DEAN OF NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL ON VISIT TO N.Z.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29448, 25 February 1961, Page 10

DEAN OF NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL ON VISIT TO N.Z.

The emphasis placed by United States universities on academic training for law students had perhaps strayed too far on the side of academic learning, compared with practical training, said Professor R. D. Niles, dean of the New York University Law School, in Christchurch yesterday.

Professor Niles is on a tour of New Zealand. Australia, and Canada to ascertain the policies followed by law faculties at the universities on the division of academic and ■’’practical training.

At the New York University Law School a student was required first to take a bachelor of arts degree, which was a three-year course. and then he had a further threeyear course for his law degree.. said Professor Niles. "If’ a student is working as he is studying, then he is required to extend his course by one year., as at present it is felt that students who are working cannot complete the course in the same time as a full-time student. This is an arbitrary ruling." sad Professor Niles.

However, in recent years there was a growing school of thought that wanted a law student to have more practical training while studyma for his degree. One suggestion was *hat after eompletinc his degree a student should serve for one year in du office to gain practical experience This would be an accepted part of the degree. Professor Niles was asked for his view on the system operating at the law faculty at Canterbury University, whereby most students spent the first two years of the course full-time and then worked in law offices and studied as part-time students He said it would have some recommendations as a basis for practical training, but it would mean to some extent the academic studies would be neglected The question of having parttime lectures in a law faculty was also commented on by

Professor Niles. He said that in the New York University all of the lecturers in the law faculty were professional lecturers.

There were exceptions where students were doing advanced studies, but generally it was felt that law students were best served by full-time lecturers who were able to devote all their time and training to teaching students.

[ Did he think that many i practising lawyers in New Zealand would be in favour of having law students spend most of their time at a university before graduating as it would mean they would lose the services of relatively low-paid law clerks? He said that he thought that practising lawyers would be better served by having more mature and better trained staff working for them. A clerk who had spent five or .six years as a full-time student would be a better value than a lad who had just left school.

“However, I would say that I am here to observe rather than to criticise,” he said.

In New Zealand the system of the part-time student could be perfectly satisfactory. In the United States the academic side of a law degree was stressed. “We may be mistaken. That is why I am here to try to see if your system has advantages over ours.”