The Attorney Marketing Center: Technolawyer’s “SmallLaw Pick of the Week”

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Each week, the editorial staff of SmallLaw, Technolawyer’s email newsletter, sifts through hundreds of articles on the legal Web. From these articles, they select one as their Pick of the Week.

I’m proud to report that my post on “What to give new clients when they sign up,” was chosen Pick of the Week in the September 20, 2011 issue of SmallLaw.

Neil Squillante, publisher of SmallLaw, had this to say about the significance of the award:

Many awards given out these days are meaningless because marketing can play a role in determining who wins. By contrast, those who win our SmallLaw Pick of the Week don’t even know they’re in the running, and could not influence us even they did. It’s a pure editorial award. We think this process makes it meaningful and a true honor.

I am indeed honored to be chosen and proud to share this news with my readers.

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What if you really could learn how to practice law in law school?

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Two law professors have come up with an admittedly radical proposal, designed to help law students learn real world lawyering skills before they graduate: law schools that operate their own law firm.

The idea is akin to what doctors do by working in teaching hospitals. You get hands-on experience working on real cases for real clients, under the supervision of real attorneys. What’s radical about that?

Clearly, law students need the experience of working with real clients, and maybe I’m missing something, but how is this idea better than working as a law clerk while you’re in school? Instead, why not simply mandate so many hours of clerking experience during law school, and possibly after, as a condition precedent to issuing a license?

Everyone knows that law schools do a poor job of preparing graduates for the actual practice of law. I’m willing to hear more about the law school firm idea but right now, I say let law schools teach theory and law firms teach practice.

A comment to the ABA Journal’s post about this story sums it up best: “For 70 years, law schools have “trained” lawyers how to be not ready-for-prime-time. What makes you think THEY know how to practice law. More ivory tower fantasy.”

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

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