A critical foundation for the change agents of tomorrow: teaching oda s law students the

business of law

I teach a business of law course at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Some assume that I teach the business of law because I want to help students get jobs at law
firms and make partner. I hope that my course benefits those students aspiring to succeed at law
firms, a d I e bee ld ha i d e serve that purpose.

But, I have another, complementary, goal for my business of law course, and for the
business of law coursebook that I recently wrote. I want to help prepare law students to be
change agents in the world of legal.

After all, much progress remains to be made. Access to justice has yet to be achieved, by
a longshot. Low-income people in the U.S. receive inadequate or no legal help at all for 86% of
their civil legal needs. The legal profession has made some strides in diversity, but much
unfinished work will be left to the next generation of attorneys. Just 2.6% of law firm partners
are minority women. Only 8.05% of partners in major law firms are minorities. 36% of lawyers
in the U.S. are women. The legal profession must urgently address issues of lawyer well-being.
The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being recent report, referencing two studies,
described a profession in crisis, T be a g d la e , e ha be a heal h lawyer. Sadly, our
profession is falling short when it comes to well-being. The two studies referenced above reveal
that too many lawyers and law students experience chronic stress and high rates of depression
and substance use. These findings are incompatible with a sustainable legal profession, and they
raise troubling implications for a la e ba ic c e e ce.

Law students will be in a better position to make change, inside and out of law firms and
legal departments, if they have learned about topics like legal innovation and technology trends;
efforts to apply design thinking to law; the consequences of the billable hour; attorney
compensation trends and models; the competitive landscape of legal service providers; the Legal
Services Act in the U.K.; and lawyer wellness issues. They require a foundation in the business
of law including an understanding of how the legal profession has historically and traditionally
functioned, and the reasons why to be able to create, experiment, and innovate in a way that
truly advances the legal profession.

In that spirit, the coursebook that I recently wrote, The Legal Career: Knowing the
Business, Thriving in Practice, includes reflection questions and activities designed to encourage
law students to explore further and to share ideas. It includes interviews with a broad range of
legal industry professionals, including the general counsel of an international company; the
senior director of knowledge management at a Biglaw firm; a legal innovator who founded a
pioneering legal process outsourcing company; and a legal tech startup CEO and co-founder.
 In my experience, law students embrace the opportunity to learn about the connection
between the business of law, and what they, future lawyers, want the legal profession to be, to
look like, and to accomplish.

T da la de a be be cha ce a cha gi g legal f he be e . Le gi e

them the business-of-law foundation they need to achieve progress.

Katrina Lee is an Associate Clinical Professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of
Law and the author of The Legal Career: Knowing the Business, Thriving in Practice (West
Academic 2017).