Extract from Caroline Maass’s article “The Legal Competency Missing from Legal Education: Law School Curricula and E-Discovery”
If you had asked me in law school what area of law I hoped to practice, the answer would not have been E-Discovery. Frankly, I had no idea E-Discovery attorneys existed or awareness that E-Discovery was even a practice area then. The concept of E-Discovery was, at least, mentioned in my first year Civil Procedure class, but it certainly was not covered by a standalone course or discussed in any meaningful way that reflected the reality of how prevalent E-Discovery has become in the legal profession.
Prevalence of E-Discovery
As the amount of electronically stored information (“ESI”) continues to grow at an exponential rate, basic E-Discovery knowledge becomes increasingly essential for litigators and legal professionals alike across a variety of practice areas. And yet, it does not appear that law schools are keeping up with E-Discovery’s ever-growing consequence. While a handful of law schools do offer standalone E-Discovery courses, it is far from the norm.[1] Mere passing references to E-Discovery in higher education are inadequate to prepare future lawyers for the realities of the legal profession in this digital age.
