History of Law Schools

In 2011, several law schools were sued for fraud and misleading investment statistics. Most of these actions were dismissed on the merits. [65] [66] [67] [68] California is also the first state to allow distance legal education graduates (online and correspondence) to take their bar exam. However, online and distance law schools are generally not accredited by the ABA or state bar examiners, and their graduates` eligibility to take the bar exam may vary from state to state. Even in California, for example, the state bar considers some online schools to be « registered, » meaning its graduates can take the bar exam, but also specifically states that the « Bar Examiners Committee does not approve or accredit distance education schools. » [17] Kentucky goes further by explicitly excluding correspondence school graduates from admission to the bar. This applies even if the graduate has been admitted to another jurisdiction. [18] It is not clear whether attendance at an advanced law school increases the income of law graduates more than attendance at a lower law school. The increase in earnings and improved grades of graduate from higher law schools may be attributable to the greater earning potential of these students compared to lower-ranking law school graduates prior to law school – higher standardized test scores and bachelor`s degree CGPA, wealthier families and friends, etc. One study suggests that after examining students` incoming transcripts, income and employment outcomes are better in lower-ranking CAA-approved law schools than in higher-ranked law schools – that is, lower-ranked law schools can do more to improve outcomes than higher-ranked schools. [75] The conditions of admission have, by their very nature, homogenized legal training. [268] Compulsory subjects left little room for innovation.

Instead, compulsory subjects have forced most law schools to teach purely professional skills. [269] In Australia, the subjects of Priestley-Eleven contained only one subject of the « liberal arts, » legal ethics. [270] The rest was largely black letters, including: tort, contract, evidence, equity, property law, criminal law, corporate law, constitutional law, civil and penal procedure, and so on. [271] « Black letters » units like these tended to be taught on the method of the case, with a strict focus on learning and applying the law, without contextual and theoretical knowledge. [272] [79] David M. Douglas, « Jefferson`s Vision Fulfilled, » William & Mary Alumni Magazine (2010) <law.wm.edu/about/ourhistory/index.php>; Robert Lefcourt, "Democratic Influences on Legal Education from Colonial Times to the Civil War" (1983) Doctoral Certificate, The Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, page 142. The predominance of the professional philosophy of law is due in large part to the formalization of legal education over the past two hundred years; the addition of rules and regulations for teaching and learning, the creation of admission requirements, examinations, grades, characteristics of graduates, university procedures, etc. The large number of these systems has entrenched existing educational methods and paralysed the reform of legal education. The more formal the program became, the more rigid it became, and the more immune it became to experimentation and innovation. The early experimental nature of early law schools and even earlier apprenticeship training were quickly lost over time due to the consolidation of accreditation methods, the creation of core units of study and mandatory disciplinary requirements, and finally the predominance of the case teaching method. Adelaide Law School is characterized by a model of legal education based on the "Oxford tutorial", where students write essays that are read aloud in class and criticized by other students and professors.

[214] A founding professor of Adelaide Law, F.W. Pennefather, believed that « the study of law should include the study of ethics, history, politics, and economics, all of which are involved in the full understanding and scientific development of legal systems. » [215] As such, the original course of law included jurisprudence and Roman law with a heavy historical element. [216] However, this was not to last. In 1896 Pennefather had to retire due to illness, and the law school focused more on the professions – it took on a « very practical character » that corresponded to the wishes of the profession. [217] Non-CBA-accredited law schools have much lower transition rates than CAA-accredited law schools,[16] and do not report or publish employment outcome data at the ABA. One of the central questions of the CLS movement in the 1980s was: « How is it that those who are systematically disadvantaged by the existing legal system can accept the legitimacy of institutions? who perpetuate their subordination? [247] Kennedy answers this question very simply. Disadvantaged people accept the existing order because they are taught to do so: through appeals to authority, circular logic, and the prevailing notion that the law is not at all political and does not serve one group over another. In contrast, Kennedy argues that law schools admit that this is not the case, that they are in fact political, and that they propagate a hierarchy of social values through their content and teaching methods.

They were widely celebrated then and are widely respected today; They also trained the basic teaching materials of the first American law schools. [55] For years, law schools have been seen as a kind of standard career solution for young talent. Becoming a lawyer traditionally means strong job prospects as well as a possible path to a career in politics or business.