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January 6, 2012

Rick Matasar: 'The Ron Paul of Legal Education' or 'My Hero'?

Inside Higher Ed, Crisis or Opportunity?:

As administrators and faculty members from the nation?s law schools gathered here today, there was a general sense among those assembled that legal education is facing challenges. But they found little agreement on what exactly those challenges are, let alone what will be necessary to solve them.

The majority of sessions Thursday were dedicated to subjects other than the turmoil that has swept through the law school world in the past year. But in a workshop dedicated to the future of the legal profession and legal education, much time was spent discussing the new reality for law school graduates and what, if anything, law schools can do -- even as it largely elided?the more controversial aspects of the situation, such as charges that law schools have deceived their students by reporting misleading employment data.

?It?s an extraordinarily volatile, and in some ways depressing, demoralizing environment in which to work,? said James G. Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. ...

Much of the conversation focused on how to better prepare students for?the job market, whether through increased clinical study, partnering with law firms that want to hire graduates trained in a specific field or method, or other curricular changes that acknowledge that the traditional path through a big law firm is closed to more graduates than in the past. Other presenters focused on cutting the prices students pay so they would have to borrow less money over all. And some, including the president of the ABA, delivered a full-throated defense of American legal education, which they said may not be perfect but is still valuable.

Most strikingly, some law professors, administrators and lawyers took a position more frequently put forward by faculty in the liberal arts: that even if students with law degrees do not practice law (and an increasing number of students are indeed taking jobs that do not require a J.D.), a legal education provides a strong foundation for work in a variety of fields through encouraging writing and critical thinking.

?It?s law graduates who don?t practice law who are often most complimentary about their legal education and the analytic skills they received,? said Judith Areen, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The most forceful argument for reform came from Richard Matasar, dean of the New York Law School, who has argued for years that law schools need to change. (Areen called him the ?Ron Paul of legal education.?) ?If we do not choose to be the agents of our own change, there will be others who are incented to think about making those changes happen,?and they will not be educators,? Matasar?said. [See New York Times, Matasar's response, National Law Journal interview]...

At the other end of the spectrum was the president of the ABA, William Robinson III, who defended American legal education as the finest in the world. ?So many who never went?to law school want to talk about law school as a trade school,? Robinson said. ?It is not. It is a school of higher learning? -- a statement that drew spontaneous applause.

National Law Journal, AALS Hears Words of Caution from Departing Dean:

[F]ormer New York Law School Dean Rick Matasar ...delivered a cautionary speech during the annual meeting of the AALS in Washington on Jan. 5. "We know there are storm clouds on the horizon," Matasar said, as he ruminated about the poor job prospects facing students, the growing debt load of graduates and the possibility that outside regulators will force changes upon law schools. ...

He has long argued that real change would be painful for administrators and professors alike. His views that law schools need the flexibility to take different approaches toward education, such as having faculties that do not enjoy tenure or produce scholarship, have not always been popular. Fellow speaker Judith Areen, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, joked: "There are some who call Rick Matasar the Ron Paul of legal education." ...

In his parting words, Matasar urged legal educators to think about five new approaches:

• Diversifying to find money sources and build services beyond the traditional J.D. program
• Stratifying the marketplace to allow schools serve different functions and fill different niches
• Collaborating across schools to stretch resources by, for example, sharing faculty members
• Enrolling students who lack B.A. degrees, as legal educators in other countries do
• Employing new approaches, such as games and computer applications, that help students learn the law

Matasar's message won high praise from University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Dean Jim Chen. "Once and for all, Rick Matasar, you are my hero," Chen said. "No one wants to pay for something that doesn't pay off."

January 6, 2012 in Legal Education | Permalink

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Comments

First, if law schools were indeed so worthwhile they wouldn't have to publish fraudulent post graduation employment data to attract students. Second, the basic skills required for legal work are learned in 1L and *maybe* the first half of 2L. Period. The rest of 2L and all of 3L are far less useful should be replaced with a medical-school-like residency in a law firm or similar environment.

Posted by: Luke Pingel | Jan 6, 2012 3:36:49 PM

How much actual law practice experience do these law professors have, if you added it all up? Think you could count it on one hand? Well, as they say, there's ur problem!

Posted by: A | Jan 6, 2012 4:37:09 PM

"And some, including the president of the ABA, delivered a full-throated defense of American legal education, which they said may not be perfect but is still valuable."

I don't think anyone is faulting legal education for lack of perfection, just being overpriced and oversold. I don't think the ABA is paying attention.

Posted by: willis | Jan 6, 2012 4:47:13 PM

In the olden days, some (many?) aspiring lawyers would eschew law school altogether and "read the law." Law is just one area in which I'd like to see less institutionalized and more independent study. I imagine law school administrators would not agree.

Posted by: SukieTawdry | Jan 6, 2012 4:47:20 PM

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