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7 - Developing ‘NextGen’ Lawyers through Project-Based Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2019

By
Anna Carpenter
Edited by
Catrina Denvir
Catrina Denvir
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

Today, technology is driving disruptive change in the legal profession and the public is demanding lawyers offer more value and choice in how legal services are delivered. Given these pressures, tomorrow’s legal profession will be fundamentally different from the profession we know today. Against this backdrop, this chapter argues the next generation of lawyers need at least five categories of multidimensional knowledge and skills: collaboration; design; project management; problem-solving; and lifelong learning. The prevailing, traditional legal education model was not designed to teach these multidimensional skills. This chapter describes some of traditional legal education’s deficiencies, introduces the pedagogy of problem-based learning, and advocates a particular form of this pedagogy: project-based learning that involves real clients or community partners. Through project-based learning – a student-centred, active, and experiential learning model – students learn the fundamentals of law and legal practice while gaining the multidimensional knowledge and skills needed to navigate disruptive change. Project-based learning can prepare law students to actively shape the future of the profession – as opposed to merely reacting to change – by harnessing technology and interdisciplinary insights to improve legal systems and create better legal service models for the public.

Keywords

legal educationdesign thinkingcollaborationproject-based learningproblem-basedlaw schoollaw studentslegal technology
Type
Chapter
Information
Modernising Legal Education , pp. 126 - 146
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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