Lawyer Satisfaction Blog

Since in so much I have written I have taken quotes from the ABA's MacCrate Report and one issued by the Mass School of Law, both in 1992, I decided to publish (in three parts) a handout I distributed at a panel I moderated for the National Lawyers Guild in 1993 which is primarily quotes from both.

Aspects of the Traditional Law School Experience Which Inhibit or Divert Law Students From Careers Serving the Legal Needs of the Public.

7. THE LAW SCHOOL'S PREOCCUPATION WITH THE US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT'S ANNUAL RANKING CRITERIA RESULTS IN ITS ALLOCATING TOO MUCH FINANCIAL AND STAFF SUPPORT TO PLACEMENT AND. ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWING WHICH PRIMARILY SERVES LARGE LAW FIRMS AND IS NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF ITS STUDENTS.

The purely analytical education students have received at the theory based schools has prepared them for scores of years to practice in the major law firms of American Indeed "the elite law schools grew alongside the burgeoning corporate law firms" it is "the metropolitan prestige firms where associates are recruited from the prestige schools and the top graduates of other superior quality schools." The firms and schools each feed off the prestige of the other, and to this day schools hunger for the prestige of having their graduates hired by the major firms. MSL p. 157

(O)ne frequently heard plaint is that law schools in preparing students for practice give greater attention to the needs of those lawyers entering practices in which they will serve the business community than to the needs of' those entering practices in which they will provide legal services to individual clients. The transition from law school into individual practice or relatively   unsupervised positions in small offices, both public and private, presents special problems which the law schools and the organized bar must address. MacCrate p. 47

(E)stimates of the percentage of lawyers who practice solo or in small firms of five or less have generally been in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 percent. There also, of course, have been many lawyers working in government services and within corporations. As Talbot D'Alemberte (former ABA President) has said, "So we have designed this enterprise to train people to think like law professors or to go to large law firms that say they will train the law graduates. That's not what they do. Our students go to government offices, to small law firms - many become sole practitioners.MSL p. 157

8. THE UNWARRANTED HIGH COST TO ATTEND LAW SCHOOL CREATES ENORMOUS DEBT AND GREAT PRESSURE TO TAKE HIGH SALARY POSITIONS WHICH PREDICTABLY RESULT IN CAREER DISSATISFACTION

Law schools ...have "participated fully.., in the runaway increase in costs.... (From) 1956 ... the median budget increased by 4,700 percent ..to 1990...although the consumer price index  increased only 500 percent.. and though law school enrollment would not seem to have increased more than 400 percent... Dean White, the ABA's Consultant, attributes the staggering increases to such factors as .... the transfer of numerous tasks from law faculty to administrators whose positions were created to relieve the faculty of responsibility. MSL p. 243

Another reason for the sustained growth in costs ...is that faculty members..., do not do work that contributes to meeting the needs and goals of their institutions, but instead concentrate exclusively on personal career advancement, often for the purpose of trying to garner more lucrative offers from other schools. Focussing solely on self, faculty members do not participate in their schools administrative work and teach as little as possible, all of which increases academia's costs by making it necessary to hire more administrators and teachers.... MSL p. 240

Law schools ...can no longer financially support their traditional research libraries. Law schools spent 189.2 percent more on their libraries in the 1987-88 academic year than a decade earlier ... more than double the rate of general inflation for the period...And since the money, to pay for such increases had to come from somewhere, tuitions in that decade also rose at a rate far exceeding inflation. They are still rising. MSL p. 397

Clinical costs in fact rose more slowly during that period (1977 to 1991) than did any other   segment of the law school budget. MacCrate p. 249

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today - A Self Study Report on the Problems of Legal Education and on the Steps The Massachusetts School of Law Has Taken to Overcome Them, Massachusetts School of Law, 1992 (MSL)

Munneke, Gary; The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, American Bar Association Career Series, 1992 (Munneke)

Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum - Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap. The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, 1992, "The MacCrate Report" (MacCrate)

Edwards, Harry T; The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education and The Legal Profession. 91 Michigan Law Review 8478, Oct 1992 (Edwards)

Since in so much I have written I have taken quotes from the ABA's MacCrate Report and one issued by the Mass School of Law, both in 1992, I decided to publish (in three parts) a handout I distributed at a panel I moderated for the National Lawyers Guild in 1993 which is primarily quotes from both.

