Embracing new (and old) ideas

The basic form of legal education has remained unchanged for almost the entire existence of Washington University School of Law. Three years after their Law School’s founding in 1867, Christopher Langdell first introduced case studies and the Socratic method to Harvard Law School, replacing lectures and textbook recitation. By the end of the nineteenth century, the combination of the two -- sometimes called Langdell’s Method -- began to be rapidly adopted by other law schools. Washington University had partially adopted the method by 1910, and by the 1920s it had become the standard pedagogical method in American law schools, and it remains so almost a century later. Along with Langdell’s Method of classroom education came many features of modern legal education: the three-year course of study, the requirement of a bachelor’s degree for admission, written examinations, and education by full-time professors rather than practicing attorneys.