Study: New Lawyer Skills Are Lacking
"Study: New Lawyer Skills Are Lacking"
A study by Berkman Fellow (Harvard Law School), Gene Koo, in partnership with LexisNexis, finds that most new lawyers lack critical practice skills, including adequate legal research skills. The study targeted a broad range of necessary skills. This summary, however, focuses on shortcomings in research skills.
New lawyers lack critical evaluation skills. "One law firm partner, for example, complained that his newer associates regularly grab data from the Web without checking their provenance and accuracy." While this short-coming is cited in the context of online legal research, one wonders if it is then possible to possess the skill when reading print materials.
RELATED: Law Librarians Debate Student Research Skills
CCH Law Student eMonthly, October 2006
("As a law student, you may not be aware you and your classmates are the subject of an on-going debate between Canadian law firm and law school librarians. Many librarians in firms assert that the law schools are not doing enough to give all students a solid grounding in legal research. Students who come out of law school with excellent research skills have more often than not honed these skills either while taking elective advanced legal research courses, or through practical experience outside the classroom. We see that some students are missing this component, however, whether it is inadvertent or by choice. Law school librarians sympathize and try to do more, but often feel the problem is too large to be resolved without significant changes to the law program itself. While both sides have thus far remained amicable, a solution has yet to be found.")
RELATED: Quality Legal Writing Instruction and ABA Accreditation Standard 405
Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, 21 January 2000
("Studies that explore outcomes assessment show that legal education is failing in the field of Legal Writing. As an academic discipline, Legal Writing has developed the ability to teach students how to express themselves well in writing and how to use the writing process as a tool for thinking. But many law schools treat this field and the faculty who specialize in it in ways that damage teaching and learning." This report also discusses inadequacies in legal research training.)"
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 30 March 2007, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=mar07/30mar07.xml