PROFESSION AND ACADEMY: HOW ARE THEY ADDRESSING
MAJOR CHANGES IN LAW PRACTICE?
Leadership, Ethics and Democracy Initiative
University of Maryland School of Law
APRIL 28, 2010
LEARNING HOW TO BE A LAWYER IN AMERICA:
BEFORE OR AFTER THE LAW DEGREE?
Clark D. Cunningham
W. Lee Burge Professor of Law & Ethics
Director, National Institute for Teaching Ethics & Professionalism
Georgia State University College of Law
Home Page: http://law.gsu.edu/ccunningham/
1. Changes in the current practice of law
a. Bill Henderson on the demise of the “Cravath Model”
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/cravath-model
b. Paul Beach, Associate General Counsel, United Technologies
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/future-ed-pt1
Session 1: 35:30 - 52:00 minutes
40:00 – We are trying really hard to kill the billable hour
41:50 – We are trying to destroy the large pyramidal law firm structure
49:00 – We are one of those firms who does not allow 1st or 2nd year associates to work on our
matters without special permission, because they’re worthless
c. Rapid growth in solo practice:
Report of the ABA Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs
www.abanet.org/op/lamm/docs/accomplishments_for_website.pdf
2. Post-degree education for practice
a. Other common-law jurisdictions
Scotland
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/legal-education-scotland
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/scotland-peat
England and Wales
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/licensing-lawyers-england
Canada
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/canadian-bar-admissions
b. UCLA
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/ucla-transition-practice-llm
c. National Institute for Trial Advocacy
www.nita.org
d. CUNY Law School programs to support solo and small firm practitioners
http://law.gsu.edu/niftep/WorkshopS10-CUNY.htm
e. Signet Accreditation Program for Lawyers in Scotland
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/signet-accreditation
3. Law school courses that prepare for practice
a. Fundamentals of Law Practice at Georgia State: Charlotte Alexander article
http://law.gsu.edu/ccunningham/FLP/
b. Washington & Lee Third Year
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/developing-professional-judgment (pp 22-26)
c. First year programs at Indiana, Minnesota, Mercer
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/developing-professional-judgment (pp 19- 22)
d. New Hampshire bar exam alternative (over)
A Performance-Based Approach to Licensing Lawyers:
The New Hampshire “Two-Year Bar Examination”
www.teachinglegalethics.org/content/new-hampshire-two-year-bar-exam
Five years ago, effective July 1, 2005, the New Hampshire Supreme Court amended its rule on admission
to the bar to authorize a performance-based variant of the bar examination “to consist of rigorous,
repeated and comprehensive evaluation of legal skills and abilities.” 1To be eligible, a candidate must
pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, meet standard character and fitness
criteria, and have “successfully completed to the satisfaction of the board of bar examiners the
Daniel Webster Scholars Honors Program at the Franklin Pierce Law Center.” The Franklin Pierce
Law Center (Pierce Law) was founded in 1973 by the renowned patent lawyer, Robert H. Rines, as
an independent law school with a strong emphasis on intellectual property law. Located in
Concord, New Hamphire, the state capitol, Pierce Law is the state's only law school. 2
This “rigorous, repeated and comprehensive evaluation” occurs during the second and third
years of law school for students participating in the Daniel Webster Scholars (DWS) program at
Pierce Law and is thus sometimes referred to as a “two year bar examination,” which takes the
place of the conventional two day paper-and-pencil bar exam. Students in the DWS program are
required to maintain a high law school GPA and to complete an intensive curriculum that includes
a number of specially designed practice courses as well as at least 6 credits of externship and/or
clinical experience. Through their work in this curriculum, students develop an extensive
portfolio, including videos of the student conducting simulated interviews, negotiations and
components of trial practice. Over the span of these two years, specially appointed members of
the New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners repeatedly review these portfolios and meet
personally with the students to evaluate their progress. This bar exam alternative, including the
DWS program, was designed through a collaborative effort of the New Hampshire Supreme Court,
the New Hampshire State Bar, the New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners, and the Franklin
Pierce Law Center. The origins and development of this initiative have been thoroughly
described elsewhere.3
On Friday, April 23, 2010, the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the New Hampshire State Bar, the
New Hampshire Board of Bar Examiners, and the Franklin Pierce Law Center hosted a one-day
invitation-only conference attended by delegations from eight states headed by one or more
supreme court justices that also included bar examiners, bar leaders, and legal academics
interested in learning more about the New Hampshire initiative.4
The conference was supported by a grant to the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)
[www.salt.org] from the Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation and the W. Lee Burge
Endowment for Law & Ethics at the Georgia State College of Law [
http://law.gsu.edu/ccunningham/Professionalism/ ] .
1
Rule 42(13).
2
An agreement for Pierce Law to become a state-supported law school, affiliated with the University of New Hampshire,
was recently announced.
3
See, the article in the November 2005 issue of the Bar Examiner by New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Linda S.
Dalianis and Pierce Law Professor Sophie M. Sparrow,
Further detail is available on the web site of the DWS program:
www.piercelaw.edu/websterscholar and in the recent law review article by Professor John B. Garvey, who directs the DWS
program, and Anne F. Zinkin, permanent law clerk to Justice Dalianis: "Making Law Students Client-Ready: A New Model in Legal
Education," 1 Duke Forum for Law & Social Change 101 (2009), which can be downloaded at:
www.piercelaw.edu/assets/pdf/johngarvey-article-newmodel.pdf
4
These eight states were Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, and Vermont.