Law School Disruption

December 28th, 2012 / By Deborah J. Merritt

Campbell explores two disruptive forces undermining conventional legal education: new educational models (particularly online learning) and the expanding provision of legal services by non-lawyers. On the first, he asks: “What do universities sell for their tuition dollars in a world where world-class instruction is free?” On the second he notes: “Amazon has not succeeded in monopolizing book sales, but it took enough away so that Borders was no longer a profitable business.”

Law professors often scoff at these predictions of disruptive change, but the forces that Campbell describes are real: It is time to pay attention. Campbell offers a useful introduction to the major disruptions threatening legal education. He also offers a short description of his home institution, the innovative Peking University School of Transnational Law. Expect to hear more about a law school that graduates bilingual (English/Mandarin) lawyers ready to counsel clients on both U.S. and Chinese law.