Law Schools Fail To Prepare Grads In Fact Analysis

Law schools are turning out students poorly equipped to deal with the practical skills of present day practice, a recent survey of the American Bar Association showed.

According to Lon Fuller, professor of Law and a member of the American Bar Association which made the four year survey, the University has fewer faults than most others.

Fuller said that good case method instruction is on a nation-wide decline. Although the University emphasizes the reading of many appellate cases, "the school has tried to counteract the mistaken impression that all facts are as neat and coherent as in these prepared cases." The teaching fellowship program enables the student to deal with the "raw" facts as they come into the law office.

The survey suggested three solutions to curricular problems: extensive course consolidation and elimination, better utilization of the pre-legal years, and an additional fourth year. The University, according to Fuller, advocates and has already put into effect the first suggestion.

According to the survey, "the lawyer now must be something of an economist, and the better economist he is, the better lawyer he is likely to be." The emphasis at the University is on courses related to economics.