Case Methods: Business School v. Law School

A Tale of Two Case Methods by Ben Barton:

Business school cases are generally real life problems. They ask the students to read the files and then perform actual management tasks. The students also generally work in teams and are graded on their actual work throughout the semester. The students thus spend their time learning how to actually manage, instead of only learning dry management theory.

There are several advantages to the business school case method. The business school case method is much more focused on the actual process of being a business manager. By comparison, the law school case method focuses on the work of judges, not lawyers.

Business schools also give students more regular feedback on their work, because each project/case is graded along the way. Business school grading is also much more rational than law school grading (and better approximates the experiences of MBA students when they graduate). This is because MBA students are graded on the strength of their actual work, not a single exam at the end of the semester. In sum, trading case methods with MBA programs might vastly improve the first year, and legal education as a whole.

I haven't been in law school long enough to offer learned commentary, but I have been through business school and can attest that the case methods there are useful and extremely practical for learning business. I'm not yet convinced that this is true for law school...

(HT Instapundit)