Lawyers : An American Epidemic
Over
70% of the worlds lawyers live in the U.S.
The
U.S. has over 900,000 lawyers !
That’s
one lawyer for every 300 Americans.
Washington
D.C. boasts 1 lawyer for every 22 people!
Number
of Law Students Enrolled : 125,000
Number
of New Lawyers every year : 40,000
Are There too many Lawyers ?
Arguments
for Lawyers :
Mike
Davis, a former law school dean, has developed 4 reasons which help account for
the rapid growth in the legal profession :
1. Prosperity and Mobility :
Higher standards of living leads people to need the assistance of lawyers more
often when buying property, setting up tax shelters, and opening business.
2. Regulation : Increase in civil rights, safety standards,
and other regulations creates an increased need for lawyers.
3. Expanded Rights : Increasing constitutional rights for
individuals (like the Miranda decision) , and more stringent prosecution of
juvenile offenders requires more lawyers.
4. Litigiousness : Due to the rapid mobility of our high tech
culture, people are looking outside of family and community to solve
problems. The courts are seen as a
problem solving solution for disputes we used to settle among ourselves.
Essentially,
Davis states that as our society becomes more complex, the need for lawyers
will steadily increase.
Arguments
against lawyers :
They
redistribute wealth without producing anything, therefore they are a drain on
our economy. (Coblentz, 83)
Many
talented people end up being lawyers when they could have done something useful
with their lives. (Bok, 93)
The Training of Lawyers
As
the legal profession grows in this country, standards for becoming a lawyer
have been raised.
In
the 1800's, an individual who wanted to practivce law would apprentice with a
lawyer for a year or two, take an unstandardized oral examination, and was then
declared a lawyer.
Presently, you must attend an accredited
law school and then pass a bar exam given by the state where you desire to
practice law.
The American Bar Association must approve of the law school curriculum in order
for the institution to become accredited.
Of
the 206 American law schools, 179 have received ABA accreditation ( which must
be renewed every 7 years).
Most
unaccredited institutions (24) are in California, which still allows the
apprentice method.
Legal Training
Law
School education was dramatized in the once popular series "The Paper
Chase"
Three
Major aspects of Law School :
The
case Method of Study : Understanding the law by
studying specific cases and determining the key elements of law pertaining to
each case.
Learning
the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct : Standards for Ethical
behavior is also taught .
The
Socratic Method : Dating back to Socrates, this
method encourages learning by having students answer questions about specific
cases during class. This is an active
learning approach and research has shown active learning to produce superior
recall compared to passive learning techniques.
In
the purest form, the student is questioned until they contradict themselves or
can provide no more explanation of their position.
The
Socratic method is supposed to inspire intelligent exchanges which will
illuminate certain aspects of the law.
Specialized Skills Training
In
addition to merely learning about the law, prospective lawyers must be taught
about the practice of law as well.
Law
Schools have 3 major ways of teaching these skills :
Externships
: Students earn academic credit for clerking
for judges or doing legal research for a private practice attorney.
"Live-Client"
Clinics :
Working under the supervison of a real lawyer, students dispense legal aid and
advice to the community at free clinics.
Simulation
Courses :
Students role play various legal responsibilities. For example, in moot
court, lawyers can play either the defense or prosecuting attorney.
Going
to and completing Law School
American
Bar Association (1997) : "Law schools prefer students who can think, read,
and write well, and who have some understanding of what shapes human
experience.
Personality
traits of law students and success :
Miller(1967)
: Used the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type
Indicator) to classify law students during first year and correlated drop out
rate with personality type.
11%
of the "Thinkers" dropped out by end of 2nd year.
20%
of the "Feelers" dropped out by end of 2nd year.
Miller's
conclusion : If you truly care about people and are idealistic in what you
feel society should become, that you will probably be quite upset or unhappy
with the study and practice of law.
Comparing
Lawyers to the general population :
75%
of male lawyers and 60% of female lawyers would be classified as
"thinkers"
In
the gen. Pop., 60% of Males and 40% of Females are classified as
"thinkers"
Can
Law School change an individuals morality ?
Willgang
& Dunn (1982): Analyzed the moral
level of law students and observed whether or not it changed during their first
year at law school.
Their
results showed that law students overwhelmingly functioned at Conventional
levels of morality, and remained at stage 3 or 4 throughout their first year at
law school.
So
law school does not immediately turn people into cynical, uncaring monsters who
prey upon society.
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Women
and the legal profession
First
Female American Attorney became a lawyer in 1869.
Yale
agreed to admit women to law school in 1918.
Harvard
waited until 1947.
In
1975, only 5% of Lawyers were women.
By
1990-1991, this percentage had increased 4-fold, to 22%
In
1996, 43% of law students entering law school were female.
1996
ABA report on the status of women in Law still stated there were significant
problems in the following areas:
Hostility
and disrespect by male law students
Family
Care Burdens
Lack
of Role Models
Lack
of Confidence
Sexual
Harassment
Unequal
Classroom Participation