Friday, July 11, 2008

Two Year Law School

Northwestern University has announced an optional two-year, rather than the traditional three-year, law school program starting in 2009.

This may be a brilliant appeal to the hidden but sizable masochist market.

Same course work, just compressed; a change that sounds like a formula for increased stress. [And somewhere a plaintiff attorney, sniffing litigation, just moved closer to the computer.]

Northwestern deserves two cheers for trying something new. Some modest suggestions:
  • Keep the three year program but alter the length of the courses so they fit the needs of the subject instead of an arbitrary schedule. That might reduce the formal coursework to two years.
  • Reduce the theory and zoom instead to the material they'll really need.
  • Devote the third year to an apprenticeship program with practicing attorneys.

Perhaps their compression program is a first step in that direction and they have more up their sleeves. This will be an interesting experiment to watch.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"This may be a brilliant appeal to the hidden but sizable masochist market."

LOL! (literally)

Michael Wade said...

Thank you, Toby.

I accept no responsibility, express or implied, for any damage done to coffee misted keyboards.