It's Not About Us: Beyond the Job Market Critique of U.S. Law Schools

Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Forthcoming

NYLS Legal Studies Research Paper No. 49

24 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2012 Last revised: 7 Apr 2013

See all articles by Elizabeth Chambliss

Elizabeth Chambliss

University of South Carolina - Joseph F. Rice School of Law

Date Written: December 13, 2012

Abstract

Professor Brian Tamanaha’s recent book, Failing Law Schools, offers a damning critique of U.S. law schools from law students’ economic perspective – especially students at non-elite law schools with diminishing access to corporate law jobs. According to Tamanaha, “the current economic barrier to a legal career is one of the most important social justice issues of our age.” Yet U.S. law schools have bigger problems than the contraction of entry-level hiring by large law firms; and law school faculty, deans, and regulators have duties to other stakeholders, in addition to students. This review criticizes Tamanaha’s analysis, and his prescriptions for reform going forward, as a dangerous diversion from a more ambitious and disruptive critique.

Keywords: law school, legal education, legal profession, stratification, segmentation

Suggested Citation

Chambliss, Elizabeth, It's Not About Us: Beyond the Job Market Critique of U.S. Law Schools (December 13, 2012). Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Forthcoming, NYLS Legal Studies Research Paper No. 49, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2189021

Elizabeth Chambliss (Contact Author)

University of South Carolina - Joseph F. Rice School of Law ( email )

1525 Senate Street
Columbia, SC 29208
United States

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