Reforming Legal Education to Prepare Law Students Optimally for Real-World Practice

This article synthesizes some of the main points of the symposium contributors. They covered a wide range of key issues and thus this symposium provides a good overview of the challenges of and options for legal education reform. Of course, given the vast scope of the problems presented, this symposium issue of the Journal of Dispute Resolution cannot provide an all-encompassing analysis nor a comprehensive set of recommendations for reform. We do, however, hope that it will be a useful contribution to the growing movement and literature designed to improve legal education in the U.S. Part II of this article catalogs a long - and growing - list of difficult pressures that law schools must cope with.

Part III provides an overview of general processes and possible goals that schools might adopt in educational reform efforts. Part IV describes some options for improving practical education of law students. Part V is a conclusion.