A Teaching Roundtable – Building Foundations for Practice in Law School

Lawyers, judges, and clients have been consistent in their call for new lawyers who can hit the ground running. Call it what you like—practice-ready, client-ready, or just plain ready—the charge is clear. But what are the competencies, skills, characteristics, and qualities that new lawyers need to be ready? And how can law schools and employers develop learning outcomes and identify hiring tools to instill the desired competencies, skills, characteristics, and qualities in future lawyers? IAALS created Foundations for Practice to answer those questions.

IAALS surveyed over 24,000 lawyers in all 50 states to identify the blend of legal skills, professional competencies, and—notably—characteristics that new lawyers need for success. The results of the study can be found here.

A collaboration between NALP, SALT, and IAALS, this webinar introduces the Foundations study and leads a discussion on how legal education can use the Foundations study to improve and better prepare students to become successful lawyers. The webinar provides real world examples to inspire and inform others and discusses not only how the Foundations study is already being used in law schools across the country, but also the potential for its use in the future.