Four different groups of respondents completed a set of simulation exercises intended to reflect lawyering skills involved in client interviews. Results suggest the appropriateness of simulation exercises as measures of clinical skills in legal education and the effectiveness of clinical programs in promoting development of such skills in law…

Noting the increasing role of economics in the law, many law schools have introduced formal economics instruction into their curricula. Several of the controversies surrounding liberal arts courses taught in law schools are examined. Prior formal coursework in the subject appeared to have no relationship to course performance. (MLW)

Judges were surveyed for their views on their law clerks' responsibility for confidentiality. Background is outlined, results are presented, and guidelines for law clerk conduct are suggested. The questionnaire is appended. Available from: Executive Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 3400 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, $6.50.…

A preliminary classification of methods used during first-year law courses to develop a sense of professional identification among students is presented. Professors' images of lawyers conveyed to students are described based on faculty comments. In addition, informal student interviews were conducted to determine their awareness of this…

An exploratory study suggests that legal and medical training can have a negative impact on marriage: role behaviors learned during professional socialization and transferred to the spouse role are not conducive to a satisfying marital relationship, and student and spouse roles compete for time and personal commitment. (MSE)

Two studies of law students' attitudes and characteristics reveal some aspects of how the curriculum relates to their moral development, professional and general. It is suggested that law schools should focus on the development of role-taking skills and investigate the sequencing of courses. (MSE)

The validity of the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Verbal and Math scores as predictors of college freshmen's grade point average was examined on a sample of college freshmen and then cross-validated on a separate sample of freshmen law and justice students. Correlations were low to moderate. (JKS)

The early development of university legal education in England, the United States, and Germany is examined. Focus is on: (1) the different historical and social processes that have brought law and higher education together and (2) examination of a more general, comparative nature about the institutional transformation of legal education in these…

A study of the distress experienced by male and female law students in all three years of law school, as measured by a validated psychiatric symptom survey insrument, also compared the distress of law students to that of with medical students. (MSE)

Although the study of communication has been consistently recognized as a vital segment of legal training, it has not been universally adopted as part of the law school curriculum. A survey of 150 law schools was designed to determine the communication skills and training necessary for competent performance in both law school and professional…

The 1976 entering class of the University of Houston (UH) Law School was surveyed to identify reasons for entering law school and career objectives. Three distinct groups are shown (UH sole school considered, UH only alternative, UH one of several alternatives), each having its own distinctive cluster of social conditions and perspectives. (MSE)

A portion of a larger survey study of the socialization of law students is reported. Focus is on student perceptions and idealized views of law, lawyers, and legal education in general and changes in these attitudes influenced by exposure to law school over a seven-month period during the first year. (JMD)

Study objectives were to assess the status of a representative number of American Indian tribal governments and to share that information with other members of the national Indian community. Sixteen Indian law students, assisted by 8 Indian lawyers, worked on 17 different Indian reservations during the summer of 1974. Generally working on their…

Differences in cognitive styles were studied in a selected group of over 800 students at 20 law schools throughout the U.S. Two major styles are identified in this book: that of the monopath, who follows a single route of established principles and procedures, and that of the polypath, who takes many routes, as circumstances suggest. A battery of…