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Abstract

This Article addresses the urgent need to develop innovative experiential education that takes into account the unique learning needs of both at-risk and underperforming law students.  The authors discuss the anticipated surge of these academically vulnerable law students who are unable to benefit from clinics or externships that law schools offer to higher achieving students.  The authors observe that as the economic downturn in the United States continues to take its toll on law school applications, law schools will admit candidates with lower performance indicators who require more practice-based legal skills training to succeed.  This influx of academically and professionally vulnerable law students creates a conundrum within the legal academy and the practicing bar.  The authors explore the call for law school curricular reform that characterizes the “practice ready” movement and examine proposed revisions to ABA accreditation standards that would mandate experiential courses—despite the reality that many matriculates will earn grades disqualifying them from experiential courses under the current framework.  The authors conclude that these vulnerable law students deserve “equal experiential educational opportunities” with key components of traditional law school academic support pedagogy to become practice ready.

This Article proposes a union of academic support and experiential education to ensure that no at-risk law student will be left behind from the expansion of experiential education.  The Article proposes a simulation course representing the convergence of academic support and experiential education that complies with proposed law school accreditation standards and, further, satisfies appeals to produce a new generation of practice-ready law school graduates.

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