A 21ST CENTURY LAW SCHOOL FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE WHILE FIRMLY GROUNDED IN THE PAST: RENEWING CONSTITUTIONAL NORMS, COMMUNITY OUTREACH, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT.

What is the appropriate role for a Law School in the 21st century? Should they be ideologically neutral? Engines for social change? A source of entrepreneurial legal thought? This Article argues that a law school must be understood not merely as a professional training ground, but as a civic institution central to sustaining the rule of law. It posits that one of the primary purposes of a legal education is to create within the student an understanding of how our system has been designed and the goals it was created to achieve. Drawing on legal theory, access-to-justice scholarship, and innovations in pedagogy, this Article outlines a vision for legal education that honors its legacy while embracing the demands of technological change and democratic fragility. The claim is normative: law schools must act as "civic engines," renewing their social compact by bridging legacy and innovation in the service of justice, democracy, and civic renewal. It provides an ideologically neutral approach to this endeavor grounded in civic communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]