Skills Labs: Where Professors, Practitioners Meet
by
Kay Lundwall

Five years ago an ABA task force on legal education and professional competence concluded that law schools and bar programs often fail to provide practical training for beginning lawyers. The report issued by the task force (MacCrate Report) urged both law schools and the practicing bar to work jointly toward improving the skills training of young lawyers. With the assistance of a FIPSE grant from the United States Department of Education, Gonzaga Law School has put the principles of the MacCrate Report into action. Our program is easy to implement, cost-effective, and popular with both students and faculty.

What we did: In our program law faculty and practicing attorneys who are experts in a particular field jointly plan a one-credit skills lab that is taught in conjunction with a doctrinal course. For example, I teach a course in wills and trusts. My practitioner/partner and I decided that our skills lab would require the students to work on three different problems during the semester.

In the first problem, students interview clients and prepare all necessary papers to probate the estate of a person who dies without a will. The second problem is an interviewing and drafting problem involving preparing a will and trust for a couple with minor children. In the third problem, students explore ways to settle a will contest involving allegations of undue influence. In this way, students gain valuable experience in three aspects of a probate attorney's practice: the attorney as counselor and adviser who helps clients plan and draft wills and trusts, the attorney as procedural specialist who assists clients deal with court, and the negotiator/litigator who helps clients resolve conflicts with others. This lab focuses on interviewing, counseling, and drafting, but the skills are taught in the context of a real-life probate practice.

My partner and I worked closely to plan the skills we wanted to emphasize, the assignments students would complete, and the ways we would assess student progress. We also structured the labs so that assignments would build on the content offered in the large doctrinal course. My partner was given adjunct status and actually taught the lab. I sat in and was impressed. In addition to emphasizing essential skills, the lab format promoted active learning. Students applied theories learned in my class to identify problems, suggest solutions, and set goals. In addition, my partner served as a powerful model of a compassionate, ethical, and tough-minded professional.

Last year, Gonzaga also offered skills labs in Family Law, Professional Responsibility, and Environmental Law. This year we are planning additional labs for Taxation, Business Associations, and Creditors' Rights.

How we did it: First, all skills labs are electives. We realize students take courses for a variety of reasons. For example, some take my wills and trusts course to gain enough theoretical knowledge to pass a bar exam. Others may be motivated to take the course for personal reasons (i.e., family currently involved in a probate matter), while others may plan to make estate planning their life's work. We believe students are in the best position to decide if a skills lab would benefit them. Second, each skills lab is limited to 16 students. We want to make sure students get individual attention from the instructor. Finally, our skills labs are all graded pass/fail. We wanted the students and the instructor to focus on practice and improvement rather than grades.

Why you might want to do it, too: We think the skills labs make a lot of sense both from the student's and the institution's perspectives. Student response to the skills labs has been very positive. Students uniformly report increased competence in skills areas and increased confidence in their ability to handle legal work. They appreciate the practical advice and "modeling" done by the practicing attorneys. They overwhelmingly endorse the skills lab concept and call for more labs in future semesters.

Skills labs also work well from an institutional viewpoint. Besides being easy to implement, labs require no major changes in the existing curriculum or structure of the academic program. They are proposed, planned, and approved like any other new course. In addition, our eight labs provide an opportunity for over 100 students to practice legal skills under the close scrutiny of attorney/experts at a very modest cost. Labs improve students' substantive knowledge by creating an active learning environment that emphasizes student-centered activities. Finally, labs bring the students into close contact with ethical, competent attorneys who model professionalism.

Conclusion: Gonzaga Law School's skills labs are an excellent way to meet the goals set forth in the MacCrate Report. They provide a cost-effective way to make skills training broadly available. They recognize the need for academics and practitioners to work together to improve legal competence, and, best of all, the students and teachers think they are a lot of fun!