Competence and Confidence

Law school teaches students how think about and dissect cases, research and write, and hone critical skills related to litigation and transactional work. What law school does not ordinarily teach students, however, is how to bill hours, interact with clients, file with the court, and other skills that would improve competence right off the bat. I get this. I think it partly has to do with the time we have in law school. The three years of law school feels long, but it goes by quick, and much of that time has to be devoted to laying foundational skills and taking bar-tested course. It isn't feasible to pack in a lot of more practical-focused courses that act as requirements and tether students to a pre-laid out schedule. But, at the same time, students should leave law school with the confidence that they can competently represent clients as soon as they start working. 

Law schools, including Stetson, do provide lots of more hands on activities to students to help them get more involved in the legal field and get practical experience before entering the field on their own. Advocacy boards, clinics, externships, and experiential credits are all great options that allow students to get experience working with attorneys, judges, and real people. This allows students to apply what they've learned in the classroom in a real setting, which helps promote competence once they're out in the field. 

However, I don't think this is enough to promote the competence and confidence that law students need. Not every student at every law school gets involved in advocacy board, or has the ability to do a clinic or externship. For some, personal lives and jobs hinder that ability and for others, it's a lack of knowing all of the opportunities that are out there to take advantage of. Again, though, the short and quick span of law school leaves lots of things left to be learned in practice. 

Law schools would benefit, though, by incorporating at least one required practical class that teaches the more administrative skills to students. A class like this, for example, is practical and teaches students about many more concepts than just reading, and writing. It goes beyond skills, even, and teaches students to think about how to communicate with clients, set themselves up for success from day one, and organizational skills that they'll need to keep track of all of their tasks come the day they start practicing. If more schools started incorporating more classes like this into a required curriculum, I believe it would not only instill more confidence in students when they enter the field as attorneys, but it would improve their competence by being familiar with common practices.