Carrington Report

A report delineating proposed changes in LEGAL EDUCATION submitted by Professor Paul D. Carrington of the University of Michigan School of Law, chairman of the Curriculum Study Project Committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), to the AALS on September 7, 1971.

The Carrington Report represented the combined efforts of a committee of legal scholars, but Professor Carrington, due to his role as chairperson, was instrumental in compiling the report. It aroused some controversy among legal educators and commentators at the time of its publication because of the extensiveness of its proposed changes in legal education, particularly in terms of revisions of law school curricula.

The Carrington Report challenges the traditional requirements for a law degree: four years of undergraduate study and three years of law school. The report indicates that the contents and length of the traditional program inhibit the prompt, competent, and efficient delivery of necessary legal services to society.