Daniel B. Rodriguez: Law Schools and the Changing Environment of the Legal Profession

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Daniel B. Rodriguez, Dean of the Northwestern Law School,for a discussion of the challenges facing law schools in a new economic environment. Tracing his intellectual journey, Dean Rodriguez discusses the changing nature of  federalism and its interface with the law and with politics. He analyzes the job of law school dean describing its different constituencies and how a dean must balance  the concerns of students, alumni, practicing attorneys, the bar associations and state government while meeting the challenges of a new economic environment. What needs to change and what needs to remain the same in the curriculum and in the organization of the law faculty.  He address the particular challenges posed by the perception of the lawyer in American society, meeting the requirements of the legal profession, and addressing the problem posed by students seeing the law as a default career. He concludes with an analysis of the role of the lawyer in the future.