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In Brief: The ABA and Law Schools

The ABA establishes comprehensive standards and rules that law schools must follow to obtain & maintain accreditation, for which it is also responsible.

The standards cover various aspects of legal education, including admissions policies, academic programs, faculty qualifications, library and information resources, and student services.

As of February, 2024, there are 196 accredited U.S. law schools.

TBL’s Focus: Standards for Academic Programs

The ABA is helping drive modernization of legal training, in large part, through Chapter 3 of the Standards for Approval of Law Schools - specifically Standards 302 - 304, 306 and 314. It’s worth checking these out - not a long read but too much legalese for this pub!

So, what’s actually being “modernized”?

Easy. Let’s zoom in on 3 key ABA standards & the dates they were implemented:

1. In a shift away from what is taught to what is learned (keep this in mind - can’t stress enough!), no later than the start of the 2019-2020 academic year schools were required to establish clear learning outcomes for coursework.

   —> Section 302(d) requires learning outcomes that demonstrate competency in “Other professional skills needed for competent and ethical participation as a member of the legal profession.” (italics mine)

   As we’ve explored in prior issues, and will continue to do, having clear learning outcomes is an essential element of an effective training program, particularly with the intentionally open-ended category of “other professional skills”

2. Effective in February, 2022, under Section 303(b) schools are required to provide substantial opportunities to students for the development of a professional identity. (italics mine, again)

   Much more on this to come. Suffice to say that maintaining your unique identity as a team member, supervisor, trusted advisor, etc. is critical in the modern workplace

3. Also effective in February, 2022, new Section 303(c) requires schools to educate students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism. (italics mine, again)

   Much more on this to come as well and if it’s not already obvious, eliminating racism or bias, in the legal profession or elsewhere in society, begins with learning to listen, respect, understand and empathize - things that are best learned as early as possible 

Taken together these standards are 3 canaries 🐥🐥🐥, leading us directly to the skills, capabilities and mindsets that are needed in the modern legal practice. (there’s more of course, but this is enough to digest for now)

No, the ABA didn’t pluck these standards out of a hat.

If you know at all how the ABA (and most other regulatory bodies) operates, you know that at least 2 things had to happen for these standards to even make it to draft form. let alone be approved and codified:

• Lots of data, and

• Lots of opportunity for (lots of) debate

In other words, the exact same process that led to the creation of The Whole Lawyer program from IAALS.

See how the connective tissues are revealing themselves?

Next Ish:

With the ABA’s Standards providing a certain gravitas, we’ll return to pedagogy by exploring different ways to develop and articulate learning outcomes.

Trust us: it’s a lot more than just bullet points on what your lecture will cover.

Until next time - thank you for your engagement and support!