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Today's law school curriculum looks nothing like the one you probably had when you went to law school 10, 20 or 30 years ago, a new survey shows.
Law schools have dramatically increased all aspects of skills instruction–including clinical, simulation and externships–in the wake of a 2004 change in law school accreditation standards requiring that students receive "substantial instruction" in skills generally regarded as necessary for effective and responsible participation in the legal profession, according to the survey, conducted by the curriculum committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
Pro bono service requirements have also increased incrementally, the survey found, with 18 percent of law schools in 2010 requiring an average of 35 hours of pro bono service to graduate, up 10 hours from the average pro bono service requirement in 2002.
Legal research and writing also continues to grow in stature, according to the survey, as law schools have increased the number of units and expanded course coverage to include skills instruction beyond traditional advocacy.
Distance education options are also expanding, although fewer than half of law schools surveyed in 2010 allowed online courses to count towards a JD.
Those are just some of the key findings in the section's first empirical survey of law school curricula since 2002, the results of which were detailed in a presentation Saturday at the ABA Annual Meeting by Southwestern Law School professor Catherine Carpenter, who chairs the section's curriculum committee. Anexecutive summary of the survey results was released last month.
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