Here’s an interesting tidbit I got from a press release e-mailed to me today:
Stanford Law School today announced the establishment of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession (CLP), a center dedicated to advancing research, teaching, and policy on crucial issues facing the legal profession.
“The last generation has brought profound changes to the legal profession, raising concerns about the culture of legal practice, the effectiveness of bar regulation, the delivery of legal services, particularly to low-income consumers, and the role of lawyers in public policy, public service, and corporate governance,” said Deborah L. Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and CLP’s founding director. “Yet these issues have received far too little focus in academic institutions.”
I hate to be contradictory, but I venture to say that there’s been a fair amount of attention paid to these issues at our four local law schools. Then again, studying those issues in a California setting doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all as I look out the window on yet another icy winter day. Plus, you know, you get one of those neat “Stanford” sweatshirts ….
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Hear hear. Prof. Herbert Kritzer at WMCL founded the “Center for the Empirical Study of Legal Practice” almost two years ago. He’s been publishing scholarly articles on these issues for quite some time. I’m sure, as you say, that the other three schools have something similar.
I guess Minnesota lacks a certain legal panache compared to California. Shame.
Since I am from MN, grad of WMCL, and having practiced law in CA and WA for many years, I’m guessing it was the writer’s unstudied, off-the-cuff perspective perhaps elevated by her weather and Stanford’s rank. I’m thinking she wasn’t comparing Stanford’s effort with anything, let alone WMCL. I can speak with with personal knowledge on one aspect of this discussion though, the weather in CA even in Palo Alto beats the heck out of the weather in MN and WA this time of year! People there don’t borrow with a lot of fine comparisons because its too nice outside. How about a little golf on White Bear Lake? Invite Ms. Rhode out today, let her tour WMCL and then take her out to the links to play a round with Prof. Kritzer. That might enlighten her one way or the other.