David I.C. Thomson writes about how now is the time to reform for those millennial students and their tech-savvy ways in “Law School 2.0: Legal Education for A Digital Age.”
The LP professor and director of the Lawyering Process Program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law explains, in a matter-of-fact way, “Legal education is at a crossroads. As today’s media-saturated students enter law school, they find themselves thrust into old style lecture-oriented, casebook modes of instruction, much of which is over 100 years old.”
With the past and recent reports from The Carnegie Foundation, it comes as no surprise that most of legal education needs to “catch up” with the future. Whether it’s through in-class curriculum or the law school functionality as a whole, Thomson’s book puts the reader in the shoes of “today’s” and “tomorrow’s” law student. He also gives very clear and detailed examples as to how technology can be a great benefit and learning tool for law students.
Some law schools have been on the bandwagon — if that’s what you want to call it — for years. Others, are just realizing and incorporating changes. And all have had the questions and the fears. Thomson addresses those in the book and offers up his advice:
“It is about adding new skills to those we already have so that we may connect better with out students, and teach them things they will need to know for the changing law practice of the future.”
Well said Thomson, well said.
By Michelle Weyenberg, associate managing editor for The National Jurist
