Professional Linkage Seminar (394-LK-20)
Topic
American Lawyering: Education and Practice
Instructors
Seth Adam Meyer
sam@kellerlenkner.com
Seth A. Meyer, Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University; Partner, Keller Lenkner LLC
• Education: Northwestern University (Legal Studies & Political Science, summa cum laude) WCAS '10; University of Virginia School of Law, J.D. (order of the coif) ‘13.
• Work Experience: litigation partner at Keller Lenkner LLC, litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP 2016-2018; litigation associate at Williams & Connolly LLP 2014-2016; law clerk to the Honorable Richard Suhrheinrich, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 2013-2014.
• Office Hours: By Appointment (at 150 N. Riverside Plz Chicago, IL or 1999 Campus Dr. Evanston, IL)
• E-mail: sam@kellerlenkner.com
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 213: Mon 10:00AM - 12:50PM
Overview of class
Legal St 394-LK-20 "American Lawyering: Education and Practice", Seth Meyer (Spring 2023) Attorneys are central to American life and popular culture, but the profession is undergoing dramatic change. For years, the supply of lawyers has vastly outstripped the demand for legal jobs and the resulting lawyer bubble has grown. Meanwhile, those who land law jobs have different challenges: recent surveys report many attorneys' growing disenchantment with their work and dissatisfaction with their lives. This seminar will examine the profession's multidimensional crisis. What changes occur in attorneys, both individually and systemically, emerging from law schools and finding their roles in the legal realm? Why is working within the most lucrative big firms now regarded by many as the pinnacle of private practice? What other options are available? It will explore life after law school, examining the disparate places law graduates might find themselves. The course invites prospective law students to consider their potential places, as individual lawyers, in what remains a noble profession. It also invites those students in other undergraduate disciplines who may be curious about trajectories open to them in this post-graduate academic and, ultimately, career field.
Registration Requirements
Must be a sophomore of above.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be expected to have context about the legal profession and the place of lawyers in American society. They will be expected to know about the education and training lawyers experience, and about the diverse career paths available to them.
Teaching Method
Seminar
Evaluation Method
The course grade is based on three short papers, reading responses, and class discussion. Because efforts to improve always matter, each paper will carry increasingly greater weight as the quarter progresses: 15% for the first; 25% for the second; 30% for the third. Class discussion will count for 20% of the final grade; here, too, improvement always helps. Each student should arrive at class fully prepared to discuss the assigned readings, videos, and films for the day. To encourage the full preparedness of reading and visual material for each lecture, reading responses will be distributed in class four times throughout the quarter. Students will be asked to write a short reading response (approximately a page) about the assigned material; collectively, these reading responses will constitute the final 10% of the course grade, at 2.5% apiece.
Class Materials (Required)
Steven J. Harper, The Lawyer Bubble - A Profession in Crisis (Basic Books, 2013) Scott Turow, One L (2010 Penguin trade paperback edition)