95% of Hiring Partners Think Law Grads Lack Adequate Practical Skills
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The survey, which LexisNexis commissioned from 5 Square Research, Inc., asked 300 hiring partners and senior associates who supervise new attorneys, from a variety of large and small U.S. firms whether new grads have the practical legal skills their employers want. The survey results have been published in a new white paper called Hiring partners reveal new attorney readiness for real world practice which is intended to help law schools identify which skills they should focus on to improve the job prospects of their grads. Among the findings:
Research skills: 86% of respondents overall believe legal research skills are highly important in young associates. 81% believe advanced legal research skills are also highly important and an even higher percentage, 88% reported that proficiency using paid research services is highly important. Considering most young associates spend between 40% and 60% of their time conducting legal research, proficiency in legal research is paramount.
Research competency in case law is most critical, but the ability to research statutes, court rules, citation analysis, jury verdicts, briefs and dockets were also highly important skills for young associates to possess upon hire. Young lawyers often lack advanced legal research skills such as researching more complex legal issues in cases, statutes and regulations, determining strength of validity of primary law, and legislative/administrative intent. The survey demonstrated that, along with drafting pleadings, advanced legal research skills presented the largest gap between the importance of proficiency and the percentage of new associates actually possessing those skills.
Writing skills: Approximately two-thirds of litigation attorneys deem Writing and Drafting Skills to be highly important skills among newer associates, but particularly when it comes to Drafting Pleadings, Motions, and Discovery Documents. More than half of litigation hiring managers indicated that newly graduated law students most often lacked practical experience in drafting of settlement agreements, briefs, dispositive motions, deposition questions and interviews, and jury questionnaires. The most important drafting skills are similar among small and large firms.
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