In the Third Year, They Bore You

Is the third year of law school necessary or useful?  Some critics of U.S. legal education say that, in its present form, third year is neither.  These critics cite “graduating students’ academic disengagement, poor class attendance and astronomical levels of debt.”  Alternative suggestions are abolishing the third year, making the third year optional or creating a curriculum that uses the third year as a time for clinical or specialized study.

On the other side, it is argued that shortening legal education to two years “will invalidate the prestige of the degree and produce attorneys who are not yet ready to practice law.”

[Meredith R. Miller]