The rupture in the legal job market has provoked a lot of soul searching about the mission of law schools. Perhaps the most popular idea that’s emerged is the notion that schools should focus more on training students to be “practice ready” lawyers.

Schools have been urged to offer more clinics, simulations and “externships,” or in the words of former New York State Bar Association president Vincent E. Doyle III, to “look outside the classroom and focus on real world opportunities.”

In a new paper, University of Maryland law professor Robert Condlin takes aim at the “practice ready” concept, arguing that it’s a nostrum that won’t cure the ills of legal education.

Mr. Condlin’s basic point is that the market forces roiling BigLaw are beyond . . . .