A New Day for Legal Education?

In “A Bleak Future for Legal Education?,” Professor Steven D. Smith examines developments in United States law schools over the past century and reaches the glum verdict that “at present, contemplating the future of legal education is more dispiriting than inspiring.” While there is much to admire and agree with in Smith’s trenchant essay, its conclusion is one of excessive melancholy. All around us, or so I will argue in this response to ”A Bleak Future,” are signs that at least some of the problems with legal education that so trouble Professor Smith are becoming less acute, particularly with respect to the assaults on freedom of thought and inquiry that have in recent years so bedeviled academic life. In addition, the classical legal tradition Professor Smith reveres and has made important contributions to over the course of his highly distinguished career appears poised for a resurgence, one that has the potential to restore it to a prominent place in legal study, if not its former preeminence. In short, Professor Smith has more reason for optimism than he lets on.