Bricks Plus Bytes: How 'Click-and-Brick' Will Define Legal Education Space

Examining a number of technological, commercial and professional scenarios the author argues that the law school of the near future must become a hybrid place, what is known in ecommerce as a "click-and-brick" or "click-and-mortar." In a click-and-brick law school distributive-learning techniques will fill much of the space, supplementing traditional class experiences and substituting for many of them. But a true click-and-brick will also integrate distance learning (or distance education) methodologies, reaching out to remote students, enabling collaboration with off-campus faculty and consuming remote content. The article examines the qualitative and institutional arguments frequently raised against such non-traditional legal education and argues that the traditional law school model will be substantially altered not only because of the implications of the new enabling technologies but because law school space is no longer a self-contained autonomous, insulated environment. The article examines how a sustainable click-and-brick model for legal education will involve significant re-engineering of virtual and physical law school space, a re-engineering that must be cognizant of the ways in which law practice is being reshaped and how the law school curriculum will require major re-tooling to be relevant to the Information Age.