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&lt;p&gt;Law students took a beating in a recent &lt;em&gt;Chicago Lawyer&lt;/em&gt; roundtable of law school deans.  It should come as no surprise that, because of the economy, students and soon-to-be graduates are having a ton of trouble finding legal jobs.  To help, schools have started reaching out and looking into how to make their students better employees and, by extension, better candidates.  This attention to employability was nearly unheard of back in 2007, but these days it&#39;s getting much more attention from school administrators, including academic deans, who are incorporating new classes into the curriculum; and admissions officers, who look at each candidate and ask whether he will get a job after graduation.  Confirms Warren D. Wolfson, interim dean of DePaul University College of Law:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;em&gt;Something else we&#39;re looking at that I don&#39;t think was looked at before is finding out from the law firms what kind of graduate do you want?  What kind of new lawyer would best serve your purposes?  Do you want someone who can write well?  Do you want someone who can do research?  Or do you want someone who can recognize clients&#39; problems and deal with those problems right away, without taking extensive training?  We&#39;re trying to find out what the market is calling for, and I don&#39;t think we ever cared much about that before.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://content.screencast.com/users/cwisevault/folders/Default/media/4ea39f83-5d20-4731-a901-1110edef4e22/Lawbooksleft.png&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Should law schools teach students soft skills to help their career?&quot; width=&quot;346&quot; height=&quot;246&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what do graduating law students lack?  Writing, teamwork and analytical skills, says John Marshall Law School Dean John E. Corkery.  This all brings up the age-old debate: Since they know what their graduates lack, should law schools focus more on teaching the skills employers want?  Should they teach less theory and more nuts and bolts of practicing?  Yes and no.  But a balance certainly needs to be reached so that students are both engaged &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; employable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Michael H. Schill, dean of University of Chicago Law School, suggests that law schools look to business schools to learn how to balance teaching theory with skills like how to work in groups.  &quot;On the other hand, I don&#39;t think it&#39;s a zero-sum game,&quot; says Schill.  &quot;We can open up and teach our students about business skills in general, and also about how one works with clients, how one works with other lawyers and business people.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So a balance &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; be reached.  Law schools &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; listening to the needs of law firms and focusing on their students post-graduation success--while still trying to stay true to jurisprudence.  I hope whatever classes or programs law schools add help their students find jobs in this job market.  It isn&#39;t pretty; soon-to-be JDs can use all the help they can get.&lt;/p&gt;

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