Presidential Address – Impact. Excellence. Resilience.

Meeting of the AALS House of Representatives, January 11, 2025

By 2025 AALS President Austen L. Parrish, Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law

Thank you, Melanie. What a remarkable year. Thank you for your leadership and your friendship.  And congratulations on a very successful annual meeting.  Please also join me in thanking Kellye Testy, and to all the AALS staff. The work behind the scenes has been enormous and truly exceptional.

When assuming the presidency, the tradition is often to extend some personal thank yous. I wonder if that’s more to set the stage for who to blame if it all goes horribly wrong.  So I will keep this brief only to say that I have been fortunate to have an incredibly supportive family, and I have been at some remarkable institutions with tremendous colleagues and mentors. I am grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work with and become friends with so many extraordinary leaders in legal education, many who are here.

I have also been one of those lucky deans who has worked with amazing staff and faculty colleagues. I rarely have an opportunity to publicly thank those who has worked with me as Vice Dean—I can’t say that’s the most sought after job in the world— so I’ll take advantage of my time now to give a particular thanks to professors Trilby Robinson-Dorn and Chris Whytock at UC Irvine, to now-dean Christiana Ochoa and professor Donna Nagy at IU Bloomington, and to professor Anahid Gharakhanian at Southwestern. All are remarkable people, gifted teachers, scholars, and thought-leaders, and they generously provided me the time to be involved with AALS, while doing the heavy lifting at our schools.

This is a big upcoming year. Almost 125 years ago, in August 1900 in Saratoga Springs, representatives of 35 law schools convened to establish the AALS, as way to strengthen American legal education, with the goal of producing lawyers, judges, and legal thought-leaders with the expertise and integrity essential for the country’s future. Today AALS continues as a critically vital resource to faculty, staff, and law school leaders, at each stage of their professional journey. AALS also continues its advocacy for excellence in American legal education and legal education’s critical role in advancing law, justice, and the rule of law.

As we mark the Association’s 125th anniversary (and our 120th annual meeting), this upcoming year’s theme—which will culminate in the annual meeting in New Orleans—will look back at the enduring impact of American legal education—and the contributions that our faculty and staff colleagues have made—on our local communities, our society, our nation, and the world. The goal is to reveal voices and contributions that may have been hidden or not previously celebrated adequately.  While many prior AALS themes have been forward looking, this year’s theme will also be retrospective: to pause, to look back, and to celebrate.

Over our 125-year history, the faculty and staff that comprise AALS member and fee-paying schools, the 1000s of annual volunteers, and the 106 different sections within AALS, have had a lasting impact on:

• how we train and teach the next generation of lawyers, and who is part of, and has access to, legal education;
• on the intellectual, pedagogical, professional, and theoretical underpinnings of our profession;
• on American jurisprudence and respect for equity, justice, and the rule of law; and
• how law and legal institutions develop and change, including the globalization of legal education and the legal profession.

AALS has also helped forge strong consensus within the legal academy that excellence in legal education requires: (1) research and scholarship at the highest levels; (2) a deep commitment to student success and exceptional classroom instruction; and (3) that legal education must reflect and serve its many communities–local, national, and international.

This coming year, which will culminate in the 2026 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, is designed to take stock of past achievements, and to highlight the major contributions of American legal education, with a particular emphasis on revealing voices and contributions that may have been hidden or not previously celebrated adequately. 

Aside from the 125^th year milestone, this is an opportune time for taking stock. AALS has just published an illustrated history of the Association.  And we have welcomed a new executive director with Kellye Testy, after a decade of tremendous service from Judy Areen, who capped that service by authoring the history I just mentioned. 

Reflecting on what the legal academy has accomplished is important to do now for other reasons too. We live at a time when higher education continues to be increasingly under attack. Political interference, from both sides of the political spectrum at the state and federal levels, is widely viewed at an all-time high. Conversely, confidence in our universities among the public is at a low.

While criticism by those outside the academy is nothing new, the frequency of the attacks—now often founded on misunderstandings of what our law schools and our faculty do, a lack of appreciation for the variety among schools, and a reluctance to see or a quickness to overlook the innovations of recent decades—risks undermining the positive gains made. At the very least, a tendency exists to overemphasize perceived shortcomings or ascribe bad motives, without acknowledging improvements and practical realities.

The prevailing narrative outside of law schools and the organizations and institutions that support legal education has sometimes veered to the negative. That narrative at time suggests, often in subtle but sometimes in explicit ways, that law schools do not care about their students, are caught in the culture wars with ideological grudges, do not prepare students for practice or their careers, do not care about their local communities, and are out of touch and stuck in ivory towers, or that our students are somehow less talented or less promising than prior generations.

Those narratives are at least overstated, although often just wrong. But they have taken hold in some corners, and at times some of our colleagues have contributed to the misimpressions, taking nuggets of legitimate criticism and exaggerating for sensational reasons to serve short-term personal ends (perhaps to sell books or increase downloads). It’s important for faculty, staff, and our schools to do our best to collectively correct the misperceptions and highlight legal education’s impact.

