Who Bears the Onus to Train Law Students and New Lawyers?

What this episode covers

A Lawyers Weekly article contained quote after quote of management level lawyers saying, in effect, that it was too expensive and not worth their time to train lawyers. On they went to say, effectively, that young lawyers should be skilling up themselves if they were going to be employable. After hunting to make sure this wasn’t some kind of lousy joke, turns out it was a real article with a real survey, so I thought it was time to deal with it. Here’s the reality – they’re wrong. It is the epitome of selfish laziness for law firms to tell law students to go and skill themselves up, while not taking any responsibility for the process at all. And let’s not forget universities – they have a long (LONG) way to go in terms of their fulfillment of their duties to students. If a law degree was a car, and you paid upwards of $50k for it – you’d take it back as being Not Fit for Purpose. And yet the answer does not lie in pointing fingers. The answer lies in stepping up. Law students need to step up and accept the stark reality that the simple completion of a law degree in no way separates them from the masses. Law firms need to step up and offer up their time, experience and skills to generously train the next generation of lawyers. And universities need to globally get their acts together and start teaching useful, applicable information and skills that young lawyers can take to the market place, rather than their existing focus on Googleable knowledge. Resources and Related Articles: Lawyers Weekly Article – Firms Put Onus On Law Students Transitioning from Student to Lawyer – Writing Style Changes Why University Education is Failing You My About Page Transcript Coming Soon. A Lawyers Weekly article contained quote after quote of management level lawyers saying, in effect, that it was too expensive and not worth their time to train lawyers. On they went to say, effectively, that young lawyers should be skilling up themselves if they were going to be employable. After hunting to make sure this wasn’t some kind of lousy joke, turns out it was a real article with a real survey, so I thought it was time to deal with it. Here’s the reality – they’re wrong. It is the epitome of selfish laziness for law firms to tell law students to go and skill themselves up, while not taking any responsibility for the process at all. And let’s not forget universities – they have a long (LONG) way to go in terms of their fulfillment of their duties to students. If a law degree was a car, and you paid upwards of $50k for it – you’d take it back as being Not Fit for Purpose. And yet the answer does not lie in pointing fingers. The answer lies in stepping up. Law students need to step up and accept the stark reality that the simple completion of a law degree in no way separates them from the masses. Law firms need to step up and offer up their time, experience and skills to generously train the next generation of lawyers. And universities need to globally get their acts together and start teaching useful, applicable information and skills that young lawyers can take to the market place, rather than their existing focus on Googleable knowledge. Resources and Related Articles: Lawyers Weekly Article – Firms Put Onus On Law Students Transitioning from Student to Lawyer – Writing Style Changes Why University Education is Failing You My About Page Transcript Coming Soon.

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