Comprehensive history of American legal education. Originally published: Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, [1983]. xvi, 334 pp. Law School: Legal Education in America from the 1850s to the 1980s examines legal education and its impact on the legal profession and the society it serves. This highly lauded work won a Certificate of Merit from the American Bar Association upon its original publication. Stevens' distinguished career in education and law includes his eight years as Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, seventeen-year term as professor of law at Yale University and nine-year term as president of Haverford College. Well-annotated and indexed, with a thorough bibliography. "the most comprehensive treatment of the subject." --LAWRENCE M. FRIEDMAN A History of American Law, Third Edition (2005) 589

The 19th century saw dramatic changes in the legal education system in the United States. Before the Civil War, lawyers learned their trade primarily through apprenticeship and self-directed study. By the end of the 19th century, the modern legal education system which was developed primarily by Dean Christopher Langdell at Harvard was in place: a bachelor's degree was required for admission to the new model law school, and a law degree was promoted as the best preparation for admission to the bar. William P. LaPiana provides an in-depth study of the intellectual history of the transformation of American legal education during this period. In the process, he offers a revisionist portrait of Langdell, the Dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1900, and the earliest proponent for the modern method of legal education, as well as portraying for the first time the opposition to the changes at Harvard.

An invaluable and fascinating resource, this carefully edited anthology presents recent writings by leading legal historians, many commissioned for this book, along with a wealth of related primary sources by John Adams, James Barr Ames, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher C. Langdell, Karl N. Llewellyn, Roscoe Pound, Tapping Reeve, Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Story, John Henry Wigmore and other distinguished contributors to American law. It is divided into nine sections: Teaching Books and Methods in the Lecture Hall, Examinations and Evaluations, Skills Courses, Students, Faculty, Scholarship, Deans and Administration, Accreditation and Association, and Technology and the Future. Contributors to this volume include Morris Cohen, Daniel R. Coquillette, Michael Hoeflich, John H. Langbein, William P. LaPiana and Fred R. Shapiro. Steve Sheppard is the William Enfield Professor of Law, University of Arkansas School of Law.

Clinical legal education has revolutionized legal education, from its deepest origins in the nineteenth century to its now-global reach.

Harno, Albert J. Legal Education in the U.S.: A Report Prepared for the Survey of the Legal Profession. San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney Company, 1953. v, 211 pp. Reprint available August 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-441-X. Cloth. $70. * This concise yet detailed survey offers an excellent introduction to the history of American legal education from the colonial era to the 1950s. Its evolutionary perspective derives from one telling insight: "A social consciousness of the significance of law to a people is an attribute of a ripening civilization" (18). In succeeding chapters, Harno examines "Our English Heritage," "The Formative Period of American Legal Education," "Early American Law Schools and the Laissez Faire Period," "The Case Method," "Impact of Professional Organizations, Criticisms of Modern Legal Education," and "Legal Education-A Present Appraisement."

This well-known 'underground' classic critique of legal education is available for the first time in book form. This edition contains commentary by leading legal educations.

The trouble with law schools -- The problem with legal history -- Subversive legal history -- The F in feminist legal history -- The perils of periodisation -- Counterfactual legal history -- The parallel world of legal geography -- We are all legal historians now.