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69 Wash. L. Rev. 561 (1994)
Another Postscript to the Growing Disjunction between Legal Education and the Legal Profession

handle is hein.journals/washlr69 and id is 571 raw text is: Copyright 0 1994 by Washington Law Review Association ANOTHER POSTSCRIPT TO THE GROWING DISJUNCTION BETWEEN LEGAL EDUCATION AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION Harry T. Edwards* The Gap Between Legal Education and the Needs of the Profession, the subject of this symposium, is a matter about which I have had much to say over the past two years. In the October 1992 edition of the Michigan Law Review, I expressed my deep concern about the growing disjunction between legal education and the legal profession, in an article with the same title.' My thesis was as follows: I fear that our law schools and law firms are moving in opposite directions. The schools should be training ethical practitioners and producing scholarship that judges, legislators, and practitioners can use. The firms should be ensuring that associates and partners practice law in an ethical manner. But many law schools-especially the so-called elite ones-have abandoned their proper place, by emphasizing abstract theory at the expense of practical scholarship and pedagogy. Many law firms have also abandoned their place, by pursuing profit above all else. While the schools are moving toward pure theory, the firms are moving toward pure commerce, and the middle ground--ethical practice-has been deserted by both.... My view is that if law schools continue to stray from their principal mission of professional scholarship and training, the disjunction between legal education and the legal profession will grow and society will be the worse for it.2 Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; B.S., Cornell (1962); J.D., University of Michigan (1965). Judge Edwards practiced law with Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson in Chicago, Illinois, between 1965 and 1970 and served as a tenured professor of law at Michigan Law School (1970-75, 1977-80) and Harvard Law School (1975-77). Since joining the D.C. Circuit in 1980, he has continued to teach part-time at various law schools, including Pennsylvania, Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, and, most recently, New York University. 1. Harry T. Edwards, The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education and the Legal Profession, 91 Mich. L. Rev. 34 (1992). 2. Id. at34,41.

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