The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Law School Crisis - A Book Review

Abstract

Brian Z. Tamanaha’s book, Failing Law Schools, asserts and echoes criticisms of U.S. legal education, calling for the end of the required third year and of scholarly model of law teaching. In this book review, Steve Sheppard reads the historical record and statistical data and contends that Tamanaha’s arguments from history and policy fail. Sheppard charges Tamanaha with incomplete historical analysis, which leads to misleading conclusions. Specifically, the article details how Tamanaha’s acontextualism, analytical gaps, trouble with sources, and unsupported rhetoric lead the author to advocate remedies that fail to resolve real problems facing legal education. Sheppard provides data and history that are essential to a more contextual picture. The article concludes by explaining how Tamanaha’s proposals would harm not only law schools but also society at large, among other concerns, by limiting the quality of legal education available to the poor and the quality of the lawyer who would serve the poor and the middle class.

Keywords: Law School, Legal Education, Student Debt, Accreditation, Law Student, ABA Section of Legal Education, Scholarship Model, Scamblog, Critical Law School Studies, Scholarly Negligence, Professional School, Unitary Bar, Third Year, Legal Profession