Perspectives: Is a Social Justice Law School Experience Possible?

By Traci Yoder, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Director of Education and Research. 

 “The first thing I lost in law school was the reason that I came.” –Anonymous law student

This quote comes from an essay by Loyola law professor and former National Lawyers Guild President William Quigley in which he describes the difficulties that social justice-oriented students experience when they begin their legal education.  Many law students can recognize this dilemma: They come to law school with the intention of learning the law in order to assist marginalized groups and individuals, change current oppressive political and economic systems, and use legal strategies to advance social justice. However, very quickly they realize that the entire experience of legal education is structured to push them away from these values. The current structure of law school in the United States is much better equipped to produce corporate lawyers than attorneys who want to dedicate themselves to law in the service of the people.

The most common reason cited for this is economic. The average law student graduates with around $140,000 in debt, and law school tuition continues to increase due to the U.S. News rankings-driven “arms race.” In a declining job market, the threat of massive debt is enough to keep many students from pursuing public interest work. Yet rising tuition and debt are not the only factors. In most universities, the culture and pedagogy of legal education emphasize commercial law over public interest fields and the intellectual pressure of law school undermines student’s commitment to their ideals. Students often feel unsupported within the institution, and a subtle pressure to abandon the political and moral values that informed their decision to become social justice lawyers.

Less often discussed—but just as damaging—are the ways that law school environments produce intense anxiety, stress, competition, and isolation among students. Considering the high rates of substance abuse and depression in the legal field, the negative influences of law school need more attention: “Lawyers are among the most depressed and distressed professionals; the law school environment trains students to maintain lives that promote depression and anxiety…Pressures include student debt, fear of rejection, lack of feedback, emphasis put on grades, ineffectiveness of feedback regarding grades and intellectual progress in general, lack of guidance, lack of practical skills, competitive atmosphere, and isolation.” Because of these psychological pressures, many law students end up feeling overwhelmed, alienated, and incapable of maintaining their original plans.

In order to combat these trends, the National Lawyers Guild has created the Radical Law Student Project, a student-led initiative to ensure that law students are able to maintain their ideals despite the many pressures of law school. The idea for this project emerged at the 2012 NLG National Convention in Pasadena, when the Guild’s Student Caucus decided to make it an organizational priority to challenge the status quo of legal education. The result is the Radical Law Student Manual, a collaborative project launched at the start of 2015, and which continues to release a series of articles exploring these issues and offering practical resources for students and faculty.

In the Radical Law Student Manual, members of NLG law school chapters drew on their own expertise and experiences to offer timely analyses and real-life case studies in which students and faculty organized to change specific aspects of law school. For example, law students at UC Davis School of Law wrote a chapter about the reasons why law school tuition has been escalating since the mid-1980s. They also shared their experiences organizing on their campus to push back against another round of tuition increases proposed by the administration, including practical step-by-step instructions and advice for students at other institutions who want to initiate similar campaigns.

In addition to tuition increases, topics covered in the manual include the dominant legal career narrative, the psychological effects of law school, teaching and grading practices, barriers to legal education, law student debt, faculty and curriculum, contemplation and the law, starting and reviving NLG chapters, and advice for life as a new lawyer. Using the manual as an organizing guide, the Guild plans to launch a nationwide campaign to challenge tuition increases and law student debt levels at law school campuses across the country in Fall 2015. For those who want to join us, please take a look at this Guide to Challenging the Law School Tuition Crisis with Information Requests, which outlines ways to start researching how tuition money is being allocated at your law school. After gathering this information about individual institutions, the NLG will be helping students to form alliances within their law schools and with students at other schools to push back against continued increases.

Transforming the practices, pedagogy, and expectations of law school in order to transform the culture of legal education will not be an easy process, but it is not impossible. Remember that you are not alone! The NLG offers a nationwide community of lawyers, law students, legal workers, and scholars who can assist you in changing the conditions at your law school. Our experience comes directly from the research and organizing of law students and faculty, who can support your efforts to make similar changes at your law school. The intention of this project is to offer ways to both cope with the stressful and hierarchical nature of law school as well as to change as many of its deleterious aspects as possible. A radical legal education can help to produce more people’s lawyers, which is the first step to reshaping the legal profession along the lines of social justice.

Traci has written articles and reports on NLG history, mass surveillance, drug policy, legal education, and policing of protests. She also coordinates the NLG Radical Law Student Project and the NLG Faculty Network. To learn more about the NLG’s legal education initiatives, or to join the Guild, please email traci@nlg.org.