Legal Education Is Missing the Core Competence Future Lawyers Need
More than 40 years ago, Paul L. Tractenberg wrote a provocative article Training Lawyers to Be More Effective Dispute Preventers and Dispute Settlers: Advocating for Non-Adversarial Skills, arguing that legal education was failing its most basic mission: preparing lawyers for what they actually do in practice.
His point was simple yet profound – law schools were creating courtroom advocates, while most lawyers spend their careers outside the courtroom, negotiating, mediating, advising, and preventing disputes.
Fast forward to today, and the critique still resonates – not just in the U.S., but across Europe and in Norway. Despite decades of reforms, the dominant approach in legal education remains largely unchanged. Our systems still reward adversarial thinking and technical precision, while the real demand is for human skills: negotiation, mediation, cultural awareness, and collaborative problem-solving.
The Persistent Gap Between Legal Training and Practice
Lawyers in Norway, the Nordics, and across Europe increasingly work in roles that require influence, adaptability, and relationship-building. Whether in corporate deals, labor negotiations, or international transactions, success rarely centers on litigation competence. Instead, it depends on:
- Understanding interests and emotions
- Navigating cultural complexity
- Managing stakeholder relationships under uncertainty
- Crafting agreements that create long-term value
Yet law schools and much of continuing legal education still treat negotiation and mediation training as optional – electives at best. This imbalance isn’t just academic; it affects clients, businesses, and society. When lawyers default to adversarial postures, opportunities for cooperation, efficiency, and trust are lost.
At WNI, we offer negotiation training programs designed to equip lawyers and decision-makers with practical skills in conflict prevention, dispute resolution, and collaborative problem-solving.
Moving Beyond a Culture of Conflict
Tractenberg argued that the profession needed to pivot from conflict orientation to prevention and settlement. He criticized the overemphasis on “thinking like a lawyer,” which often means focusing too much on abstract legal theory and courtroom-style argument, rather than practical problem-solving in real-world situations.
Today, that same critique applies to many European law faculties, where case-law analysis and theoretical frameworks dominate, while practical, human-centered skills like negotiation and mediation receive limited attention.
The issue is not just technical; it is cultural and systemic. This is what the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching (RNT) project describes as a “wicked problem” – a challenge that cannot be solved by simply adding one more course or a set of role-plays. It demands a mindset shift in how we view legal training and negotiation education.
What Needs to Change in Legal Education
The RNT project offers valuable lessons for Europe and Norway. Its findings echo Tractenberg’s call for reform but update it for today’s interconnected, fast-moving world:
- Treat negotiation as a core competence, not a niche skill – It should be embedded in the curriculum as fundamentally as contract law or civil procedure.
- Center culture without stereotyping – With cross-border work as the norm, lawyers need cultural mindfulness and adaptability, not rigid checklists.
- Move beyond artificial simulations – Real-world engagement through live negotiations, client interactions, and reflective practice creates deeper learning.
- Focus on authenticity and ethics – Today’s lawyers face complex dilemmas where strategy, values, and reputation intersect.
- Rethink assessment methods – Grading students solely on adversarial performance sends the wrong message. We should evaluate growth, adaptability, and collaborative problem-solving.
Why This Matters for Norway and Europe
Like in many European countries, Norwegian businesses and legal professionals are increasingly involved in sustainability, governance, and stakeholder relations, reflecting broader international trends.
EU regulations on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and reporting create new opportunities for negotiation and conflict prevention in supply chains, investor relations, and stakeholder management. Non-compliance can lead to regulatory penalties and reputational risks.
Other areas – such as cross-border dispute frameworks and the growing use of mediation in commercial and family contexts – all demand a new type of lawyer: one who can lead dialogue, anticipate friction points, and design preventive strategies, not just win cases.
This aligns closely with Nordic business culture: flat hierarchies, consensus-driven decision-making, and a premium on trust. Lawyers who master these dynamics through negotiation training will be in highest demand.
The Way Forward – Training Future Problem-Solving Lawyers
Reimagining legal education is not about discarding analytical precision. It’s about complementing it with human-centric competencies:
- Making negotiation and mediation a core part of the curriculum
- Promoting experiential learning through clinics and live-client projects
- Integrating behavioral science and neuroscience into legal training
- Fostering collaboration between law schools, bar associations, business schools, and industry to create relevant, adaptive programs
As Derek Bok famously warned in A Flawed System of Law Practice and Training (1983):
«Law schools train their students more for conflict than for the gentler arts of reconciliation.»
That warning is even more urgent today. The future of legal education in Europe will not be shaped by those who fight hardest in courtrooms, but by those who solve problems, prevent disputes, and build systems of trust through strong negotiation skills.