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[quote=Exlawdean][quote=Anonymous]I have a couple of questions:

[i]This is more than a couple of questions. I will answer a few of them. Others can also chime in.[/i]

1. Unauthorized practice of law (UPL) - My understanding is that there is no clear line where practicing law begins and ends outside of litigating in court and providing a legal opinion.  It seems that traditional legal services are under assault by legal tech, the big 4/consultants, and general cost cutting.  For example, shifting previous attorney roles to lesser paid compliance roles; having compliance consultants copy in-house counsel to obtain attorney-client privilege on certain matters; or tax accountants editing formation/merger documents.  Do you see this trend continuing [i] I do see this trend continuing. It has been going on for decades. Big accounting firms have been pushing into tax practice for more than a couple of decades. The high cost of elite lawyers gives clients an incentive to find cheaper ways to get service.[/i] and how do you think it will affect the already saturated legal market?  Should law schools do something either by changing what is taught or better defining the practice of law to protect the value of the JD? [i]Law schools are not in charge of defining the practice of law. If we were in charge we would definitely define it broadly and have large punishments for violating the rules. This issue is, in general, up to state legislatures, often executed through authority delegated to state bar associations. [/i]

2. Legal education - It seems legal education has stagnated for sometime.  What needs to be updates to contend with the current job market and prepare students for the future impacts of things like AI? [i]I guarantee you that the biggest topic in front the faculty and administration at every top 50 law school (and probably the rest, as well) is how to best respond to AI. Every law dean and professor understands that law schools will have to change. But, exactly how to change, and how to effectively manage that change, is completely up for grabs. [/i] Do you think schools can evolve to tackle these issues?  Or will schools fail to evolve like after the introduction of ediscovery (where the big 4 ended up setting up ediscovery groups and the lawyers ended up in doc review)?

3. Cost - It seems to me that making law school a graduate program has allowed schools to exponentially up the cost due to the way loans are distributed (no caps for grad school loans, while undergraduate loans have caps).  Did the institutions you worked at ever siphone money paid by the law students to subsidize other programs or initiatives that would not have a direct or indirect benefit on the law students?  Given that law school admissions generally requires no pre-requisite classwork or specific work experience, it seems there would be a benefit to moving it back to a undergraduate degree to lower costs via the cap on student loans and by not requiring students to pay for a bachelors first.  Where do you stand on maintaining the JD graduate scheme?  If for the status quo, what are the benefits of keeping the JD a graduate degree? [i] Law schools have been graduate schools in the US for much more than a century. I see no move to make the law degree an undergraduate major in this country. FWIW, about 20 years ago Japan transitioned to graduate legal education. See https://jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=home. As to whether some law schools offer programs or initiatives that have little direct effect on most students, I have no doubt that a number of schools do this. Where their funds come from I don't know.[/i]

4. Curves/grading - How accurate do you think schools are at ranking students along the curve?  After discussions with how some of my professors graded work, I was already concerned that there was some margin of error in ranking, but my law school experience led me to believe that it was higher than I imagined (eg, while drinking scotch on a plane). Some schools also have moved to the honors/pass/fail grading system.  Do you think that system better captures students ability/potential?[/quote] [i]As to whether law schools' grades reflect a true ranking of students' performances according to a Platonic ideal of excellence, I don't really know. I do know that there is a very significant, positive correlation between the grades that any given student gets in one class and the grades they get in other classes. Thus, however professors are grading, they all tend to be doing more or less the same thing. This does not mean that every professor will grade every student in exactly the same way that every other professor will grade the students, but the general tendency is undeniable.[/i][/quote]

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