Legal News

As Students Fret Over Jobs, Law Schools Get Creative

By Ashby Jones

Earlier this week, Northwestern Law dean David Van Zandt sent a memo to students meant to provide some encouragement — and real help — to those graduating 3Ls who’ve either yet to find a job, or who have a job whose start-date has been deferred until late ‘09 or ‘10. The school is offering to these students the ability to extend their university health-care coverage and encouraging them to apply for extended loan forbearance. Click here for a Chicago Tribune article; here for analysis from Above the Law.

Today comes word that another top school, the law school at UCLA, has ginned up a new LL.M. program designed specifically for those students who are either unemployed or have been asked to take a deferral. Reads the presser (link not available):

In response to the changing employment situation for graduates of U.S. law schools, UCLA School of Law announced today that it is reopening its LL.M. program application process for the 2009-10 academic year, and will accept up to 20 additional students who are graduates of U.S. law schools, including deferred hires.

The newly admitted LL.M.s will have the option of participating in the new Transition to Practice program, which will focus on enhancing the practical skills and development of the new lawyer. The program will replicate significant parts of the learning that comes in the first year of practice, but in a controlled learning environment.

According to the release, the “Transition to Practice” program will include part-time externships within corporate legal departments, as well as clinical simulations, in which “students work with real legal problems in a controlled environment that permits reflection and generalization of lessons learned.” The law school expects to work with “leading law firms and corporate legal departments and to draw on the expertise of the Los Angeles legal community.”

LB Readers, any thoughts? We’re of several minds. If the price is right (and we’re not sure what that price is), and if the program is well-designed, it could be a good way to spend a year waiting for the economy to turn, especially if students get the chance to network a little (or a lot) with real life LA lawyers. On the other hand, if the price is wrong, and if the program is largely a hodgepodge of ethics and professional-responsibility courses — an extension of law school, in other words — well, we could think of other ways to kill a year.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 16, 2009 (boomark / email).