Even with those members of the legal community that are often supportive, I am struck by how much misinformation exists. While careful to not also fall prey to overstatement, it’s now relatively common to hear leaders from the courts, in major law firms, in government and leading public interest organizations—even those who should know better—talk in caricatured ways about our students, our missions, and what our faculty and staff do.  Worse, the experiences in isolated instances at a small number of schools, which are prone to capture the attention of the press, are viewed as somehow representative of the day-to-day life of our students and our colleagues.

This is not to overly romanticize or to be naïve about law schools or legal education. Yet the contributions of many in our ranks—from faculty and staff at law schools of all kinds and sizes, with different missions, histories, and emphases, in all parts of the country—are contributions that we should be proud. Some of the changes over recent decades include:

• The Curriculum. The sophistication and breadth of the curriculum—including courses focused on lawyering skills, clinics, field placements, simulation courses, academic support, law and technology—is at an all-time high. Compared to the past, law schools are keenly aware of the need to prepare students for a lifetime in the law and to adjust to modern realities and changes of practice, and AALS sections have been at the forefront bringing together and galvanizing those involved with these efforts.
• Our Scholarship and Research.  Our colleagues have furthered fields of thought, scholarship, and pedagogy. Many schools have expanded their interdisciplinary research to take on the thorniest, most difficult challenges in the face of a rapidly evolving world filled with technological and other changes. The quality of the training and preparation of our students in part derives from exposure to faculty who are engaged in the broader university mission and at the leading-edge of their fields, through their research and scholarly work. And again looking back, AALS sections – and their leaders – have supported the developing of entire fields of law. Seeds of what later will bloom were planted and took root in panels, discussions, and hallway conversations at AALS annual meetings.
• Public Service. Many Law Schools have dramatically deepened their commitments to public service, to giving back to their communities in myriad ways, and to broadening access to the profession, ensuring that our law schools reflect the communities we serve and fillings gaps that have been neglected by state and federal governments.  You can see that in the increased diversity of our entering students and the millions of pro bono hours collectively performed each year by students at AALS schools. In 2023, the estimate from the AALS annual survey was that law students provided more than $104 million dollars in pro bono legal services using a modest $31 hourly rate.  And that grossly understates the service provided by law schools through clinics, externships, and other efforts that are not counted as “pro bono.” In some states in the U.S., the law schools are some of the largest providers of pro bono legal services.
• Our Staff.  Law schools have professionalized their staff to better support our students.  Changes, particularly in the areas of career development, student affairs, and alumni support, have been striking. Schools have also broadened their missions to try to equip the current generation the skills and mindsets they need with programs outside the traditional classroom. And again, the AALS has played a critical role in this effort, not just in the sections, but also in its work with allied organizations like the tremendous being done by AccessLex, NALP, LSAC, and others, that have been at the forefront of innovation and student success.

Despite imperfections, the story of American legal education—and the story of AALS schools—is one not of stagnation, but of evolution. And its story mirrors the story around changes in the law and in the U.S. legal field over time, including seismic shifts over the decades in the structure of private practice and legal services, constitutional interpretation, landmark rulings, and sociopolitical movements shaped by law and lawyers. And contrary to the oversimplistic view that is sometimes peddled, much of the change in legal education has been driven by a desire to better serve the needs of our communities, of courts, law firms, corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit and public interest organizations.

Reflecting on legal education’s impact does not mean that we don’t have things that need to improve or that we should be pollyannish about the collective challenges we face. Some perennial concerns include the impact of demographic changes on enrollments and how different generations are thinking about the rule of law and legal education. Additional concerns revolve around the impact of changes wrought by AI, technology, and globalization, as well as the economic realities and fiscal challenges that schools face. We should continue to focus on student wellbeing, student debt, and whether schools are sufficiently equipping the current generation with the skills they need to succeed and live fulfilling lives. Other concerns have centered around society’s access to legal services, and whether law schools could do more to help close access-to-justice gaps, and whether law schools can do more to expand access to the profession, to serve even better first-generation students and students from underrepresented groups. And we continue to need to think of ways we can improve classroom instruction and effectiveness, as well as explain and underscore the importance of knowledge generation and ideas.

Yet these challenges are challenges with which we as a legal academy openly grapple, often in our annual meetings, workshops, and programs. The history over the past 125 years has been one not of “mission completion,” but one of change, experimentation, and adaption—even when faced with a complex and heavily regulated environment.

Our collective history, when viewed in context, is one of remarkable success on many of these fronts. The current quality of American legal education is almost certainly better than ever before. And, in my experience—and the experience of many when we’re being honest with ourselves—is that the students of today are remarkable, and the faculty and staff of our schools are inspiring, hard-working, and dedicated. Their collective achievements should be celebrated and better understood.

125 years after AALS’s founding, American legal education continues to be a model for many in the world. In past years, AALS themes have appropriately and often focused on ways we can improve in different areas and shore up our commitments. This year, the goal is to take stock of what we’ve achieved and to highlight the positive impact that legal education has made on our students, our communities, and the people and society we serve. I’m pleased to announce that this year’s theme will be “Impact. Excellence. Resilience. The Enduring Contributions of Legal Education.”

It's an absolute honor to serve as AALS president. And what a privilege to be able to give this inaugural address. Congratulations again to Melanie Wilson for a fantastic year. I am honored to follow in your very big footsteps, and I look forward to working with all AALS members over the coming year.