Cultivating Learners Who Will Invent the Future of Law Practice: Some Thoughts on Educating Entrepreneurial and Innovative Lawyers

Abstract:     
The convergence of technological advances, global competition, and financial pressures facing the legal profession in the twenty-first century demands that we equip our students to be entrepreneurial and innovative in their pursuit of a rewarding and meaningful career in the law. Legal education prides itself in producing members of a learned profession. We face, however, a “time of drastic change” as Eric Hoffer might say where the “learned usually find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” His observation calls us to cultivate “learners” who will invent the future of law practice, to borrow from Alan Kay’s observation that “to predict the future” we must “invent it.” In other words, we need to educate entrepreneurial and innovative lawyers. This essay, drawn from my remarks delivered at the Ohio Northern Law Review’s Symposium on Perspectives and Distinctions on the Future of Legal Education, shares insights on why offering law students opportunities to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation is important.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 8

Keywords: legal education, innovation, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, technology, learning

Accepted Paper Series