The UM Law School is in a death spiral; we have plummeted in the law school rankings, falling to 77th while UF is 47 and FSU is 50. This is more than a little embarrassing. And FIU is hot on our tail and at a cheaper price. So the question is, what do we do about it? In my opinion, it is time to question long-held beliefs about legal education. It maybe uncomfortable, but the winds of change are upon us. We either bend and survive or break and die.

My solution is to radically reform the curriculum. I suggest we become the MIT of litigation. After the first year of required courses, we create a program designed to intensely train trial lawyers. Not with the usual clinical courses, or useless apprenticeships, but with rigorous courses, taught by experienced professionals, using mock trials and moot courts, to teach students how to litigate. This will make the UM law degree more valuable in the marketplace. When a law firm needs young litigators, we will be the first place they look.

No other law school does this; it is time for a new brand at UM. We should advertise as the school to learn trials. The vision should be a school go-to for the finest litigation education and experience.

READ BLACK’S ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:

http://www.royblack.com/blog/um-law-school/

By Preston Clark

Roy Black is proposing that UM Law turn itself into a sort of magnet law school for litigation to stop the “death spiral” down the US News rankings. Roy Black is the most famous litigator ever to graduate from UM Law and it makes sense that he would call for a new litigation based curriculum to save the day (hammer; nail). Agree or disagree with his idea, it’s undeniable that UM Law among many other law schools, needs to do some serious soul searching. I’m not an advocate of the magnet school approach for law schools. I do however agree with Black’s underlying thesis that it’s time to rethink long held beliefs about legal education.

The big question for me is whether we are to classify legal education as an intellectual pursuit or a professional endeavor. Law schools need to decide whether they’re preparing students to become Atticus Finch or Roy Black. In my mind, Roy Black pays $50,000 a year for a legal education that prepares him to navigate the courtroom, the boardroom, the balance sheet and the front office. Atticus Finch pays $8,000 a year to become a legal scholar. Not that simple, you say. Why not?

If Atticus Finch goes on to become a world class criminal defense attorney and reality TV star, we wouldn’t be inclined to say he owes his professional success to his legal education– anymore than we’d be inclined to thank Lakeside High School for the accomplishments of Bill Gates. But if the legal institution is to prepare Roy Black, as a businessman, scholar and advocate then certainly the institution could be forgiven for pegging its tuition costs to the direct earning potential of the degree.

Where law schools became so profitable– “cash cows” as Black called them– was existing in the gray area between these two educational philosophies. Because so many Atticus’ went on to become big earners, they could argue that tuition cost should be pegged to the economic potential of the degree. But thanks to a failing economy, what we uncovered was an Atticus education at Roy Black prices. We didn’t prepare Atticus for anything but a highly insulated, lockstep legal career. Atticus’ intellectual pedigree might make him a rich man when times are good– but when times are bad, you better believe Atticus wishes he got more than the letter of the law for $150,000.