By
Robert Loerzel
How well do law schools actually prepare students to practice law? That's the big question the American Bar Association asks when it decides whether a law school should be accredited.
That question was also on the mind of Warren D. Wolfson last year, when he became interim dean at DePaul University College of Law.
"I'm not knocking research and theoretical approaches - that's important, too," Wolfson said.
But, he added, "We are a school that helps students get ready to get out there and deal with real life."
To sharpen its focus on that mission, DePaul is launching a mentoring program this fall, pairing law students with practicing lawyers.
The college also sends out students to spend a day shadowing a judge.
It's putting a new emphasis on moot trial competitions.
And DePaul has reorganized its courses in trial advocacy and dispute resolution.
All of these efforts fall under the same umbrella - a new part of the College of Law called the Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution.
"I was able to present it to the incoming students last year, and they really liked it," Wolfson said.
"It was something they could follow and understand. It's not a bunch of courses just thrown all over the place. It's one place, with the goal of training them and getting them ready."
"There's more and more focus on students being prepared to practice in a legal profession that's dramatically changing," said Howard M. Rubin, an associate dean who directs the institute.
"The purpose of the institute is to meet that demand."
The new institute offers classes in two areas of the law. One is litigation skills and trial advocacy. The other is dispute resolution, which includes mediation, negotiations and arbitration.
"They're distinct, but really they're part of the same process," Rubin said.
"I really think it was important to put them together," Wolfson said. "It's a lawyer's duty to prepare for both. You should be prepared to mediate. You should be prepared to arbitrate, if necessary - and then, of course, if that doesn't work, to go to court and file a lawsuit. But I don't think you can really be a competent lawyer, doing one and not the other. That's the message I wanted to send here."
DePaul already had a Center for Dispute Resolution, directed by associate professor Katheryn M. Dutenhaver, who has taught mediation and dispute resolution courses for two decades.
Now, the law school's organizational chart includes the Center for Dispute Resolution inside the new institute.
Two DePaul students, both entering their third year of law school, say they were barely aware of the new Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. However, they did take part in the institute's "shadow a judge" program.
"Of the experiences I've had so far in law school, it was the most hands-on," said Cynthia Muehling.
"Any time you get students into a courthouse experience like this - actually get them into those buildings and seeing the inner workings of it - it's a fabulous experience and wonderful, practical training."
Muehling and nine other students went to the Cook County Circuit Court branch in Skokie and spent the day watching judges at work.
Some of them, including Muehling and Mary Jane Adkins, were allowed to tag along with a public defender who was interviewing clients in the courthouse lock-up.
"I don't think I would have been able to get that exposure any other way," Adkins said. "The attorneys were engaging with us. We got a really good feel for how litigation happens."
"We got to sit in on an excellent conference involving a judge, a public defender, a prosecutor and a defendant," Muehling said. "And we actually got to sit in on the conference where the judge evaluates the case and basically tells the defendant whether or not they're getting a good plea deal. That's a unique experience that a lot of attorneys don't get."
Wolfson, a retired judge, said he wants to expand DePaul's judge-shadowing program. "We've done it on a limited basis so far," he said. "The students love it."
This past spring, the new institute's field placement program landed 83 students in externships.
"There is real-world legal experience," Rubin said.
"We added private firms to the mix . so students have an idea of what it's like to practice in a corporate setting. Students can go out and earn credit, working in private firms, as well as not-for-profit, corporate, government and judicial externships."
Starting this fall, DePaul's institute will also offer a mentoring program.
"The idea is: Get the student out there with someone who cares, who's talking to that student about what it's like to practice law," Rubin said.
"It would include job shadowing, attending court with the attorney, maybe administrative work, doing depositions . and having someone who is talking to you, who is an experienced practitioner, about the practice of law."
Wolfson said these activities will help DePaul law students as they graduate and enter a difficult job market.
"I think it's very valuable to present graduates who have had practical experience," he said.
"It's something that will help them function in the practice when they get out."
The courses that DePaul offers as part of the Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution include trial advocacy, pre-trial criminal, pre-trial civil, litigation technology and forensic evidence, as well as classes on mediation, negotiations and arbitration.
"We have added electronic discovery," Rubin said.
"We've added [a] litigation lab within the last two years, which is a whole new way of preparing students. Attorneys bring in actual cases they're preparing and have the students work on those cases to identify themes."
Two attorneys from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom teach a transactional-law class within the institute called "Anatomy of a Deal."
Rubin said the class helps students answer questions such as: "How do you close a deal? How do you take a deal from the beginning to the closing in a law-firm setting?"
Wolfson was an adjunct faculty member at Chicago-Kent College of Law for 28 years before he came to DePaul (where he is serving as dean for two years, until a permanent replacement takes over).
The institute Wolfson started at DePaul is similar to a plan he suggested many times at Chicago-Kent.
At DePaul, Wolfson realized he could finally do what he'd wanted to do all those years at Chicago-Kent.
"I said, 'Wait a minute. I don't have to ask the dean. I am the dean,'" he said.
Even though Muehling and Adkins didn't know all the details of DePaul's new institute, they agreed with the college's efforts to stress the practical side of legal education.
"I've been taking a lot of classes with adjunct professors who actually work in Chicago," Adkins said.
"I'm in a criminal procedure class taught by an assistant U.S. attorney. . Everything I know thus far about being an attorney has been practical experience. I think that's probably DePaul's biggest strength."
Muehling, who has worked for 10 years as a paralegal at a Chicago law firm, said she has encountered many inexperienced lawyers who were just out of law school.
"It never fails to amaze me," she said. "They really don't even have a clue that they have to file an appearance in a case or where to file their appearance or anything like that."
Muehling hopes she'll be better prepared to practice law when she gets her degree from DePaul.
And she said she's glad to hear that DePaul emphasizes that objective with its Institute for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution.
"If that's what the goal is, then I think it's a worthy and wonderful goal," Muehling said.