Brian Leiter's Law School Reports has a post about ten "transformative" law school deans in the last decade. Wow. Talk about detached from reality. Not one word about Job 1 for a law school: helping law students become successful as lawyers, citizens, community members, leaders, and human beings. And, even more than that, not one word about the absolute disaster law school is personally for a large percentage of law students; that it generates exceptionally high depression, cynicism, out-of-control aggression, hostility, poor sociability, drinking as a coping response and other counter-productive patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. No, it's all about "intellectual identity" and "scholarly profile." Really. I sometimes wonder how many law professors care what's happening to students in their school. Some clearly don't.
Yes, law schools teach law students to "think like lawyers" (a necessary but insufficient part of actually practicing law!)- and that "think like a lawyer" training is devastating to many of those students. Come on deans, focus! We desparately need lawyers who are in touch with their values, engaged, collaborative, able to find emotionally intelligent pathways forward in situations beset by the unique challenges to thriving present in many legal matters. and . Not to mention who can help create legal and regulatory approaches that work better for society. You're really not doing a very good job of that (and that includes you, Tier 1!).
So how about a little evidence you have some clue what is important? If nothing else, you could at least contact Larry Krieger and Ken Sheldon and make sure your school is getting accurate data on what's happening with your students. Or would you rather not know?
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