Aspects of the Traditional Law School Experience Which Inhibit or Divert Law Students From Careers Serving the Legal Needs of the Public.

4. THE FACULTY. AND THE DEANS HAVE LIMITED OR NO EXPERIENCE IN THE PRACTICE OF LAW, LACK THE KNOWLEDGE OR INTEREST TO PROVIDE COURSE AND CAREER ADVICE TO STUDENTS AND ARE GENERALLY UNAVAILABLE

Although law schools exist to train persons to practice law, ,.. It has thus been correctly said that in no profession has there been a greater gulf between the academic and practicing sides. This gulf has increased because law professors have largely been individuals with little or no experience in practice and disdain for it; they have thus lacked the knowledge and experience needed to impart practical skills and still less have they desired to .do so. MSL p. 41

There may also be a lack of interest on the part of some faculty in either learning new teaching methods or in the nature of the skills material. MacCrate p. 240

(Law review articles are) ... mainly produced by persons who "are in greater part .,. competent enough teachers without anything original to write, doomed to scholarly mediocrity by academic imperative ...urged to jump through hoops help up by the local promotion and tenure  committee...fueled by faculty self~studies, administrative mission statements, and fiats laid down  by the Association of American Law Schools ..Analysis, research, and writing are overblown, while classroom competence, community services, and non-law review scholarship are under-credited The system is askew. The academy has a problem." MSL p. 193 citing Kenneth Larson, 103 Harvard Law Review 928

Many "elite" law faculties in the United States now have significant contingents of "impractical" scholars, who are "disdainful of the practice of law." The "impractical" scholar ,... produces abstract scholarship  that has little relevance to concrete issues, or addresses concrete issues in a wholly theoretical manner. As a consequence, it is my impression that judges, administrators, legislators, and practitioners have little use for much for the scholarship that is now produced by members of the academy. Edwards p. 35

5. THE LAW SCHOOL FAILS TO TEACH OR STRESS THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION - "A LAWYER SHOULD PROMOTE JUSTICE, FAIRNESS AND MORALITY IN ONE'S DAILY PRACTlCE" NOR DOES IT MAKE STUDENTS AWARE OF THE REALITY OF THE MALDISTRIBTJTION OF LEGAL SERVICES IN SOCIETY.

Law students need concrete ethical training. They need to know why pro bono work is important.  They need to understand their duties as "officers of the court."...as law firms have become  increasingly materialistic - as pro bono work has been displaced by profit-maximization, and the "officers of the court" by the "hired guns" - we can no longer count on the law firms to be "law schools." Edwards, p. 38

Julin, (former ABA Section of Legal Education Council Chair) believes that law schools must  change drastically if they are to be socially responsible. "(Our suggestions) represent a recognition that law is still a profession, that lawyers must be educated to service  public needs competently yet at an affordable cost, and that legal educators have a most fundamental public responsibility to create the appropriate education programs to achieve the delineated societal roles for  law trained individuals. MSL p. 150

(T)he Statement of Skills and Values identifies, as a fundamental professional value, the need to "promote justice, fairness and morality." Law school deans, professors, administrators and staff must not only promote these values by words but must so conduct themselves as to convey to   students that these values are essential ingredients of our profession. Too often, the Socratic method of teaching emphasizes qualities that have little to do with justice, fairness and morality in daily practice. Students too easily gain the impression that wit .... and dazzling performance are more important that the personal moral values that lawyers must possess and that the  profession must espouse. The promotion of these values requires no resources and no institutional changes. It does require commitment. MacCrate p. 236

6. THE LAW SCHOOL IS INDIFFERENT TO STUDENTS' POST-GRADUATION PLANS; IT PROVIDES LITTLE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND FAILS TO MAKE STUDENTS AWARE OF, OR PREPARE THEM TO PRACTICE IN, THE MANY SETTINGS OPEN TO THEM.

