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How to Learn the Law Without Law School

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How to Learn the Law Without Law School http://nyti.ms/1lcHMUt EDUCATION LIFE | ​NYT NOW The Lawyer’s Apprentice How to Learn the Law Without Law School By SEAN PATRICK FARRELL JULY 30, 2014 When Chris Tittle meets new people and the topic turns to his work, he sometimes fishes in his pockets and produces a business card that reads “Abraham Lincoln.” Below the 16th president’s name in smaller type the card reads, “Just kidding, but I hope to follow in some of his footsteps.” Mr. Tittle, who sports the kind of full beard more often associated with folk- rock bands than future junior partners, is working toward becoming a lawyer under an obscure California rule that allows people to “read law” much as Lincoln did, studying at the elbow of a seasoned lawyer. “There is very little that would entice me to go $100,000 or more into debt for a credential,” said Mr. Tittle, who is in his first year of a four-year program of practical study. California is one of a handful of states that allow apprenticeships like Mr. Tittle’s in lieu of a law degree as a prerequisite to taking the bar and practicing as a licensed lawyer. In Virginia, Vermont, Washington and California, aspiring lawyers can study for the bar without ever setting foot into or paying a law school. New York, Maine and Wyoming require a combination of law school and apprenticeship. The programs remain underpopulated. Of the 83,986 people who took state or multistate bar exams last year, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, only 60 were law office readers (so-called for the practice of reading legal texts as preparation). But at a time when many in legal education — including the president, a former law professor — are questioning the value of three years of law study and the staggering debt that saddles many graduates, proponents see apprenticeships as an alternative that makes legal education available and affordable to a more diverse population and could be a boon to underserved communities. “Attorneys have carved out a place that is high income and inaccessible,” says Janelle Orsi, co-founder of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit in Oakland, Calif., that focuses on legal aspects of the “sharing economy.” To Ms. Orsi, a graduate of the highly ranked Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, apprenticeships are a way to reorder the economics of law school and law work. Without loans to pay back, she argues, lawyers won’t have to chase big paychecks or prestige with corporate clients and could instead work in nonprofit, environmental and community law. “Attorneys trained in this way will be able to be average people,” Ms. Orsi said, “not just because they don’t have debt, but because law school tells us that we’re really special.” Ms. Orsi and two other lawyers are mentors to four apprentices, who are chronicling their experiences on a blog curated by the center (likelincoln.org). Mr. Tittle is director of organizational resilience at the center, where he spends six hours a week in his supervising lawyer’s office “helping her do client work or small research assignments, or it might turn into a mini-lecture on that particular kind of law that she’s working in.” Fridays often find him and the other apprentices in the county law library, studying. Ms. Orsi and the cohort of “apprenti,” as they jokingly refer to themselves, hope their experience will serve as a model for other nonprofit organizations to cultivate their own lawyers. “The mission is not to create more lawyers,” said Ms. Orsi. “It’s to serve the community.” This is not entirely untrod ground. The United Farm Workers, the California-based agricultural union founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, has been training lawyers through apprenticeships for decades, said Mary L. Mecartney, the managing attorney for the union’s legal department, who studied for and passed the bar in 1993 through apprenticeship. She’s helping to train two new apprentices, both the children of farm workers. Before the prevalence of law schools in the 1870s, apprenticeships were the primary way to become a lawyer. “Stop and think of some of the great lawyers in American history,” said Daniel R. Coquillette, a law professor at Boston College who teaches and writes in the areas of legal history and professional responsibility. “John Adams, Chief Justice Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson. They didn’t go to law school at all.” The earliest law schools, Mr. Coquillette said, worked in tandem with apprenticeships, a practice he noted is returning as many law schools move toward externships for third-year students. But there are obstacles. None of the states help prospective law readers locate a supervising lawyer, and finding one willing to take on the responsibility of educating a new lawyer can be difficult. Bar passage rates for law office students are also dismal. Last year only 17 passed — or 28 percent, compared with 73 percent for students who attended schools approved by the American Bar Association. “The A.B.A. takes the position that the most appropriate process for becoming a lawyer should include obtaining a J.D. degree from a law school approved by the A.B.A. and passing a bar examination,” said Barry A. Currier, managing director of accreditation and legal education for the group. Robert E. Glenn, president of the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, was less circumspect. “It’s a cruel hoax,” he said of apprenticeships. “It’s such a waste of time for someone to spend three years in this program but not have anything at the end.” One former apprentice, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dropped out after her third year of study. The stumbling block, she said, was the first-year exam, the so-called baby bar required of all those in California who study outside of law schools accredited by the A.B.A or state’s Committee of Bar Examiners. “It was the writing,” she said. After two attempts and stumped by legalese, she decided law might not be her path. “I’m over it now, but it was disappointing that I couldn’t pass it,” she said. Still, she doesn’t regret her apprenticeship — the lessons, she says, have been useful in her current work in state government. Isabell Wong Flores knows well the feeling of bar exam defeat. After completing her law office study, it took five attempts over two and a half years before she passed the bar exam. “There were times when I wanted to give up so much,” said Ms. Flores, now a Sacramento criminal defense lawyer who draws on her perseverance in her side work as a motivational speaker. The exam is torturous, she said, but “you have to find ways to conquer it.” Ms. Flores bought study tapes and enrolled in bar prep courses at local law schools before passing in 2007 — seven years after starting down this road. “I wanted to give myself an education,” she said. “It took a little longer than I thought it would.” The lack of a J.D. can also be cause for concern to clients. “I do have some clients who look up on my wall and say, ‘Where did you go to law school?’ and aren’t too happy with the answer,” said Ivan Fehrenbach, who recently passed the Virginia bar after three years of reading law. Unburdened by school loan debt, he said, he has been able to become “a country lawyer,” taking on work like speeding tickets, divorce and wills. For most, the lack of class rankings put clerkships with judges and plum gigs at big firms out of reach. There are exceptions: Jeffrey L. Smoot, a law reader, was recently made partner at one of Seattle’s oldest firms, Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker. “It’s a validation of the program,” he said. Washington’s program for apprentices — called law clerks there — stands out for the extent of support from the state bar association. A volunteer board sets study standards and assigns a liaison to each lawyer-apprentice duo to monitor their progress. Students must also be employed by the office in which they study. Of law clerks who took the Washington bar last year, 67 percent passed. Talia Clever, who coordinates the program for the state bar, says she routinely fields calls from people who want to know how hard it is to become a lawyer without law school. Her answer: very. “It’s a lot of work. It’s four years and you don’t get summers off. You’re on the line working with a lawyer every day.” For some, that’s the appeal. Instead of spending years in lecture halls, time is spent in courtrooms or with clients — experience most traditional law school students might only get during a semester of clinical practice. For paralegals, the method makes it possible to hold down a job or keep paying off a mortgage while earning an advanced credential. “I didn’t just want to up and quit my job and go to law school and become a student again,” said Megumi C. Hackett, a paralegal in Vancouver, Wash., who is studying under the tutelage of Jon J. McMullen, a criminal defense lawyer. “It has been a hell of a lot of work,” said Mr. McMullen of his new role as teacher. “I’ve had to reacquaint myself with stuff I wish to God I didn’t have to think about again.” Rules vary from state to state, but supervising lawyers are expected to instruct their students in all areas of law covered by their state’s bar exam, and administer and grade tests.
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