An Old Model Adapted for a New Era: Preparing Law School Graduates for the Global Legal Profession

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen T Yandle
Keyword(s):  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law School ◽  
New Era ◽  
Law School Graduates

Legal Reform, Law Firms, and Lawyer Stratification in Japan

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayumi Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Law School ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Law School Graduates

AbstractIn many countries, the size of a law firm is closely related to the specializations and incomes of the lawyers it employs, and can be considered an index for disparities among lawyers. Gender and school prestige may affect the size of the first firm that lawyers join. Moreover, since the lawyer population has quadrupled over the last 20 years in Japan, mainly due to judicial reform, I hypothesize that this population increase has changed how gender and school prestige affect the size of the first firm law school graduates decide to join. To test this, I conducted a secondary statistical analysis on the effect of gender and school prestige on the size of the first firm that lawyers joined, using survey data collected by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in 2010. Findings suggest that there were no significant differences in the size of women’s and men’s first employer, but that school prestige was significant. Moreover, the importance of school prestige has increased over the years.

Educational Debt and Law Student Failure to Enter Public Service Careers: Bringing Empirical Data to Bear

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (03) ◽  
pp. 677-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa McGill
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Debt Burden ◽  
Student Failure ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Law School Graduates ◽  
Law Student

It is frequently suggested that law school debt is preventing new law school graduates from entering public service careers. The basis for this contention is largely anecdotal, however. This study puts the presumption to empirical scrutiny. Aggregate data from law schools and individual-level data from law students both point to the same conclusion: law students may indeed be competing in a money chase, but it is not because of their indebtedness. Private firms with prestige and high salaries are appealing to many students regardless of their debt burden. And government and public interest jobs may be in too short supply to meet the demand of non-elite students who are essentially closed out of the high-paying jobs in larger firms. The biggest barrier between these students and public service jobs may be the lack of supply of these jobs, not the lack of demand for them.

Innovation and Disruption: Exploring the Potential of Clinical Legal Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-32
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Noone
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law School ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Government Decision ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Clinical Program ◽  
Real Challenge

It’s a great privilege to deliver this year’s Susan Campbell Oration. I, like many others, had the pleasure of working with Sue on a range of activities. In 2007, Sue conducted a review of the La Trobe Law School Clinical program which was instrumental in helping ensure the program remained an integral aspect of the La Trobe University law course. I hope what I have to say honours Sue’s memory and her contributions to legal education and clinical legal education in particular2.  My focus in this presentation is on how Australian clinical legal education responds to the various innovations and disruptions occurring in the legal arena. The scope and breadth of innovations is mindboggling. There are many predictions about what the future holds for the legal profession, from gloom and doom to utopia, and there is a growing body of literature discussing the implications for the legal profession and legal education. In reality, it is impossible to envisage what the legal world will look like in ten years let alone thirty and that poses a real challenge for those involved in legal education, including clinical legal education. How best to prepare today’s students for the unknown future?  Given that I have no expertise in digital technology and am certainly not a futurologist my comments relate to those areas about which I have some background: access to justice, social security and clinical legal education.  I briefly outline the variety and scope of innovations occurring in the legal world, discuss two related aspects namely access to justice and government decision making, using the example of Robodebt, and then examine the potential for clinical legal education in these disruptive times. I argue that clinical legal education is well placed to take a more central role in Australian law schools and the training of 21st century legal workers. 

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