Career education should be taught as an integral part of the educational process .... Teaching law students about the variety of legal careers and employment prospects in these careers is integral to the academic program of the law school. Munneke p. 82

(T)here are many career skills that are commonly not developed during the education  process..(L)earning how to make career decisions and look for a job involves an entire set of skills that the formal educational process frequently does not address. Munneke p. 22

As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should be committed to the value of "Selecting and Maintaining Employment That will allow the Lawyer to Develop as a Professional and to pursue his or her professional and personal goals." In order to find employment that is consistent with his or her professional goals and personal values, a lawyer must be familiar with the range of traditional and non-traditional employment opportunities for lawyers, MacCrate p. 220

Greater knowledge of what lawyers do in the various sectors of practice can be useful to legal educators in better preparing students for the realities of practice.... The great diversity in practice settings and in what lawyers do challenges law schools to identify the skills and values which are common to lawyering in all its settings, to provide a rational and effective beginning for their students' professional development, and to mpart to their students the legal knowledge which each will need to have upon entering practice. MacCrate p. 35

                                                  BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today - A Self Study Report on the Problems of Legal Education and on the Steps The Massachusetts School of Law Has Taken to Overcome Them, Massachusetts School of Law, 1992 (MSL)

Munneke, Gary; The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, American Bar Association Career Series, 1992 (Munneke)

Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum - Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap. The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, 1992, "The MacCrate Report" (MacCrate)

Edwards, Harry T; The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education and The Legal Profession. 91 Michigan Law Review 8478, Oct 1992 (Edwards)

Since in so much I have written I have taken quotes from the ABA's MacCrate Report and one issued by the Mass School of Law, both in 1992, I decided to publish (in three parts) a handout I distributed at a panel I moderated for the National Lawyers Guild in 1993 which  is primarily quotes from both.

Aspects of the Traditional Law School Experience Which Inhibit or Divert Law Students From Careers Serving the Legal Needs of the Public.

INTRODUCTION

Law school will give new meaning to the word challenge. From the law school you attend, to your class rank, to your extra-curricular activities, to your work experience, everything and everyone will seem to conspire to stand between you and the job you want." Munneke p. 78

(T)he problems besetting academia - problems such as excess costs, lack of sufficient work by professors, exclusive concentration by professors on research with resulting inattention to teaching and administrative tasks, an ever increasing spiral of tuition resulting from the foregoing phenomena, and failure by law, engineering and business schools to teach students the skills they need in the professions they have been trained for. MSL p. 459

1. THE CURRICULUM FAILS TO TEACH STUDENTS MANY OF THE SKILLS NEEDED TO BE A COMPETENT LAWYER - PROBLEM SOLVING, FACTUAL INVESTIGATION, COMMUNICATION, COUNSELING, NEGOTIATION,  MANAGING LEGAL WORK EFFECTIVELY AND RESOLVING ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Ask any practicing lawyer: "Is a new law school graduate ready to practice law?" The answer will invariably be an emphatic "No!" Most of us readily accept the seeming inconsistency between the notion that when we take the bar examination, we know more law than we have ever known before or will know again, and that we know frightfully little about being a lawyer. Munneke p. 20

If professional competence is the goal, the fact is troubling that so many young lawyers are seen as lacking the required skills and values at the time the lawyer assumes full responsibility for  handling a clients legal affairs. Much remains to be done to improve the preparation of new lawyers for practice...MacCrate p. 266

2. THE TEACHING METHOD PROVIDES   TOO FEW SUPERVISED CLINICAL EXPERIENCES AND TOO FEW  SIMULATION AND ROLE PLAYING, COMPUTER-ASSISTED LEARNING, PLANNING AND WRITING EXERCISES.

