In reference to your first post on this matter, I think it would be foolhardy to eliminate legal writing programs altogether. After two years of law school, I find that the only class remotely prepared me for work in a firm was my legal writing class.

It seems to me that law schools in general churn out over-theoried and pratical experience-starved students year after year, ill-prepared to face the practice of law. The lack of hands-on experience is astounding. Learning policy in a vacuum is all well and good, I suppose and not inherently harmful, but does little to promote an actual understanding and acuity at legal practice.

Elements of an apprenticeship are appealing, but I wonder how you would have that implemented. Classroom environments, with sometimes in excess of ninety students, makes individual learning a challenge. Organizing collaboration ultimately breaks down.

Perhaps law school should be stuctured more like medical, with both in class lectures coupled with practicuums. I think we should encourage more clinics, more opportunities to see attorneys and judges at work. More opportunities for legal writing are also essential, as many students will go into their first jobs having only written law review type pieces.

Emphasis on increased classroom instruction will not alone solve the problems that you note.