Keywords
legal education, neurotypical, neurodivergent, neurodiversity
Abstract
This Article takes the position that the curiosity associated with legal education is limited to those who are neurotypical. For students who are neurodivergent, law school is a place of judgment, not curiosity. The number of neurodiverse law students is increasing, yet they are not sufficiently supported in law school. This Article will seek to show how the current structures of legal education, although fundamentally sound, have become overly rigid. Instead of providing students with intellectual foundations of legal doctrine that prepare them for the challenges of practicing law, the existing status quo stifles those goals. By limiting our practices to what we currently know and what we are comfortable doing, we limit our potential for excellence. In Part I, I introduce what neurodiversity means, especially for law students, the problems they face, how law schools fall short, and why law schools should care about this. In Part II, I explain the legal mandates designed to remove barriers and the roadblocks legal education and law schools erect. In Part III, I lay out concrete solutions and strategies for engaging our curiosity rather than our judgment.
Recommended Citation
Katherine S. Kelly,
Be Curious, Not Judgmental: Neurodiversity in Legal Education,
78 Ark. L. Rev.
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr/vol78/iss2/6