, two-year J.D. program over the summer ("Fast-Tracking Law School"), while the topic has been touched on throughout the legal blogosphere (Leiter, Paul Caron's Tax Blog,, the Volokh Conspiracy, Legal Theory Blog, the WSJ.com blog, etc.). Rick Garnett had a thoughtful post and discussion on the topic here on PrawfsBlawg. Although most of the flurry of news occurred in June and July, I thought I would write a quick post.

What I find interesting about the discussion is some consternation over whether a two-year JD program can work. As legal educators around the country reevaluate and redesign law school curricula -- spurred by the 2007 Carnegie Report and other recent publications -- some have asked, ?Is it possible to obtain all the knowledge and skills necessary to be a successful lawyer in just two years??

A preliminary point: although Northwestern has begun some exciting changes at its school, a two year program is not new. Dayton has had a successful two-year program since 2005. Southwestern has had a successful two-year program since 1974. Southwestern's program was the first ABA-approved accelerated program in the nation established with the aid of the largest federal grant awarded at that time to any law school by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education. I understand at various times that other schools too have had two-years programs and its not unheard of for students to graduate at an accelerated pace (I believe Michigan State may have had a two-year program at one time, Iowa had a two year + summer program and, if I remember correctly, Justice Lewis Powell graduated from Washington & Lee in two years, as one prominent example).

But on to the issue. On the one hand, the preliminary point answers the question -- we know two-year programs work and provide students with the skills they need because schools like Dayton and Southwestern have been doing it for years. But I agree that it's not entirely clear pedagogically the benefits of simply squeezing three years of the traditional curriculum into two. As schools (presumably there may be others) that consider following Southwestern's, Dayton's, and now Northwestern's lead by exploring establishing two-year programs they need to be careful that they are not simply creating an "accelerated" experience.

A two-year program, if done well, almost certainly requires significant curricular changes. Southwestern's success with its two-year program has been to emphasize conceptual learning and simulation training. The program relies heavily on simulated client files and hypothetical problems as teaching tools. The program integrates theory and practice and benefits from small classes. Northwestern too is not just simply creating an accelerated program. It intends to provide its students with integrated business and management training in an attempt to give its graduates a step up when they begin their careers (see this interesting discussion at the Empirical Legal Studies blog). A detailed description of how two-year programs can work and other alternatives to traditional legal education appears in some older law review articles (e.g., 35 Journal of Legal Education 97 (1985) and 68 A.B.A. J. 558 (1982)).

On balance, two-year programs seem to fit a unique niche for certain kinds of students (similar to evening programs for students who are employed full-time, and part-time day programs designed for students with child or elder care responsibilities). So I would be interested. Are there other schools that are looking into creating two-year programs? Or part-time programs designed for parents with child-care responsibilities? Or other programs that serve unique niches?