What is the purpose of law school?

Last week, Sherman J. Clark, a law professor at the University of Michigan, published a paper taking on the question many have asked in recent years: what, exactly, is the purpose of law school? With the downturn in applications that we discussed earlier this month, law schools are reconfiguring their objectives, and Clark poses interesting ideas for how legal education can be reshaped.

He argues that a legal education can provide students not only with the tools necessary to enter the legal job market, but also the capacity to handle obstacles in their lives outside of the law. While acknowledging the skepticism his argument spurs with many, Clark's look at the purpose of a legal education may actually shed new light on why pursuing a legal career still yields benefits that reach beyond the degree.

As he says, “if we are to be thoughtful about the impact of law school on the quality of lives, we must be willing to think at least tentatively about what makes for quality in life.”

Even though many may not agree with his argument, it is certainly a conversation worth having.