How on earth do you learn everything you need to know in just three years? Even allowing that sleep and recreation mostly go by the board. I know that other graduate programs, like med school, engineering and architecture, are also very intense, but they’re almost entirely practice-related, and law is so much about theory. How’s it done?
You don’t learn everything you need to know. You must realize that 3 years of law school isn’t comprehensive. It provides a foundation for understanding, and an introduction to many different fields of law. And in your last year you might get to focus on a field or two that interest you.
It’s easy to assume that any old lawyer has the answer to your troubles, but it’s not really the case. Mrs. Tonk is an attorney. She does criminal law. She can successfully convict (or get a away with) just about any crime.
But stuff like wills and trusts? Business law? Contract law? Environmental law? Corporate law? Nope. She had it in school and passed her exams. And she sure knows more than most non-attorneys; but compared to attorneys who work in those fields, her knowledge of those is trivial at best.
My neighbor Steve is tax attorney for a huge energy corporation. He gave me some very insightful tax advice that will save me and the Mrs. some big coin this year. But he probably doesn’t know the difference between an arraignment and discovery. Or many of the Miranda implications. Or hearsay.
And it would be improper for any attorney to take a fee for practicing in a field where they had little competence, e.g. if Mrs. Tonk were to represent a client in federal tax court.
With any post graduate program, the goal is to reach another level where you have demonstrated a minimum level of competency. Then the real learning begins.
There are supposedly three goals to law school:
- Learn to think like a lawyer
- Learn to write like a lawyer
- Learn how to do legal research
Many law students also:
- Learn how to be a starchy arrogant bastard
And that’s pretty much it. You get a taste of many different areas of law, pretty much so that you have a chance to decide what you like (required courses, like contracts and property, contain concepts that apply to many different areas, so they’re must-haves). But what you really need to learn is how to find the answers to the problems you’re presented with in real life. Therein comes the thinking, researching, and writing skills you picked up in law school.
I’m trying to avoid #4, but it ain’t easy…
I see. That ties in with what I’ve heard about what one has to do to prepare for the bar exam. Thank you.
The summer after my second year of law school, i was a summer associate at a large NYC law firm. My partner-adviser was the head of the firm’s real estate law department.
During my mid-summer evaluation, we went through comments from people for whom I had performed work. One associate wrote that I had failed to provide “pin cites” in the memo I wrote for her.
My advisor’s comment: “as I have know idea what they are, I don’t consider this a serious problem.”
Now, as a litigator, I realize that pin-cites ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD.
Lawstuff is probably even more specialized than medicine. At least all docs know where the kidney is. I have had occasion to ask personal legal advice (landlord-tenant, credit card law) from the lawyers in my firm via e-mail. Since we are a corporate law firm, 99% of the time, the other lawyers have no clue.
V.