Student loans. Transparency in law school employment data. Legal skills training. Legal education was in the spotlight throughout the two-day meeting of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates on Aug. 9 and 10 in Toronto. Delegates approved a series of resolutions pertaining to the financing and curriculum of legal education, although the ABA’s legislative body lacks the power to compel law schools to make changes or control over how student loans are administered. The delegates passed resolutions urging Congress and private loan providers to offer more assistance to those struggling to repay their student loans; urging law schools to provide more detailed graduate employment statistics; and calling on law schools and CLE providers to incorporate more skills and clinical training into their programming. The jobs data resolution was introduced by the Young Lawyers Division. It asks law schools to differentiate between part-time and full-time jobs and between temporary and permanent jobs obtained by recent law school graduates. It also asks law schools to disclose the “actual cost of law school education on a per-credit basis” and to make that information readily available on their Web sites. “It is time for this association to take a leadership role on the issue of transparency in law schools,” said David Wolfe, chairman of the young lawyers. That resolution is largely symbolic, however. The ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has already undertaken a number of steps to ensure that law schools provide more detailed and accurate employment information. The section recently announced additional reporting requirements in the annual questionnaire that accredited law schools fill out. It is considering requiring law schools to report additional job statistics. The young lawyers were also behind the resolution calling for better student loan repayment terms. That resolution asks Congress to expand a program that went into effect in 2009 that allows federal loan borrowers to make payments on a sliding scale based on their income. The resolution asks private loan providers to adopt the same loan repayment terms. The delegates heard testimony from Florida attorney Keri-Ann Baker, who said that her law school debt casts a shadow over her personal life and career. “I took on too much student debt,” she said. “The loans changed the way I live my life. It will change how many children I have….There must be a middle ground where student can repay their loans before their grandchildren are born.” Finally, the delegates approved a resolution introduced by the New York State Bar Association calling for legal educators to produce practice-ready lawyers. The resolution declares that the ABA will “urge legal education providers to implement curricular programs intended to develop practice ready lawyers including, but not limited to, enhanced capstone and clinical courses that include client meetings and court appearances.” The resolution was the outgrowth of task force looking at critical issues in the legal profession, said former New York bar president Stephen Younger. “Are our young lawyers equipped to go into the legal profession?” he said. “Many of our young lawyers come out of law schools having never drafted a complaint.” Karen Sloan can be contacted at [email protected]