Giuliani: Maybe law school should be four years?

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Lots of points made in this short video from Bloomberg Law. I agree completely with his viewpoint about the importance of writing and recommending that people should generally avoid pre-law courses in favor of having a more well-rounded focus in undergrad.

Nevertheless, I think it's a little harder to justify making law school 4 years due to the extra monetary/time costs and the perception of many law school students who felt that their 3rd year was useless (http://www.businessinsider.com/third-year-of-law-school-is-useless-2012-11; http://abovethelaw.com/2013/09/recent-graduates-overwhelmingly-think-their-third-year-was-useless/). It certainly could be the case that these law school students are just simply wrong, but of the many law school teachers, current lawyers, and retired lawyers I've talked to, the vast majority seem to think that law school either is a year too long or 3 years is fine.

Idk though, I haven't been to law school (yet), but I'm interested in what current law school students/law school grads think.

Cant Get Right

I’m going to go with Rudy just because this is the first time any validation has ever been given to my English major, haha. Now if I could only find some use for Latin!

UsernameChange

Every current or retired attorney I've ever spoken to have said law school should be two years and the third year is a joke.

Nanchito-1-1

@UsernameChange why did they say the third year was a joke?

Jonathan Wang

At least at the top schools, nothing relevant happens in your third year because you already have your offer and therefore don't have much incentive to do anything. Really no different than if you get a job or get into law school while in your first semester of your senior year of college, or into college in your last year of high school - 'senioritis' kicks in and you check out.

If law school were four years, it'd be the first three years that were busy and the fourth would be a joke. Unless they change the timing of giving out offers, that won't ever change.

MrSamIam

I concur with the fact that prospective students should focus on becoming well-rounded and great writers. However, adding an additional year means adding an additional $20k-$60k + an additional year worth of living expenses...it just isn't practical. But hey, you know what they say about LS: Year 1 = Scare you to death, year 2 = work you to death, year 3 = bore you to death. So...year 4 = make sure your dead?
Every attorney I've spoken with has said that they got most of what they needed out of LS after 2 years.