Using Competitive Intelligence Instruction to Develop Practice-Ready Legal Professionals

Abstract

Competitive intelligence is the identification and use of internal and external information to inform business decisions. Integrating competitive intelligence instruction into the law school curriculum is another option to use when preparing “practice-ready” legal professionals. First, it broadens the curriculum experience beyond the courtroom with its introduction of basic corporate, regulatory, and transactional documents, and second, introduces students to the critical decision-making and business-development skills lawyers use to identify, investigate, and develop business leads necessary for a financially viable legal practice.