 ...If the students intend to become experts in, say,  contract law, they will likely be taught contracts by a  professor who has üever sat across from a living client,  who has never considered the grave, long-lasting  personal and social consequences of the agreement he is to write. Generally the students will never draft a  contract themselves, or likely ever see one in law school. ... The professors were not training young attorneys to represent people. They were teaching their students only what they themselves knew. The art of studying law." MSL p. 146 quoting trial lawyer Gerry Spence

Law professors .,..could not impart the professional techniques needed at the bar and the mores and habits of the profession ... (or) be the instruments for students' necessary socialization to the profession,...(and) results ..in less capable teaching even in "academic subjects"  For the best theoretical instruction, as is well known to students of pedagogy and learning theory, is instruction which illustrates the theoretical by the practical.  MSL p. 132

"What would we say of a medical school where students were taught surgery solely from the printed page? No one, if he could do otherwise, would teach the art of playing golf by having the teacher talk about golf to the Prospective player and having the latter read a book relating to the subject." MSL p. 166 quoting Judge Prank

(R)elatively few law students have exposure to the full range of professional skills offerings. The Task force found that the majority of graduating law students had four or fewer skills  experiences" (simulated skills, clinics, externships or others) while in law school. When classes of first year "Introduction to Lawyering'.... legal writing and research...trial advocacy.., and moot court were removed from the list, the majority of graduating students had only one., or no... additional exposures to professions skills instruction ...professional skills training occupies only nine (9%) percent of the total instructional time available to law schools. MacCrate p. 240

3. STUDENTS LACKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO PRACTICE COMPETENTLY CANNOT MAKE AN  INFORMED CAREER DECISION AND DEVELOP A HIGHLY IMPAIRED SENSE OF SELF.WORTH.

The statement, "You are unique," may not strike you as particularly profound ... Your many accomplishments set you apart from the crowd.  Unfortunately, many law students lose their  confidence in their own uniqueness as soon as they begin to look for a job. They act like they are fungible. They talk like they have no special skills. Part of the reason lies in the law school  experience itself:,., During your first year, you learn that you are almost never right. By your senior year, you discover that despite years of studying theory and black letter law, you know little about practicing law..,.Munneke p. 133

Alan Stone, a psychiatrist (and former head of the American Psychiatric Association) who is on the faculty of the Harvard Law School. "The faculty make themselves relatively inaccessible to students in order to gain time to do their own highly theoretical work" ..The crucial human attribute which the law school ignores, and indeed in many cases defeats" says Stone, "is the student's sense of self esteem" The lack of concern for such esteem ...results in "ever increasing disengagement from the formal educational process (and) ..,is to be contrasted with the  experience of the medical students, who, during his last two years, is given increasing professional responsibility in the clinic and ward." MSL p. 154

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today - A Self Study Report on the Problems of Legal Education and on the Steps The Massachusetts School of Law Has Taken to Overcome Them, Massachusetts School of Law, 1992 (MSL)

Munneke, Gary; The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer, American Bar Association Career Series, 1992 (Munneke)

Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum - Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap. The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, 1992, "The MacCrate Report" (MacCrate)

Edwards, Harry T; The Growing Disjunction Between Legal Education and The Legal Profession. 91 Michigan Law Review 8478, Oct 1992 (Edwards)

I recently read about the gathering of law students from a number of law schools that are difficult to get into who have joined together to form Building a Better Legal Profession, (BBLP) which, according to its mission state, is "a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms".

I do not know whether this messsage was ever received by BBLP since as of this moment I have not received a response

I welcome your comments.

Ron

Hi

As a regular contributor to twitter, a blogger and one who has followed and commented on the activities of the BBLP, I suppose that qualifies me as one doing a story on BBLP.

During my five years (1984-89) as the public interest advisor at Harvard Law School and thereafter, I have observed the close working relationship between the selective law schools and BigLaw. I know how the law schools' deficiencies and defects work to, as I refer to it, "funnel" their students to BigLaw.  If you would like to read a few things I have written on this subject, you can go to Overcoming Law Schools Defects (original title in 1996 "Looking for Law in All the Wrong Places: Choosing the Best Law School") and any of the posts on my blog such as Request of Ronald W. Fox to be Appointed Law School Industry Czar.

During my 5 years at Harvard I watched as a majority of each class indicated an interest in serving individuals, the public, non-profits, small businesses and/or being an entrepreneur but 95% ended up in BigLaw and, based on my experience advising lawyers and keeping up with news and surveys, the level of dissatisfaction among lawyers has been higher than most other occupations for decades. The economic downturn will certainly have an effect on the class of 2009 but I wonder how different the figures of those starting their careers in BigLaw were for the class of 2007.

