David Thomson’s new book about the future of law school is an interesting read. The book is clearly written for his fellow professors, but that did not inhibit my experience at all. Overall it is a relatively quick read. It explores several interesting topics and offers a look at how Thomson has used some of the methods described in the book in his own classes. The goal of this book was:

[To] describe how this profound generational change both should and will transform the face of legal education as we know it today.  It will cover the new ways our students learn, the pedagogical shifts that will occur inside and outside the classroom, a new breed of hybrid textbooks that will appear, and effective new methods of active, interactive and hypertextual learning.  Most important, this book will describe simple ways in which teachers can harness this shift to better prepare law students of today for the practice of law tomorrow.

So, why “Law School 2.0?”  Essentially, Thomson is comparing legal education with the internet in its 1.0 and 2.0 phases.  Law school, he posits, is still essentially in its 1.0 stage.  Information is static, and comes from the professor and goes to the student.  In the future of legal education, Thomson imagines a much more collaborative, online-based legal education.  That system would not be unlike the collaborative version of the internet we work with today.

Thomson does a good job laying out the average complaints of law students, and the barriers preventing change in legal education.  However, the book was hurt by the fact that so few law schools or law professors are utilizing techniques even remotely similar to what Thomson suggests.  For that reason, the examples almost entirely came from Thomson’s own classes.  While these were interesting and insightful, I would love to read a follow-up book that explores other ways professors are using these skills-based and technology driven approaches to legal education.

Overall, I would say the book is definitely worth reading if you are a law professor.  If you are a law student, I would recommend skimming through and maybe making suggestions to your own professors.  Law students will undoubtedly be pretty familiar with the problems facing legal education, so there will not be a need to dwell on that large portion of the book.

In way of response, there is one large aspect of law school that Thomson does not address but which directly relates to the changes he proposes.  Namely, the curve.  Almost every single class I am in uses a curve for grading.  More than a few times, I know students have held back in class or during a study session because they did not want to give another student an edge.  My first year legal writing professor once addressed this problem in class.  He told us:

Nobody in this class is so much smarter than everyone else in the class that their ideas need to be held secret.  You should be learning from each other and with each other.  Look at each other as colleagues, not competitors.

I tend to agree with him.  However, there are always a few times as finals approach that I have to kick the feeling that I’m hurting myself by working with others.  Thomson does not address this facet of law school life and how it would play into his suggested collaborative format for legal education.

How do you think law school can be more collaborative?  Do you use software with your fellow students to collaborate on work?  As a professor do you utilize technology inside or outside the classroom?  Let us know in the comments.

For more information on David Thomson or his book, visit his page here.

Disclaimer: I approached the author of this book, David Thomson, when I read about the book elsewhere.  He sent me a copy of the book to review.

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