Modernising Legal Education

Providing diverse perspectives on the skills needed by future lawyers, this collection is a key resource for law students, teachers, regulators, and practitioners. Its insightful examination of educational innovations and learning technologies will also appeal to anyone interested in pedagogy, legal technology, design-thinking, and experiential learning.

Over the last decade, cost pressures, technology, automation, globalisation, de-regulation, and changing client relationships have transformed the practice of law, but legal education has been slow to respond. Deciding what learning objectives a law degree ought to prioritise, and how to best strike the balance between vocational and academic training, are questions of growing importance for students, regulators, educators, and the legal profession. This collection provides a range of perspectives on the suite of skills required by the future lawyer and the various approaches to supporting their acquisition. Contributions report on a variety of curriculum initiatives, including role-play, gamification, virtual reality, project-based learning, design thinking, data analytics, clinical legal education, apprenticeships, experiential learning and regulatory reform, and in doing so, offer a vision of what modern legal education might look like.