If BigLaw is Changed, What About Law School?

from Law School Headlines by admin

To the degree we’ve talked about the effect of the recession’s impact on law schools, the discussion has focused mostly on the fact that applications at many schools are up. To many, even if the legal industry is suffering alongside many others, the let’s-go-back-to-school strategy represents a risk worth taking: Three years down the line — who knows? — maybe everything will look the way it did in 2007.

But until now, we haven’t read a piece that takes a harder look at what might become of the legal academy if BigLaw undergoes dramatic and permanent changes, as many suspect it might. Earlier this week, however, over at the Conglomerate blog, University of New Mexico law professor Erik Gerding offered up a little “what if?” piece, in which he hypothesized about potential changes to the law-school world if and when law-firm hiring practices prove inexorably changed.

[Wall Street Journal]