ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that legal education has always occupied an uneasy position between the theoretical and the vocational. It is redolent in some ways of William Twining’s personification of legal education as Pericles versus the plumber. Globalization impinges on legal education in several ways. The big law firm has an over-reaching impact on legal education. Increasing amounts of legal work such as risk analysis of contracts and patent renewals are being outsourced to legal process outsourcers because of the availability of technology. The regulatory shifts in legal markets in the twenty-first century are proving tendentious times for legal education. Legal education is at the metaphorical cross roads. In global terms it is successful and in some parts of the world lawyer numbers are set to grow substantially. In others they are likely to shrink. There are three main challenges for legal education: globalization, technology and regulation.