One topic that I don't think gets enough attention is the unmet legal needs of the public. That was my focus early on in the 70's. Every area that I looked at there were not enough lawyers so I began to create and implement lawyer referral projects, divorce mediation, an association of law clinics and other legal delivery systems. My original interest in becoming the public interest advisor at Harvard Law School in 1983 was to increase the access of the underserved to lawyers who entered law school hoping to represent them. In 1981 Lloyd Cutler said that 95% of lawyers time is devoted to the 1% wealthiest of our society, 5% of our time goes to represent the poorest and the rest of society gets virtually none of our time. I recently read statistics indicating that there is still an extraordinarily high percentage of the public unable to secure the services of a lawyer for the majority of the serious legal issues they have (something like only 20% of the legal needs of the poorest 45,000,000 in this country are met).

Have you read the MacCrate Report? How about Larry Velvel's "The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today"? and what about Ron Fox's Lawful Pursuit: Careers in Public Interest Law?

There is a such a great need for a better legal profession!

There may be a wide range of other committees of your organization looking at other aspects of reform of the legal profession so I apologize for being unaware of the breadth of the organization's mission, goals and activities but I have only read the story about BBPL's effort to change BigLaw.

So, I would like to know:

Does BBLP have as its primary focus changing BigLaw? BigLaw is such a small percentage of the legal profession.

Does BBLP you plan to search for, provide support for and encourage law students to seek positions with high quality superlawyers in Small/Law?

Does BBLP support the elimination of on-campus interviewing so that the law schools could begin to provide genuine career planning services?

Does BBLP support demanding that the law schools reduce the cost of attending law school by eliminating the useless third year?

Does BBLP support demanding that the law schools teach the fundamental skills and fundamental values to their students so that when they graduate, they have the confidence, as one of my students once put it, "to BE good, rather than feeling the need to go someplace they think is good".

Does BBLP support demanding that the law schools breathe life into this fundamental value of the legal profession - the commitment of our profession to promote justice and serve the public and work to insure that its students have a realistic opportunity to do so upon graduation?

Would BBLP's goals be met if 95% of the graduates of the "selective" law schools became associates at kindler, gentler BigLaw providing legal services to 1% of society?

I invite you to contact me if you would like to discuss any of this further.

Ron Fox

Becoming a Lawyer without Needing to Attend Law School

The background of this letter is that there are seven states which permit apprenticeship (working for a lawyer and studying the law) as a road to becoming a lawyer there. The states are Vermont, New York, Washington, Virginia, California, Maine and Wyoming. A few years ago as Massachusetts considered buying an existing law school and making it a public law school, I wrote to a state legislator I have known for years with my suggestion, attaching an excerpt of a 1996 article about apprenticeship in the Boston Globe and my response to it.

The apprenticeship program has two potentially great advantages over the traditional law school. The first is its pragmatic emphasis on learning how to practice law. That benefit, of course, is dependent on how qualified and how willing the mentor is to guide and teach the apprentice. It is also limited to the skills of the particular context within which one finds an apprenticeship. The second is the cost of obtaining the degree. Even if the apprentice must volunteer his or her time, there is no need to pay tuition. Apprenticeships run into some problems, however, when it comes to learning fundamental values of the profession, and to learning about the range and diversity of practice options. Again, the particularity of the setting can be enlarging or limiting. One's access to a wide legal community, if only through vicarious knowledge, may be limited compared to what, ideally, is available in a law school. "Alternatives to Law School for Those who Want to be a Lawyers"

LETTER TO MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATOR

Dear _____

I have not forgotten our conversation about a new public law school. I thought my proposal might be more timely if, as may be the case, the University of Massachusetts does not take over the Southern New England School of Law.

I strongly believe that law school legal education in most of today's law schools simply fails to adequately prepare law students to be lawyers. Law students are not taught either the skills or the values they need in order to be competent lawyers. Support for this can be found: in my book, "Lawful Pursuit: Careers in Public Interest Law" and the MacCrate Report, both published by the American Bar Association; "The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today" published by the Massachusetts School of Law; and my article on the internet column of which I am a co-author entitled Overcoming Law School Defects (formerly titled "Looking For Law in All the Wrong Places? Choosing the Best Law School"

Worse yet, the law schools divert (either intentionally or through gross negligence) law students away from representing 95% of the public.

