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Google Gets Ready to Trash Law School?

Derek Slater, a “public-policy guy” at Google, is circulating a proposal to do away with the current model of law school and replace it with apprenticeships and legal clinics. It gets attention because it comes from Google, not because it’s new. In fact, it’s still legal in a few states to become a lawyer without going to law school. You just need to serve as an apprentice.But then Google reinvents many things that were quite nice before it came along.

A deeper question is why so few take advantage of this mechanism left over from the early days of “Bartleby the Scrivner”? People in NY have had this opportunity for years, yet they continue to fret over the LSAT and pay some bar review class to teach them what they didn’t learn in law school. I’m not sure it’s rational because when I think about it and read Slater’s piece, I think an apprentice is so much better.

It may be that college is like a trip to the spa, a sort of massage therapist for the mind and the ego. Everything is about Me and what Me needs. As Daniel de Vise said of the failure of 3 year undergraduate degrees, “Why rush the best four years of your life.?”

But maybe Google is already trashing law school by making it so easy for people to look up legit information online and find boilerplate documents. Once again, the robots are coming for our jobs.

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  2. Barely 50% of the Law School class of 2010 is practicing law
  3. The University of Chicago spends $85 million for what Google will do for free!
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This entry was written by admin and posted on October 17, 2011 at 11:38 am and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

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4 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. I’d worry what a human resources nightmare apprenticeship would be if not done right. It’s hard enough keeping the workplace appropriate and “non-hostile”. Any boss-worker relationship is hazardous, now pair up folks and make them work cozily… The problems aren’t new, only magnified.

    Also remember that Bartleby (unlike the occupiers – “fleabaggers” as the pejorative) didn’t demand anything. He wouldn’t be helped and ultimately starved to death.

    1. BB on October 17th, 2011 at 3:06 pm

  2. BB is very well read! Red-tape can drive anyone crazy.

    The UK has legal apprenticeships already in place — has for a very long time, actually. This is not a new idea, but a very old one….

    2. Higby on October 18th, 2011 at 1:38 am

  3. Go for it, Guys.

    Law should, at most, be an undergraduate major. But, it could also be taught as a two year program at community colleges, just like respectable trades, such as HVAC installation and repair.

    3. Walter Sobchak on October 18th, 2011 at 3:15 am

  4. Heh. “I prefer not to” became a joke in our English class. I actually had to google to recall how the story ended…

    4. BB on October 18th, 2011 at 11:12 am