So I think part of the problem with 1L year in terms of its value as a preparation for 1L summer jobs is that students end up in such a variety of different types of jobs that it is tough to fully prepare people for all of them. For example, while I definitely feel that thanks to LPW my legal research and memo writing skills are not what they could have been, I'm also in the position of wishing I had had access to better language training while at CLS. Obviously language training is the sort of thing that at law school will always be voluntary because most students probably don't care about it or don't need it, but language classes such as they are at CLS are very thin. I worked at and went to the "French Table" from time to time, and it generally seemed to just be a discussion in French, that while helpful in keeping the rust off, did not teach me much technical legal French vocabulary. Therefore, I was wondering if other people here thought that language classes might be better attended if the law school actually brought in profs/alums/lawyers who practice extensively overseas or with foreign clients and taught classes on "legal French/Spanish/Japanese/etc." Now before people dismiss this as far fetched, think about it this way, the school gets similar people to come in and teach LPW, so I imagine it would be a comparatively easy sell to get similar people to come in and teach languages to a bunch of students who are anxious to learn about technical vocabulary and who have voluntarily signed up for the class. It seems to me that for at least 5 languages (if not more) you could probably find 20 or so students willing to sign up for, say, a 1 credit class that meets once a week that teaches them the fundamental legal jargon of a foreign language. I know for me it certainly would have been a hell of a lot easier if I had known how to explain topics like easements etc in French before I arrived here instead of having to learn them on the fly. What do people think? Also are there any other ideas like this that people have? It just seems to me that the LPW system is definitely broken (and that most people agree about this) so I think it is interesting to try and think of ways to improve it or similar programs that might thrive along side it.

-- AlexLawrence - 16 Jun 2008