At Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business, Christopher Gallagher suggests that law schools add practical technology courses to their curriculums:

 . . . Just as the [legal] industry has changed, so must the education process. With law school no longer guaranteeing a six-figure income and the cost of education continuing to rise, schools are now competing for students with many looking at ways to help their graduates differentiate themselves from the mass of attorneys being churned out each year, and technology is a way to achieve that. What may be surprising is that only a handful of schools across the country are teaching students technology subjects that have real world applications. Enter “21st Century Lawyering”, “Technology and the Law”, or simply “eDiscovery” classes.

In an ideal setting, these classes will prepare students for specialty careers within a law firm, corporation, or more recently, lucrative careers just outside the areas of traditional practice inside of service providers — a more practical approach at law than taken in the past. Classes that follow the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) beginning with Information Governance would give students real world understanding of the flow of data. Corporations are working harder than ever to balance legal and regulatory obligations with business efficiency and a goal of reducing the cost of electronically stored information (ESI), limiting liability, and increasing process efficiency.

Much like the world around us, evolution and innovation are needed to move forward. eDiscovery and technology based learning is the best way to move past book theory and into applicable skills. These usable skills will ensure that recent law school graduates will be an immediate value to their clients, saving them both time and money.  As law firms and the legal community work to find the ‘new normal,’ it’s important to not forget the value of working hands inside a safe environment. If we want the next generation of lawyers – large and small firm practitioners alike — to succeed, we must give them the tools to learn and evolve.