My proposal is simple. The state should adopt a law which would allow residents to take the bar examination after a prescribed apprenticeship without having to attend law school. The Univeristy of Massachusetts would establish a law department which would provide support, guidance and assistance to those wishing to undertake an apprenticeship in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and any other states where apprenticeships are authorized.

I have attached excerpts from a 1996 Boston Globe article and my letter to the reporter giving some reasons for my suggestion. More appears in another of my articles entitled "Alternatives to Law School for Those Who Want to Be Lawyers"   

Please contact me if you would like to meet to discuss this further. In the meantime feel free to forward this to anyone who you think might be interested. Should you have a need for it, I have also attached my bio at the end of this message.

Cordially

Ron

EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE IN THE OCTOBER 20, 1996, BOSTON GLOBE "VT BARRISTERS BYPASS SCHOOL - RELIC OF DAYS PAST ALLOWS SELF-TAUGHT LAWYERS TO BE SWORN IN" BY KATHLEEN BURGE 

Three of Vermont's state judges never graduated from law school. Neither did the defender general, Robert Appell, a former auto mechanic. Nor did dozens of lawyers like Randall Gilmour, one of the newest batch of attorneys who will be sworn in by the state next week. Instead of being grilled by law school professors on torts and rules of evidence, these lawyers and judges studied on their own while working as paid clerks in law firms.

Vermont and seven other states have an unusual rule, a relic of the days when most layers were self-taught: People who have not attended law school can take the bar exam. Two who passed will be sworn in as lawyers on Thursday.

Vermont, which had no law school until 1972, has few requirements for those who learn the law outside a classroom. They must study four years under a sponsoring attorney, and file progress reports with the Board of Bar Examiners twice a year.

EXCERPT FROM OCTOBER 23, 1996 LETTER FROM RONALD FOX TO MS. KATHLEEN BURGE

You wrote an excellent article in the Sunday Globe, October 30, 1996, on lawyers bypassing law school but their approach, rather than being a "relic of days past", may be the wave of the future.

The crisis in the legal system today is that while we graduate 35,000 lawyers a year, only an incredibly small percentage of individuals have access to lawyers, Many law schools report that upwards of 40% of their students would like careers serving law and middle income people but very few graduates take such positions, a predictable result of the traditional law school experience which incredibly allows them to graduate without knowing how to practice law. For 100 years law schools have limited their role to the first stage of legal education - learning to think like a lawyer.

As a result few students leave law school with the confidence to undertake individual representation. In addition, law schools offer little awareness of the range of options for practice leaving graduates who want to help women suffering in abusive marital situations unaware that small firms exist that limit themselves to family and domestic relations work. Finally, law schools charge an exorbitant amount for the services they provide and bring intense pressure on their students to consider only high paying positions contrary to many of their personal values and professional goals to increase the law school's prestige and to pay off the high debt they incurred to pay law school salaries and expenses.

"Reading the law" has much to be said in its favor. Those following this path are likely to learn how to practice law, learn about a wide range of settings and fields in which lawyers use their training, and learn how to look for position. The lessening and, for many, the elimination of the profound and devastating effect that debt has on career choice will significantly increase the number of lawyers that will take positions serving the legal needs of the public.

 States should be encouraged to consider adopting this approach as one way to live up to our oft-stated  societal promise of equal access to the justice system. 

(Note the use of the Roman numerals in the title. While it might be inconsistent with a Russian theme, I thought it might gain the status of the NFL Super Bowl.)

When asked whether a new law school graduate is ready to practice law, most say "No."

The basis for the problem is that for over one hundred years law schools have seen their mission as teaching students how to think like a lawyer - what might be referred to as a Graduate School Model, uniformly rejecting the medical school approach which prepares students to practice their profession - the Professional School Model. The MacCrate report strongly criticizes law schools for their heavy reliance on the Socratic method and appellate case analysis as somewhat effective in teaching legal reasoning and research but not so for the other eight fundamental skills needed by the practitioner (problem solving, factual investigation, communication, counseling, negotiation, litigation and ADR, organization and management of legal work, recognizing and resolving ethical dilemmas.

