Wall Street Journal Article

Meet the Clients: Law schools rarely teach students how to be lawyers.

The recent arrest of Anderson Kill & Olick paralegal Brian Valery for practicing law without a license raises a number of questions about how the ersatz Fordham graduate could have gotten away with representing corporate clients in complex litigation--without ever having gone to law school. The more salient question, however, is: Would it have mattered if he had?

Legal education has been taking a beating recently. This month the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching issued a report criticizing the Socratic case method that dominates law-school teaching. According to the report, it does little to prepare lawyers to work with real clients or to resolve morally complex issues. Several months ago Harvard Law School announced a reform of its first-year curriculum to require classes in "problem solving," among other things. There appears to be an emerging consensus that although law schools may teach students how to "think like a lawyer," they don't really teach them how to be a lawyer.It is hard not to agree.

One of the biggest problems with the current state of legal education is its emphasis on books rather than people. By reading about the law rather than engaging in it, students end up with the misperception that lawyers spend most of their time debating the niceties of the Rule Against Perpetuities rather than sorting out the messy, somewhat anarchic version of the truth that judges and courts care about. When they graduate, young lawyers rarely know how to interview clients, advocate for their positions, negotiate a settlement or perform any number of other tasks that lawyers do every day. In short, they are woefully unprepared to be lawyers, despite the outrageous hourly fees charged for their services.

By giving students the false idea that being a lawyer is all about intellectual debate, we also drive the wrong students to law school in the first place. The hordes of English majors who fill our classes might think twice if they knew that economics and mathematics--with their emphasis on problem-solving--are the best preparation for a career in law. Flowery prose is seldom valued by an overburdened judiciary.

In addition to misleading students, the current system harms clients who often assume that their lawyers have more experience than they do. The system works for no one except, perhaps, lawyers at the biggest firms who can hire teams of associates to do the legal research that the case method is good at teaching. It should come as no surprise that most members of law-school faculties are big-firm refugees who graduated from elite schools and have little incentive to change the system.In the good old days, of course, lawyers didn't think they could learn the law through a series of hypotheticals. Instead, like most of the Founding Fathers, they apprenticed themselves to practitioners and learned the skills they needed by doing. The case method was invented in the late 1800s by Christopher Columbus Langdell, the dean of Harvard Law School. (Harvard Law wasn't even founded until 1817.)

Formal licensing requirements followed, and soon the state bars imposed exams upon the newly graduated that reinforced the notion that being a lawyer meant memorizing definitions and rules. Along the way, few bothered to ask if clients were actually well-served by a lawyer who knew the difference between assault and battery but couldn't negotiate a plea bargain for someone who had committed either.

These days, to call law school a "trade school" is considered an insult to the establishment. Professors are firmly entrenched in their intellectual camps and pursue their academic agendas. Faculty members with "real world" experience are rarely hired on that basis alone--although it is quite common to hire professors who have clerked for judges but never practiced at all. The Carnegie Foundation is to be admired for advocating more clinical education, in which students will have an opportunity to learn some hands-on skills.But at the moment law-school clinics are short-term experiences. Students engage in limited representations in a specific field of practice, usually with a liberal tilt. (When was the last time, for example, that a law school opened a clinic to help small-business owners deal with claims brought against them under the Americans with Disabilities Act?) A few more clinics will not change the fundamental prejudice against experiential training when the entire system is rigged against it.

If law schools really want to change the way they train young lawyers, they would look to medical schools. The latter require clinical "rotations" in the last two years of a student's education and then demand at least one more year of training after graduation. By the time your doctor is licensed, he has examined hundreds of patients.While many new lawyers will start out at big firms where they will rarely get to meet a client, most still go to smaller firms where they will meet clients immediately. The state bars profess interest in protecting the public, but none seem to care whether new lawyers can actually do the tasks with which they will soon be confronted.

