Academic Lawyer or Legal Practitioner? Navigating the PhD Path in Legal Education in Poland after Recent Reforms

This paper presents the findings of a project aimed at examining how legal and institutional conditions shape the educational trajectories of doctoral candidates in law. Drawing on data collected from focus groups and individual interviews with PhD students in Poland, the study investigates how recent reforms to doctoral education frameworks influence both the academic development and professional readiness of these students. By analyzing the evolution of regulatory conditions in Poland, the research offers a critical examination of how these changes impact the educational experience within legal doctoral programs.

The transfer of knowledge between academic research and legal practice is a fundamental issue in the legal field, which is inherently practice-oriented. In Poland, this issue is particularly significant, as many legal academics also engage in active legal practice. This brings us to a broader question: What should a PhD graduate in law become? Should they be a researcher contributing to legal scholarship, an academic teacher shaping future generations, or a legal expert equipped for the demands of the legal market? This question lies at the heart of the challenges faced by doctoral education in law.

The project further explores how Polish doctoral programs address the relationship between research and practice, particularly how this affects the profile of PhD graduates. The analysis considers whether these programs align with the demands of the legal market and academia, and to what extent they prepare doctoral candidates for the realities of legal practice. By highlighting potential misalignments between academic training and the professional expectations of the Polish legal sector, this study provides insights into how legal education might be refined to better serve both academic and practical objectives.