Ryerson law school plan would let students skip articling

I saw the above headline in the news recently.  I also received a survey from the Law Society of Alberta today aimed at principals of articling students to get some feedback.  This got me to thinking about whether our traditional approach to the training of lawyers needs some serious re-thinking.  I have been the principal for 8 students in the past 8 years, and I have enjoyed this opportunity to mentor very much.  However, there are aspects of the articling experience that need some work, or perhaps should be thrown out altogether.  Students-at-law spend far too much time during the year of articles worrying about their constant module demands and the constant competency evaluation pressures, while trying to learn the law, learn the practice of law, and learning to work in a very new environment. 

Supporters of the proposal at the potential new law school at Ryerson said that "the proposal, if successful, could move Ontario away from long-standing problems posed by the traditional articling model."

This is a complex issue, and I will leave it to to the powers that be, but my thoughts today are that they might want to consider getting rid of articling altogether, start promoting more meaningful summer internship or school year internships (such as they have in nursing at many universities) and then go the way that they do
in the US, where you write your bar exam and then start practicing right away (with mentorship).  There is no perfect system, of course, but I also think that instead of focussing on a system to test the Students-at-law, law societies might want to consider training current lawyers to mentor law students properly and appropriately.  Currently, in Alberta, the only requirement is that you are at least 4 years at the bar before becoming a principal.  No training, no vetting of the principal.  So, we have no consistency, no accountability, and lawyers having potentially terrible experiences, at low pay, with little support or recourse for such potentially poor levels of training.

What are your thoughts?