Law Students Aren't Practice Ready (And Plans To Do Something About It)

Alli Gerkman, Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System’s (IAALS) initiative Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL), released a video discussing the gap between law students' perception of their practice readiness, compared to practicing lawyers' and law professors' believe that new graduates have sufficient skills to practice law. (Sorry, I won't be at the ETL annual conference this year, Alli!)

This presentation builds on ETL's white paper, "Ahead of the Curve: Turning Law Students into Lawyers," and reactions to it. In particular, Alli addresses the issue that having a client-ready skill set doesn't guarantee a job for entry-level attorneys. Now, ETL is working with bar associations and legal employers to learn more about what skills they're looking for in new attorneys so that law schools design curricula that build those skills. If you're a current law student (or recent graduate) then don't wait; find out now what skills your target employers are looking for so that you can find ways to gain skills, even outside the law school setting.