The pandemic caused a re-evaluation of many traditional beliefs about work, school, and the need to adapt to an ever-changing environment. It also resurfaced conversations within the legal industry on the best way to train lawyers. In this article, we propose changes we believe will improve legal education and create further opportunities for new lawyers. They include:

• Adapt law school education for a variety of future legal roles
• Create greater law school/practitioner partnerships
• Create an apprentice program to train new law graduates
• Develop higher quality and more readily available continuing legal education

Law schools do not adequately train lawyers for the future

Law students spend three years studying—one year of mandatory foundational courses, followed by two years of electives. An old law school adage explains that in the first year, professors scare you to death, in the second, they work you to death, and, in the third, they bore you to death. The conversation around reforming legal education has continued for years, with some professionals calling for the third year to be more hands-on or replaced with a year-long internship, while others move to nix it completely to limit student debt.