By Rachel M. Zahorsky ABA Journal
Two years ago, professional responsibility law professor Renee Newman Knake knew she could no longer tout a rewarding and meaningful career in the law. As she saw it, the profession was plagued by wasteful inefficiency, a precipitous market drop, and the inability to serve a growing swath of the U.S. population.
“If I was going to stand up in front of my students and really believe that having a legal degree and a career as a lawyer can be among the most fulfilling career choices a person can make,” says Knake, “I needed to be doing something to make sure that would be true going forward for future generations of lawyers.”
Knake, 39, co-founded and co-directs Michigan State University’s ReInvent Law Laboratory with fellow prof Daniel Martin Katz. “We needed to create a space where we could build an on-the-ground tool for rethinking the ways we deliver legal services, and then train our students and practicing lawyers to do it,” Knake says.
Taking a page from Silicon Valley startups, Knake and Katz moved swiftly from an initial brainstorm lunch in summer 2011 to securing faculty support and outside funding in spring 2012 from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which grants funds to programs that advance entrepreneurship and improve education.
The duo developed a core curriculum for students that responds to employers’ requests for specific jurisprudential skill sets in “pillar” areas of law, technology, design and delivery.
