Friday, January 6, 2006

Malaise and Third Year of Law School

According to a new study by Indiana University at Bloomington's Center for Postsecondary Research, third-year law students come to class less prepared, are less likely to discuss legal issues outside the classroom, and work less hard generally than their first-and second-year counterparts (Paula Wasley, "Law Students Slack off in their Third Year," Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 4, 2006--subscription only). The authors complied feedback from 28,000 law students about their law-school experiences; their participation in co-curricular activities, like pro-bono service or work on a law journal; their professional goals; and their levels of satisfaction with their programs of study. The actual study is available here.

So why is third year of law school an apathetic period for many law students? Are they simply burnt out? Do they find law school to be a year too long? Do they no longer care because they have jobs? Do they no longer care because they are consumed with getting a job? Do they no longer feel that they can significantly alter their GPA? Are they worried about looming debt payments? Are they dissatisfied with course offerings, and wish there were more courses that pertained to their interests?

Personally, I think wide-spread apathy is a sign that fault should lie more with the schools than the students. One possible change might be to place greater value on student course interests. Just take sports law, a course that I suspect many law students very much want to take, and one that I was fortunate to have taken (twice, actually, once with Paul Weiler and the other time with Donald Dell). Many law schools do not offer sports law or offer it only infrequently. I'm sure there are other would-be popular course offerings that seldom exist, like "film and the law" or "media and the law" or "age and the law" (I would at least find those to be interesting courses).

Why do you think third-year law students become so indifferent toward law school, and what can be done about it?

Update 6:00 PM: Would a fourth-year of a law school cure the third-year malaise? Professor Gregory Bowman thinks so.

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