Elite law schools? BigLaw and courts take the admissions offices of elite law schools very seriously. Not the professors.
Legal scholarship has little impact on legal practice. It should--practitioners need good guides to technical fields of law, and scholars are good people to provide them. However, the profs are (mostly) removed from practice and want to stay that way. Practitioners must perforce learn from each other. And law students? If a law student actually wants to learn about--say--payment systems, the course will likely be taught by a practitioner adjunct. The schools are getting a bit better at clinical experience, but it is still a low-prestige part of legal academia: perhaps one step above legal writing.
Elite law schools? BigLaw and courts take the admissions offices of elite law schools very seriously. Not the professors.
Legal scholarship has little impact on legal practice. It should--practitioners need good guides to technical fields of law, and scholars are good people to provide them. However, the profs are (mostly) removed from practice and want to stay that way. Practitioners must perforce learn from each other. And law students? If a law student actually wants to learn about--say--payment systems, the course will likely be taught by a practitioner adjunct. The schools are getting a bit better at clinical experience, but it is still a low-prestige part of legal academia: perhaps one step above legal writing.