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53 J. Legal Educ. 48 (2003)
Asking the Lost Question: What is the Purpose of Law School

handle is hein.journals/jled53 and id is 58 raw text is: Asking the Lost Question: What Is the Purpose of Law School? Bethany Rubin Henderson Introduction Law students frequently are critical of both what they learn in law school and how they are being taught. One set of common complaints focuses on the lack of diversity in courses offered. For example, students object that the curriculum overemphasizes corporate and private-practice courses to the detriment of courses focusing on crucial social problems. Many students who do not understand why various required courses are mandatory resent being forced into them. Another set of concerns focuses on what occurs in the classroom. Students despair at the lack of faculty guidance on what and how they should be learning. They contend that the classroom enironment dis- courages them from making meaningful intellectual contributions and engag- ing in vital intellectual and political discourse. They yearn for regular, mean- ingful feedback from faculty who are as committed to teaching as they are to research. They also object to the standard grading system, in which a course grade is based solely on a final exam, as arbitrary and at best minimally reflective of students' intellectual and lawering capacities. Yet another fre- quent critique is that the issues addressed and the skills taught in law school are far removed from the everyday problems lawyers encounter. What should be most disturbing to legal educators and the legal profession, however, is the increasingly widespread complaint about the effect of legal education on students' perceptions of the law and its role in society. Students arrive at law school full of excitement about the law's capacity to further social justice. Yet many leave law school disillusioned, perceiving the law as a value- neutral instrument and lawyers as persons who wield that instrument Uithout regard for its impact on society. Students further contend that law schools' institutional and administrative practices, coupled with high tuition, contrib- ute to this perception. For example, a common protest is that law schools herd students into private law firm practice but at best do not effectively assist and at worst impede students' efforts to enter the legal profession in other capacities. Bethany Rubin Henderson is an associate at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. I very much appreciate the guidance and encouragement I received from Lani Guinier and Daniel Coquillette. My heartfelt thanks also to my father, a consummate lawyer and law profes- sor, Michael Rubin, for his support and input. Journal of Legal Education, Volume 53, Number 1 (March 2003)

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