No At-Risk Law Student Left Behind: The Convergence of Academic Support Pedagogy and Experiential Education

Abstract

As the economic downturn in America takes its toll on law school applications, analysts predict that law schools will admit candidates with low performance indicators. Reports of decreasing law school entrance exam takers, dwindling applications and even declining credentials of college graduates who take the law school admissions test may signal an increasing number of students who enter the legal academy as “at-risk” learners. These law students will not only swell the rolls of traditional academic support programs, but their academic and professional needs may place them at risk in the legal job market. As underperforming students garner attention from academic support faculty to promote their scholastic success, they are left behind in areas key to their professional success. These vulnerable law students require experiential learning opportunities to meet current demands for “practice-ready” law school graduates who need minimal training. Unfortunately, many law schools exclude underperforming students from legal clinics, and other experiential learning courses, that offer skills training in a legal practice setting. Arguably, academic support students require more skills training courses than their high performing peers whose scholastic achievements enhance their employment prospects.

This Article addresses the anticipated surge of at-risk and underperforming law students who will be ineligible for law school clinics and externship placements. The authors explore the call for law schools to yield more practice-ready law graduates, despite the new reality that many matriculates will likely fall short of academic standards. In particular, the authors discuss the urgency surrounding expanded experiential course offerings in light of two recent proposals to revise law school accreditation standards. To ease this tension, this article proposes a union of experiential learning and academic support that enables law schools to leave no law student behind in practice skills training. The article details how an innovative course, In-House Clinical Externship, represents the intersection of experiential learning and academic support pedagogy to satisfy mounting appeals for curricular reform to produces the next wave of practice-ready law graduates.

Keywords: Experiential education, practical skills training, externships, clinical education, curricular reform, academic support, at-risk law students, underperforming law students, accreditation standards

JEL Classification: K00, K1, K19, K39, K49