"Relatively few law students have exposure to the full range of professional skills offerings. The Task Force found that the majority of graduating law students had four of fewer skills "experiences" (simulated skills, clinics, externships or others) while in law school... professional skills training occupies only nine (9%) of the total instructional time available at law schools." MacCrate Report, p 240 based on 1990-91 data.

With millions suffering because of inaccessibility of legal services, we need to insure that thousands of law students each year do not abandon their hopes and visions of using their legal training to help individuals, effect social change or simply serve the legal needs of the public. We need to provide them the training they need to be able to do so. .

"What would we say of a medical school where students were taught surgery solely from the printed page? No one, if he could do otherwise, would teach the art of playing golf by having the teacher talk about golf to the prospective player and having the latter read a book relating to the subject" Judge Frank, MSL p. 166

Within 60 days all law schools will submit to my office a report which includes:

For the current academic year, the number of clinical and the number of simulated teaching courses including how many available slots for each class there are and what percentage that represents of all slots for all classes.

A tentative curriculum for the next academic year at least half of which courses will be experiential and at least half of those will be simulated (teacher will present information or a concept, the student will "perform" and the student will then be evaluated - a pedagogical approach less expensive than clinics.) The plan will include assurances that those teaching the courses have or will secure the education required to teach such courses. .

For both the current list of course offerings and the tentative curriculum for the next academic year, please note for each course which of the ten fundamental skills will be taught in that course as well as the components of experiential instruction incorporated in any course.

I expect that every law school graduate will be a professional; i.e., have knowledge of a craft, autonomy, be treated with respect and do meaningful work serving clients who need their services.

Comments?

As you may have read, I am campaigning to be appointed Law School Industry Czar ("LSI Czar")  based on the platform that law schools have failed students, graduates/lawyers and the public. To allow time for public input, I am publishing now the Ukases (edicts of the Czars) I expect to promulgate upon taking the position.

For future reference there will be frequent references to my two bibles: the first is Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum - The Report of The Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap published by the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in 1992 ("MacCrate Report")

The second was also published in 1992 and is titled The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today - A Self-Study Report On The Problems Of Legal Education And On The Steps The Massachusetts School Of Law Has Taken To Overcome Them. ("MSL Report")  

Some law school deans have expressed the concern that compliance with my Ukases may cause them to be in conflict with the ABA council that accredits law schools. Not to worry. The US Department of Education recently named the LSI Czar as the recognized national agency for the accreditation of legal education programs leading to a first degree.  

LSI Czar Ukase I

Every law school will immediately review its mission - that brief statement that describes its purpose. While there will be no mandatory provisions, law schools will be looked upon favorably (take that as you will) if it contains provisions about training lawyers to practice law and about serving the legal needs of the public such as that which can be found on the website of Stanford Law School:.

"Stanford Law School's basic mission has not changed since Nathan Abbott's day: dedication to the highest standards of excellence in legal scholarship and to the training of lawyers equipped diligently, imaginatively, and honorably to serve their clients and the public; to lead our profession; and to help solve the problems of our nation and our world."

Within 60 days each law school will submit to the LSI Czar, based on its mission statement, a detailed outline of its goals (the broad outcome), strategies (the approaches to be taken), objectives (measurable steps to achieve the strategies) and tactics (the tools to be used).

As an example, suppose your mission includes helping to solve the problems of our nation. One goal might be to have your graduates prepared to provide competent representation to those combatting global warming. A strategy would be to develop a comprehensive educational plan that included courses, term-time employment and summer positions on relevant environmental issues. An objective might be to have ten (10) students secure positions working in the field at graduation (so you can measure the extent of your success). The tools would include: promotion of this major to the students; course descriptions that include what skills will be taught, a comprehensive list of all lawyers and organizations working on global warming and faculty assigned to each enrolled student to provide guidance and networking.   

An even more favorable view will be taken of a law school if its mission statement incorporates Section EC 1-1 of the ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility  

"A basic tenet of the professional responsibility of lawyers is that every person in our society should have ready access to the independent professional services of a lawyer of integrity and competence."