Challenges to Legal Education, Clinical Legal Education, and Clinical Scholarship

Abstract

This essay analyzes the challenges to legal education and what those challenges may mean both to clinical legal education and to clinical scholarship. Since the Great Recession, several law schools have closed, some have merged, and still other law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) have been found out of compliance with ABA Accreditation Standards and either have been directed to take specific remedial action, have been placed on probation, or have lost ABA-approval. While enrollment has rebounded at some law schools, other law schools have continued to experience much smaller entering classes than the entering class in Fall 2010. These developments should be part of the conversation about clinical legal education and clinical scholarship, and this essay examines the effects of the Great Recession on law schools’ budgets, staffing, law school admissions, and overall enrollment. This essay concludes with some observations about the future of clinical legal education and clinical scholarship.

Keywords: legal education, law school, American Bar Association, ABA, enrollment, law school closures, accreditation

JEL Classification: K00, I120, I122, I129