Our man Vic is a deals course progenitor! And I think he was the deals fellow at Columbia. That and an entrepeneurial clinic seem like worthy additions to me - not easy to staff though.

Jennifer,

As a Member of this year’s Curriculum Committee for both the AALS and for GW, and having spent the last two years as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (at BC), I’d welcome your thoughts.

Based on those experiences, I’d also recommend caution about the appeal of the idea to “re-imagine” any curriculum. The law school curriculum is basically sound and it is unlikely that any committee or school will make it Platonic.

One point that makes me nervous is the line that says “Securities Regulation, M&A, Corp Fin, etc.” Sorry to quibble, but both the etc and the absence from the express list of anything associated with accounting causes me concern.

Deals, as David Zaring suggests, would be nice, but that is a luxury course compared to accounting. Enron-Vinson suggests my point and this is a problem that has not been addressed by any one to date.

--Larry

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the comment! I completely agree with you about the importance of having an Accounting class in the curriculum. Fortunately, Villanova does have an "Accounting for Lawyers" class, and I strongly encourage all of my students to take it.

And I'll definitely keep your concerns about efforts to "re-imagine" the curriculum in mind when (and if!) the Task Force presents recommendations to the faculty.

Jennifer

Hi David,

Thanks for the comment. Both ideas are good suggestions. As you say, the clinic might be hard to pull off, but who knows? Stranger things have happened!

Jennifer

As a student, I would really like to see Accounting for Lawyers classes taught by non-lawyers. For example, an accounting prof or business adjunct who has experience working with lawyers, teaching me the kind of information my future clients would appreciate me knowing.

This is a common complaint -- that lawyers don't understand their clients' businesses. One way to begin addressing the problem is to bring them into the classroom. I would jump at the chance to take a class such as this, as would many fellow students.

I agree with Larry generally. That said, attempting to teach law students accounting is a questionable endeavor. Better to let them grow up, sort out which ones might actually do some legal work that involves accounting, then let them decide whether to hire an accounting consultant (or expert witness, if it comes to that).