The fish, the pole, or both?: The growing need for the integration of experiential skills across the law school curriculum

• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Nakia C. Davis
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12668

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

The fish, the pole, or both?: The growing need

for the integration of experiential skills across the

law school curriculum

Nakia C. Davis

Albert Turner School of Law, North Carolina

Central University, Durham, North

Carolina, USA

Correspondence

Nakia C. Davis, 640 Nelson Street, Durham,

NC 27707, USA.

Email: ndavis@nccu.edu

Abstract

Author declined to include an abstract.

KEYWORDS

curricula development and evaluation, legal theory, programming

Key points

•Although the ABA must continue to adopt standards that

will ensure students are receiving an education which will

readily prepare them for the legal profession, we as law

professors, must do more without standard directives. We

are ultimately responsible for the historical trajectory of

the advancement of experiential education in law school

curricula and the type of impact it has on the legal profes-

sion. We should make it a priority to find professional and

institutional balances between academic freedom and a

student's expectation and need for a rigorous legal educa-

tion, which includes ongoing practical opportunities.

•The pandemic has exacerbated the need for legal ser-

vices by those who cannot afford them. Continuous

experiential education throughout a law student's tenure

will greatly aid in producing practice-ready attorneys to

address these needs.

•The landscape of those that make up the legal profession

is changing. The “modern”law student is made up of

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12668

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Author. Family Court Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association of Family and Conciliation

Courts.

646 Family Court Rev. 2022;60:646–668.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre

primarily Generation Z and Millennials. These genera-

tions are more socially tolerant and social justice minded

and are pursuing a law degree to advance the causes in

which they believe. As such, they are expecting and

somewhat demanding more experiential education and

practical opportunities as a part of their law school expe-

rience. The adoption of the NextGen Bar Exam is a testa-

ment of the acknowledgement and acceptance of this

changing landscape.

INTRODUCTION

We can all attest to the proverbial wisdom, “give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and

you feed him for a lifetime.”As a clinical professor, it is my opinion that this philosophy is the hallmark of experiential

education.

1

The need for additional integration of experiential skills into doctrinal courses has become more evident

over the last few years. As part of this move to restructure legal education (particularly increasing experiential learn-

ing requirements), we need to ensure that our students are obtaining an education that will adequately prepare them

for the demands of the legal profession. Regardless of the course being taught, law professors must not only empha-

size, but also demonstrate the importance, and ensure the development, of strong analytical skills. This can be

achieved by engaging our students in rigorous thought and practice.

In that regard, this article comes full ci rcle by exploring the history of experient ial education up to its present

day use in classrooms across the legal educati on curriculum. Part I briefly addressesthe history of experiential educa-

tion's shift from utilizing primarily the casebook model of instruction to the integration of ABA standard 303(a)(3),

which incorporated experiential education into law school curricula. This section also discusses how the pandemic

has shown, and will continue to show, the ongoing need for practice-ready attorneys because of an increase in

legal issues that have arisen as a result there of, especially for a growing number of those who cannot afford legal

services. Part II follows with a discussion about the importance of looking at the change that is occurring in the

“modern”law student, made up of primarily Generation Z and Millennials, and the current overwhelming need for

legal services.

In Part III, the article acknowledges ABA Standard 303(a)(3) as a commendable effort to address the increasing

need for experiential learning in legal education. However, it encourages academics to implement more experiential

learning in their classrooms. We must balance a professor's academic freedom with the student's need for a rigorous

legal education, which I contend should include experiential learning. The autonomy granted to a professor to teach

their courses in ways most suited to them can, and must, exist in tandem with the need for practical education. How-

ever, I submit that professors should place greater emphasis on teaching students to be practice-ready attorneys. In

the final part of the article, Part IV, I present my unique perspective and implementation of experiential education

1

See Emily Traylor Vande Lune, Settling for Six: Should the American Bar Association Have Done More to Promote Experiential Learning in Law Schools,

39 J. LEGAL PROF. 305, 306 (2015) (“Experiential learning, defined by the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) as the “‘integrat[ion of] theory and

practice by combining academic inquiry with actual experience,”aims to provide students with stronger lawyering skills, a sense of their professional

identities, and the ability to learn from feedback by placing students in the role of lawyer in supervised, real-world legal situations.”) (citing ROY STUCKEY

ET AL., BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION:AVISION AND AROAD MAP 121 (1st ed. 2007) [hereinafter STUCKNEY] and Karen Tokarz et al., Legal Education at a

Crossroads: Innovation, Integration, and Pluralism Required!,43W

ASH.U.J.L.&POL'Y11,39 (2013)).

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