Of course, law schools do not have the luxury of large teaching hospitals, with a mostly compliant indigent population on which their greenhorns can practice. And lawyers can't perform needle sticks on a corpse, as doctors can (no jokes, please). They are also restricted by the accrediting rules of the American Bar Association, which limit how many clinical hours a student may take.But law schools can still act. They could team with local practitioners and institutions and demand that their students gain sustained clinical experience--broadly defined to include anyone needing legal help, not just the usual (nonprofit) suspects. The state bars could refuse to license lawyers until they performed at least one year of postgraduate work, as some other countries require.Law is not brain surgery. It is a skill that can be acquired through practice and repetition. This is perhaps the most interesting lesson from Brian Valery, the over-ambitious paralegal: He fooled those around him who ought to have known best. In the late 1990s, I litigated against another paralegal who later pleaded no contest to five criminal misdemeanor charges of unlicensed law practice. What struck me about him at the time was how good he was at his job. He blustered, bluffed, threatened and cajoled with the best of them. He knew the law and argued it capably. But then again, he learned his trade the old-fashioned way: He practiced it.

Tidbits Revealed

JACKASS - Male rock star..I want to say 5 number ones, but Google says 6..solo act...hotel elevator after a concert..groupies (Band-Aids to my buddy Cameron and to my friend Kate who always makes me smile) pressing items to be signed into the elevator...(1) a woman in her 70's is on the elevator and a hotel guest..(2)me.... (3) singer's manager..the woman in her 70's has no idea what is going on and would rather be anyplace else..(btw I have no idea what she was doing up so late) girls are screaming and trying to claw their way to the elevator..singer grabs his crotch and says, "yeah girls want some of that don't ya?" and then turns to the woman in her 70's and says "I bet you could use some too huh?"..By this time he has accumulated a handful of Sharpies and begins to throw them out the elevator and the girls go scrambling for them, falling down as they do so..The manager hits the close button on the elevator and the singer reaches over and pushed the door open button and says.."not so fast..I love to watch them crawl..right where they belong.."then he lets the elevator door close..

(Bryan Adams)

What British actress/model has gone back to her old flame of many years because she cannot stand her husband to be? The only problem...she has not told her husband to be, and the old flame also has someone as well...

(Liz Hurley)

What music producer’s wife is afraid of having her secret life with women revealed?

(Kimora Simmons)

So imagine if you will a 4-story walk up (for those of you not familiar with the term, think a building with 3 apartments and you have to "walk up" to get to the upper floors) in NYC that is in need of a little repair but that has become the home of celebrities within the three units in the building.One of the neighbors is a celebrity couple with a new baby. The wife has a brother who is an actor who is friends with a bicyclist who is friends with an actor who loves hanging out shirtless.Seriously, you should have that part by now.So anyway, a new celebrity moves into the building. An A-lister as both a producer and actress. This new neighbor wants everyone to call her "Chris." NEVER call her by her real name. There is no such person who lives in the building. The new neighbor is just a normal person named "Chris." Look past the fact that most normal people do not have an assistant living with them 24 hours a day constantly reminding people that only "Chris" lives there. I guess you could look past the fact that the actress sits on her front steps outside typing away on her laptop, smoking, chatting with passerby, but is just "Chris" when she goes back inside.Actual situation and conversation–There is a play date with a neighbor and the celebrity couple who live on the 4th floor. Neighbor has a huge stroller and does not want to carry it up four flights of stairs. Knock on door of the first floor apartment of our reclusive celebrity.Assistant answers the door -"Excuse me, is there anyway I can leave this stroller down here in the foyer. As you can see it is heavy and I am already carrying this 2 year old. So would you ask _______ if it is ok?"The assistant replies, "there is no one who lives here by that name. Chris is the person who lives here and would have to make that decision. You will have to ask Chris.""May I please ask her then?" asked the woman carrying the now screaming 2 year old."Chris is not here right now, and I do not know when she will be back."With that the door slams shut, and our neighbor left the stroller downstairs anyway. Good for her.

(Drew Barrymore)

What married female pop star keeps coming back to her same basic hairstyle, look, and appearance because when she changes it, her husband wanders off to find a transsexual who has that look?

