When students are only graded on a single essay test subjected to a mandatory curve, then the answer to this question for the majority of students will have to be “no.” I feel that the hard curve creates a strange arms race among law students where the entire student body works harder and harder to achieve no progress that will be observed by employers. No matter how brilliant every student is, the curve ensures that only X number of students will be advertised as such.

This may not have been a problem a decade ago when firms were each selecting 60 or more summer associates giving every student a real opportunity to prove themselves, but that is not the economy we are dealing with today. I feel privileged and lucky to have built the professional contacts that I have, and I know (as I’m sure we all do) dozens of fellow JDs who will make fantastic attorneys but simply have not yet had the right opportunities to prove that.

Sure when advising an individual student, we can tell them to work harder to bring up those grades. But that student cannot improve themselves in that regard without bringing down another. How does such a system reflect professional skills and aptitude?

It is my humble opinion that the law school needs to adapt its approach to give ALL of its students the best chance in today’s tough market. Rather than competing against one-another, we should be working together to prove and improve the true worth of our students to employers. And unfortunately, the opportunities in today’s economy are not “endless.” I have been to dozens of BU networking and professional skills seminars and see the same faces showing up again and again, putting in that effort, and being told only to keep showing up. The reality is that the Opportunities < Candidates.

We need creative solutions to keep up with the changing tide in our profession. Ideas I like include: a pass/fail/honors grading system where "honors" is left to the complete discretion of professors to identify students with strong potential in that subject; and clinic-like courses in 1L year to familiarize all students with basic skills such as filing motions and interacting with clients.

With regard to professional skills, we can safely assume that every law student is capable of learning these tasks, but in today's tough economy, employers are looking for "Yes, I have" rather than "Yes, I can". In the past, the school could assume that a motivated student could find opportunities to learn these skills outside of the classroom. But I have dozens of friends whose experiences belie that conventional wisdom. By not changing our strategy to help those students we reinforce the MISconception of employers that students without those experience have only themselves to blame.

The goal we should work toward is the name BU being the most important and communicative part of our students' resumes, not their grades. We charge our students too much money to have them rely on finding on-the-job training.

Just a thought.

If I open this playlist to study and it turns out I’ve heard the music enough for it to actually become background music, I’m ready for new stuff and I start surfing. Once, though, I had a notable study session to Vince Guaraldi and Bola Sete’s From All Sides followed by an epic Yabby You anthology.

I like music, I like your article as well. It’s very useful.

Thank you