Civic Education and Interest Group Formation in the American Law School

Abstract

This essay first examines the ways in which the civic education delivered in law school inevitably aligns the interests of the law student with those of the profession. The decision to enter law school is a decision to develop a particular set of professional skills. These skills constitute a nondiversifiable investment in human capital. Thus, law students develop a sizeable vested interest in maintaining the value of the education they receive. As a student progresses through law school and begins her career, this investment not only increases in size, it also becomes more specialized in nature. The student develops fairly generic research and analytic skills early in law school, and more specialized skills later on. Upon graduating, specialization becomes even more pronounced when the student takes a state bar examination, which focuses her practice on a single jurisdiction. Then, while developing her legal practice, the lawyer generally develops extremely specialized legal skills.