Curriculum Change Focuses on the Legal Profession
Contemporary Curriculum
"Indiana Law is developing the new model for legal education. Our students will be better prepared to enter the profession of law."
—Joseph Hoffmann
Interim Executive Associate Dean
Indiana Law faculty recently adopted the most extensive first-year curriculum change in more than 20 years.
Beginning in 2008–09, first-year law students will take The Legal Profession, an innovative new course on the economics and values of the profession—one that responds to the most important study on legal education in decades.
The change came about as a result of the faculty's consideration of a groundbreaking empirical report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, coupled with its examination of the results of Indiana Law's five-year participation in the Law School Survey of Student Engagement.
The Carnegie Foundation's report calls for a model of education that integrates thinkers and professionals. The professionalism focus and professional skills requirement take Carnegie's report and the ABA's professional skills requirements beyond training, melding theoretical understanding with ethical and practical application.
The difference: a first-year foundation
Team-taught by professors and professionals, "The Legal Profession" will immerse students in the true complexities of lawyering, overturning myths and simple preconceptions.
In the 4-credit spring course, students will explore the economic and socio-legal structure and
substance of the modern legal profession through in-depth ethonographic studies of—among others—solo
and large firm practice, in-house counsel, government agencies, judges, and public interest practice.
Professor William Henderson will co-author the text for the course, which will invite greater understanding of the economic and socio-legal structures of the modern legal profession, encourage international comparisons, and promote and inform debate about ethical issues.
"This new approach to professional responsibility blends the insights of sociology and economics to shed light on the concrete aspects of being a lawyer," Henderson said. "With this, all students will have a baseline of sophisticated knowledge as a foundation for upper-level substantive courses."
As moderator of the Law Firms Working Group, a joint-initiative with the American Bar Foundation, Henderson is also leading researchers from around the country in interdisciplinary studies of the legal profession. Their findings will continually inform this course.
Looking ahead
With this integrated first-year foundation as a guide, decisions regarding areas of study and career goals become more meaningful. Upper-level courses support a formative education that develops skills alongside traditional scholarship, culminating in a meaningful capstone course.
"Faculty across our curriculum will be brainstorming new ways to build on this first-year shift," Interim Executive Associate Dean Joseph Hoffmann said. "The end product will be a cohesive, progressive sequence of programs for our students."
Indiana Law's highly successful environmental law program, which culminates with the Conservation Law Clinic or Washington Public Interest Program, can serve as a model as we move to integrate curriculum paths and create more capstone experiences.
This new course is only one engine for change, informing our clinical program and Strategic Plan commitment to the highest standards of the legal profession.