As the legal academy’s learned society, AALS will engage with the challenges and criticisms facing law schools and legal education.
Questions about the value and future of legal education have repeatedly dominated academic conversations and commanded news headlines in recent years. Recognizing that criticism is not crisis is the first step to engaging productively in these challenges in an effective way. Our schools are not homogenous, and neither will the solutions be, but there are fundamental tensions that all law schools experience and much to be learned from the exchange of strategies and ideas. By looking at the shared challenges facing legal education in an organized and comprehensive manner, we can address the issues that we all encounter as educators and members of the academy such as technology in the classroom, distance education, the expansion of non-JD graduate degrees, access to legal education, diversity in the classroom and faculty, the provision of legal services in a broad way, globalization, the cost of legal education, and many other relevant topics.
As we consider what the future holds for legal education and the academy, this annual meeting will play a crucial role in encouraging active engagement and debate. The annual meeting will provide opportunities to map out effective strategies tailored to the particular needs, resources, and students of different schools. It will also serve as an important step towards engaging with fellow faculty members in shaping legal education and its future leaders.