(Gwen Stefani)

What B+ actor who has worked with the brother of our celebrity couple yesterday has a thing for women that look exactly like his sister? When this actor is with his sister or his girlfriend no one can tell the difference at least from the front. Several people have mentioned that the actor’s sister has a little more back. Is that why the girlfriend has been putting on weight?

(Heath Ledger)

This actress/ mother in her 30's has always worked as an actress since her arrival in Hollywood. A bit part here and a bit part here, until while working for a notorious Hollywood madam she ran into a big spending, playboy/actor/trick who just could not get enough of her. He changed her life and got her more work allowing her to rise to a comfortable B Lister.

(Denise Richards)

This A list actor and producer loves filming movies outside the US. The reason? He does not like the labor laws in the US. For his latest movie, he made all the extras including the children work for up to 19 hours straight often without any type of meal breaks. If anyone complained, they were fired, sent home without the money they had been promised, and replaced with someone else not as picky about food and working conditions.

(Mel Gibson)


This actor was in the highest grossing film of all time. However that does not seem to be enough magic to get his on again off again long-time girlfriend to the altar. She loves him, BUT is never going to get married to him or any other MAN.

(Billy Zane)

This married A++ actress was attached to do a movie but wanted a certain actor to play opposite her. The actor was not interested but our actress thought she could convince him and the studio believed her. The studio chartered a jet and our actress flew 11 hours one way and 12 hours on the return flight. All of this travel for about six hours of alone time with the actor who still did not want to do the movie but had a great deal of fun doing something else. The actress returned home, broke the sad news to the studio, broke off her own involvement in the project and ultimately cost the studio a great deal of money but it was her satisfaction that was most important and so they still do business together.

(Julia Roberts)

This actor has always had a hard time remaining faithful. He has really made a name for himself and in the last 5 years has become if not A list then very close. I am sure he has Wheaties for breakfast. Anyway, the relationship he never had but maybe did have with a woman who was married and that ended because of the relationship they never had by maybe did have is already over. On the set of his new movie he has found lust/love with this stunt woman turned actress. Lots of spies trying to get a photo but no luck so far.

(Owen Wilson)

Hi All

Sorry there haven't been any post. I've been on vacation. Also, unless anything great happens, I probably won't have time to research and write about gossip until after exams. But, next month, it'll be back to normal.

Parting Ways

Interesting article about what your hair part says about your personality and how you are perceived.

• Men W/Left Part: Natural for men, usually works well for them. Perceived as popular, successful, strong, traditional. Can be out of touch with the feminine side of themselves. Examples: John Wayne, Tom Brokaw, John F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy
• Women W/Left Part: Usually ok, especially for women interested in making it in business and politics. Perceived as intelligent, incharge, reliable. Can sometimes be perceived as too “masculine”, and/or can create difficulties with fulfilling traditionally feminine roles. Examples: Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Christine Todd Whitman
• Men W/Right Part: Usually unnatural for men. Can create an uncomfortable image; can cause social shunning, sometimes leading to unusual or eccentric behavior. Perceived as atypical, open, radical. Can work ok if the man is very confident, attractive, or striving to be respected in a non-traditional male role. Examples: Al Gore, Rush Limbaugh, Robert F. Kennedy, Charlie Rose, Tom Snyder
• Women W/Right Part: Natural for women. Usually works ok. Perceived as very feminine, gentle, caring. Can cause problems of not being taken seriously. Examples: Martha Stewart, Jane Pauley, Betsy McCaughey Ross, Geraldine Ferrar
• Men + Women W/No Part, Center Part or Bald: Natural for men and women. Perceived as balanced, trustworthy and wise. Can lack the flair associated with the other types. Examples: U.S. Presidents 1-9, Joseph P. Kennedy II, Sean Connery

http://www.truemirror.com/hp/hpttmc1999.pdf

This is a real University Essay titled, "Planes, Trains, and Plantains: The story of Oedipus" submitted November 30, 2004. View all 7 pages.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/image/essay/1