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#President Obama Backs Two-Year Law Degree - Law Blog

Barack Obama

Associated Press President Barack Obama at the University at Buffalo on Thursday.

President Barack Obama on Friday said he supports the idea of shortening law school to two years, taking sides on one of the most divisive issues confronting the legal education world.

The president floated the idea in an apparently off-the-cuff remark at a town-hall meeting at Binghamton University during an upstate tour to promote education tuition reforms.

The idea of lopping off a year of law school has gained currency with practicing lawyers and some scholars as law schools struggle to convince students that getting a law degree is worth the burden of debt.

“This is probably controversial to say, but what the heck? I’m in my second term, so I can say it,” said Mr. Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School. “I believe, for example, that law schools would probably be wise to think about being two years instead of three years.”

The president added: In the first two years, young people are learning in the classroom. The third year, they d be better off clerking or practicing in a firm even if they weren t getting paid that much.

The accreditation standards of the American Bar Association s section on legal education require law schools to have an academic program that typically lasts three years. The ABA has resisted changing those standards.

Law students who graduated in 2012 entered the job market shouldering an average of $108,293 in law-school tuition debt, owing tens of thousands of dollars more than the median starting private-sector salary, according to U.S. News .

I m grateful to him for wading into this important debate, Daniel B. Rodriguez. dean of Northwestern University School of Law, told Law Blog. We need to take a hard look at how we do business.

Mr. Rodriguez said he doesn t support shortening law school to two years, but has proposed allowing students to take the bar exam a year early, which would allow them to be a lawyer without having a degree.

Barry Currier, managing director of accreditation and legal education at the ABA, said law schools don t have to get rid of the third year to lower prices. He said they could make things cheaper by trimming the cost of each academic credit.  There are a lot of ways to get to a less expensive law degree, he told Law Blog.