<p>Horrible idea. Here’s why (ASSUMING they simply cut off 3L courses and keep 1L and 2L the same): </p>
<p>1) Many people who get their job offers get them after completing their 2L summer associate program. Beyond the fact that this would require either many law firms to change the way they hire new associates (since now the grads would be ready to work beginning in August/September instead of next June or whatnot) or have the graduates wait around for a while such as a few months of a year. They would also need to take the bar exam, which will delay them from being able to be employed by these firms yet (thus the bar exam would need to be changed around too in terms of scheduling).</p>
<p>2) For those who don’t receive 2L offers, they often spend much of their 3L year job-searching. Instead of giving them a cushion to job-search while taking relative easy elective classes, this would throw them right into the market mess. </p>
<p>3) The 3L year still has some use. It allows people to gain more courses/certificates in the kinds of law they want to specialize in (M&A vs tax law, etc). Most lawyers say that law students simply don’t know enough law yet to be worthwhile for even a summer associate position until the end of their 2L year, and even then it’s barely so. The 3L year gives the ‘cream on the top’ that has allowed them to extract all they can/need from the academic world.</p>