Discussion (1L): Theories and Critiques of Legal Education

Much of the basic structure of twenty-first-century American legal education was put in place by late nineteenth-century Harvard Law School Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell. This seminar will begin by examining the impetus for and nature of Langdell's reforms then consider various twentieth- and twenty-first-century critiques and modifications of legal education, including Duncan Kennedy's Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy and the work of critical race theorists like Patricia Williams and Lani Guinier. We will conclude by examining the most significant change within law schools over the past century, the rise of clinical legal education, reading parts of the Carnegie Report on Legal Education and Sam Moyn's recent critique of clinical education as well as a range of responses to his piece. Throughout the seminar, we will pay attention to the historical and social contexts out of which proposals for changing legal education arose as well as to how we might assess the contemporary structure of legal education in light of its history. This discussion seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. You will be notified of the meeting times by the instructor. Specific dates, time, and location will also be listed in "Notes" below. Elements used in grading: Attendance and class participation.