Solum on Cross on Interdisciplinary Ignorance

Posted by Jeff Lipshaw

Larry Solum has a provocative post on the interdisciplinary skills law professors ought to have.  What I think is so interesting about it is that it cuts a different direction from what I perceive to be either a pure professional school approach or a Ph.D. + J.D. “law and …” approach.  Though I would have to think about whether defending DUI cases is the extreme counter-example to the following, I like to think of lawyers as “applied social philosophers.”  It was a philosophy or an approach I tried to use in practice (more in-house, but certainly possible as a senior statesman kind of out-house lawyer) as counselor, ethics advisor, strategic thinker, devil’s advocate, agent provocateur, gut-checker, brain without portfolio, advocate.  I think Larry’s model is the teacher for that kind of professional.