The U.S. Law Degree: As immediately useful as “a Ph.d in Poetry”? Bruce Antkowiak, a storied Pennsylvania defense trial lawyer, ex-DOJ section chief and 1977 Harvard Law grad, is now a full-time law professor at Duquesne University. This op-ed piece, “Law Schools Must Reform“, appeared last week in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. Antkowiak’s piece is subtitled: “They need to leave the ivory tower–and teach practical lawyering.” Excerpts:
You would think that law schools would make fundamental changes to their programs in the wake of the job crisis, fearing that law degrees might someday be assessed like a Ph.D. in poetry — soul-satisfying but potentially impractical. A few have responded dramatically, but most have held fast to the traditional law school model or made superficial changes. Why the resistance?
For many law schools, their institutional identity dictates that they be largely disconnected from the practice of law. This is done (I suppose) in the belief that we “in the academy” will thereby establish ourselves as an intellectual elite worthy of praise for the intricacy of our philosophical analysis.
The crisis in the law job market has not occurred because the world has miraculously become such an inherently just place that lawyers are no longer needed. The cries for justice remain as loud as ever. You can hear them no matter how high your ivory tower may rise.
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