‘Best Practices’: What's the Point?

15 Pages Posted: 14 Nov 2009 Last revised: 1 Dec 2009

See all articles by Ira P. Robbins

Ira P. Robbins

American University - Washington College of Law

Abstract

In a separate article - Best Practices on “Best Practices”: Legal Education and Beyond - Professor Robbins formulated a paradigm for “best practices” and applied it to the book, Best Practices for Legal Education. Professor Robbins concluded that the book did not meet any of the criteria necessary to constitute best practices and, further, that using the concept of best practices when thinking and writing about legal education is misleading and inappropriate. The primary author of the book, Roy Stuckey, responded, claiming that “best” can mean something other than best, that the difference really doesn’t matter, and that the debate over the proper use of best practices in legal education is a distraction. This is Professor Robbins’ reply.

Keywords: best practices, benchmarking, minimum standards, baselines, legal education, legal education reform, industry, competitive advantage, administrative regulation, corporate governance, Carnegie Report, MacCrate Report, goals of legal education, case method, clinical legal education, law reform

JEL Classification: D23, D24, D60, D61, D81, E00, H00, I20, I21, K00, K10, K20, K23, K29, L11, L15, L80, M11, O20, O21,

Suggested Citation

Robbins, Ira P., ‘Best Practices’: What's the Point?. Clinical Law Review, Vol. 16, p. 321, 2009, American University, WCL Research Paper No. 09-39, NYLS Clinical Research Institute Paper No. 09/10 #10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1505627

Ira P. Robbins (Contact Author)

American University - Washington College of Law ( email )

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