Do Law Schools Adequately Prepare Students for Practice? Surveys Say . . . No!

Abstract

There has been much concern over declining bar passage rates, focusing attention on whether some schools are admitting students who may not be capable of passing the bar exam and whether a school’s program of legal education adequately prepares its graduates for the exam. But if studies of practicing lawyers and recent law graduates matter, it is clear that law schools are also failing in their primary mission to adequately prepare students for legal practice. This paper examines studies by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and the American Bar Foundation that found law schools do not teach the skills and abilities new lawyers need. It also addresses the results of surveys of lawyers and recent law graduates that echo this criticism of the legal education. While educators worry about bar passage rates, it is time they also addressed legal education’s longstanding failure to meet its duty to adequately prepare their students to be effective, ethical, and responsible members of the legal profession.