The Role of Legal Education in Shaping the Profession

The theme of the 1988 Annual Conference of the Association of American Law Schools - "The Law School's Opportunity to Shape the Legal Profession: Money, Morals & Social Obligation" - raises enormous issues. I suspect that many law professors might find it easy to dismiss this theme as a trite and overworked cliche, but I think that would be an unfortunate mistake. From my present vantage point in the profession, I fear that legal education is falling short in terms of any meaningful effort to "shape the legal profession." This may explain the choice of the theme for this year.