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Ghosh, Shubha --- "The Strategic Lawyer" [2012] ELECD 546; in Carpenter, M. Megan (ed), "Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies

Editor(s): Carpenter, M. Megan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857934697

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The Strategic Lawyer

Author(s): Ghosh, Shubha

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

5. The strategic lawyer
Shubha Ghosh

Entrepreneurism is the buzzword today. In the context of politics, the
word stands for clever negotiations to maneuver hot-button political
issues. In economics, the term often accompanies market-centered, anti-
government intervention policies. Culturally, entrepreneurism captures
the spirit of self-help and minimal civic engagement through the provi-
sion of services, such as the local restaurant, daycare service, nail salon,
or bakery. Law schools reflect this entrepreneurial trend through the
creation of Entrepreneurship Clinics and the call to students and faculty
to be more "entrepreneurial" in their efforts for finding jobs or funding.
With all this extramural and intramural buzz, one has to ask "are lawyers
entrepreneurial?" and the broader question "are lawyers creative?"
This chapter addresses each of these questions, especially the second.
In addressing the questions, I play off against the demonstrated lack of
entrepreneurship and creativity within law schools. Certainly, law school
administrators seem particularly entrepreneurial and creative in seeking
out students, especially tuition-paying ones, in creating an effective profile
for the rankings. Such creative endeavors extend to the ability to play
faculty off each other to maintain the status quo enjoyed by specific deans
and faculty members. But despite the expansion of clinical opportunities
and alternative teaching methods (generically referred to as non-Socratic),
law schools have been remarkably stable institutions.1 A law dean, profes-
sor, or student from a century ago would walk into a contemporary law
school and not see much changed, except for improved ...