CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by DigitalCommons@Pace Pace Law Review Volume 30 Issue 4 Summer 2010 Article 7 Showcasing Pace Law School Scholarship June 2010 Managing a Law Practice: What You Need to Learn in Law School Gary A. Munneke Pace University School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr Part of the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation Gary A. Munneke, Managing a Law Practice: What You Need to Learn in Law School, 30 Pace L. Rev. 1207 (2010) Available at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol30/iss4/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pace Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Managing a Law Practice: What You Need to Learn in Law School Gary A. Munneke* I. Introduction Every lawyer must be an effective manager in order to become and remain competent. This simple, but fundamental truth has implications not only for the practice of law, but for the process of legal education as well. In an era of intense competition, lawyers must demonstrate competence in order to succeed, but the acquisition of competence is not always easy to attain. This is because the integral role of practice management as a key element of competence has not been fully appreciated by educators or the practicing bar. In 1991, however, the American Bar Association Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Bridging the Gap (popularly known as the MacCrate Task Force) articulated a statement of fundamental lawyering skills and values.1 The MacCrate Task Force Report (“MacCrate Report”) identified “Organization and Management of Legal Work” among those fundamental skills.2 The report also described the acquisition of professional skills and values as a learning continuum that begins long before law school and extends throughout a lawyer’s 3 professional life.