Training the Heads, Hands and Hearts of Tomorrow's Lawyers: A Problem Solving Approach

Authors

Lisa A. Kloppenberg

Abstract

I hope this essay on preparing practice-ready graduates is a useful resource for those considering circular reform or for those in legal education undertaking assessment and strategic planning processes. I begin with four goals: (a) to offer a brief synopsis of the two major critiques of legal education which have influenced deeply recent curricular reforms by many law schools and the challenges facing law schools today; (b) to summarize recently published data from the ABA Curriculum Committee on trends in law school curricula, showing some significant areas of reform in legal education over the past decade, and offering some thoughts on the intersection of this data with problem solving courses and skills; (c) to share a summary of the reforms implemented at the University of Dayton School of Law with our Lawyer as Problem Solver curriculum in the last decade; and (d) to offer some suggestions about curricular reform initiatives today -- in an era of few law students, tighter University and law school budgets, and a challenging employment market for law school graduates.

Recommended Citation

Lisa A. Kloppenberg, Training the Heads, Hands and Hearts of Tomorrow's Lawyers: A Problem Solving Approach , 2013 J. Disp. Resol. (2013)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/jdr/vol2013/iss1/6