Learning from Wall Street: A Venture in Transactional Legal Education

Abstract

The Langdellian model of legal education is widely criticized but very durable. The UB New York City Program in International Finance and Law uses financial market actors, collaborative projects, and immersion in business cultures to teach students how to be transactional and regulatory lawyers in the global financial markets, thereby moving away from the emphasis on appellate cases, doctrine, and litigation that characterizes traditional legal education. This Article describes the UB in NYC program, places the program in the context of past and present efforts to reform legal education, and demonstrates how such programs could be more widely implemented. This Article also argues that such programs can effectively supplement and substantially improve, but cannot replace entirely, the dominant Landellian model of legal education.

Keywords: legal education, transactions, finance, financial law, Langdell, American Legal Realism, legal training, legal culture