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Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD)

Innovative Curriculum

Indiana Law is advancing our focus on cultivating professionals with both practical skills and a deep understanding of their chosen profession.

In spring of 2007, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law. The publication calls for a model of education that integrates thinkers and professionals. Indiana Law’s revolutionary professional skills curriculum melds the theoretical understanding of the Carnegie report and the practical application of the American Bar Association’s professional skills requirements. We are enhancing our curriculum in the following ways:

• With the recent introduction of the first-year course called The Legal Profession, Indiana Law faculty members adopted the most extensive first-year curriculum change in more than 20 years.
• We are one of only 10 U.S. law schools (including Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, and NYU) conducting a yearlong workshop investigating and discussing the Carnegie Report and its implications for the future of legal education.
• Indiana Law is home to the Law Firms Working Group, a joint-initiative with the American Bar Foundation.
• Our 20 clinical opportunities and a new professional skills course requirement ensure hands-on learning in addition to theoretical understanding.

The Difference: A First-Year Foundation

Beginning in the spring of 2008, first-year law students began taking The Legal Profession, an innovative new course on the economics and values of the profession. This course was inspired by the 2007 Carnegie report, one of the most important studies on legal education in decades.

Team-taught by professors and professionals, this 4-credit-hour course immerses students in the true complexities of lawyering, overturning myths and preconceptions.

Professor William Henderson co-authored the textbook for the course. The Legal Profession invites greater understanding of the economic and socio-legal structures of the modern legal profession through in-depth ethnographic studies of—among others—solo and large firm attorneys, in-house counsel, government attorneys, judges, and public interest attorneys. The course also encourages international comparisons and promotes and informs debate about ethical issues.

"This new approach to professional responsibility blends the insights of sociology and economics to shed light on the concrete aspects of being a lawyer,” Henderson says. “With this, all students will have a baseline of sophisticated knowledge as a foundation for upper-level substantive courses.”

As moderator of the Law Firms Working Group, a joint-initiative with the American Bar Foundation, Henderson is also leading researchers from around the country in interdisciplinary studies of the legal profession. Their findings will continually inform this course.

Looking Ahead

With this integrated first-year foundation as a guide, decisions regarding areas of study and career goals become more meaningful. Upper-level courses support a formative education that develops skills alongside traditional scholarship, culminating in a meaningful capstone course.

"Faculty across our curriculum will be brainstorming new ways to build on this first-year shift,” said Indiana Law Professor Joseph Hoffmann. “The end product will be a cohesive, progressive sequence of programs for our students.”