Book dossier

Educating lawyers

by William M. Sullivan, Anne Colby, Judith Welch Wegner

"The challenge of professional preparation for the law is to link the interests of educators with the needs of lawyers and the members of the public the profession is pledged to serve - in other words, participating in civic professionalism. Educating Lawyers examines how well law schools meet the challenge of linking these interests. The book is based on extensive field research at a wide variety of law schools in the United States and Canada that involved observations and interviews with faculty, students, and administrators. The book presents a richly detailed picture of how law school goes about its great work of transforming students into professionals and probes the gaps and the unintended consequences of key aspects of the law school experience. Educating Lawyers provides an opportunity to rethink "chinking like a lawyer" - the paramount educational construct currently employed, which affords students powerful intellectual tools while also shaping education and professional practice in subsequent years in significant, yet often unrecognized, ways." "Educating Lawyers offers an important and timely set of recommendations for improving the professional education of lawyers that will help to transform how lawyers are being prepared, practically and ethically, to play a vital and beneficial role, both professionally and in their communities."--BOOK JACKET.