Is the third year of law school necessary or useful? Some critics of U.S. legal education say that, inits present form, third year is neither. These critics cite “graduating students’ academicdisengagement, poor class attendance and astronomical levels of debt.” Alternative suggestions are abolishing thethird year, making the third year optional or creating a curriculum that usesthe third year as a time for clinical or specialized study.
On the other side, it is argued thatshortening legal education to two years “will invalidate the prestige of thedegree and produce attorneys who are not yet ready to practice law.”
[Meredith R. Miller]
