Introduction

As a prospective law student, it is important that you start thinking about what law school is and what you hope to get out of law school. Understanding these principles can help you decide whether to attend law school, which law school to attend, what “success” in law school means to you, and how you can use law school to your career and life advantage. .

Very early in my law school career, perhaps sometime during the first semester of my freshman year, I began to formulate a theory that law school is completely unnecessary to develop the legal skills necessary to become an excellent lawyer. . Years later, after completing law school and practicing law in a variety of settings for nearly a decade, I am more firmly convinced that the legal education you will acquire in law school will do little to prepare you to practice law. .

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that many lawyers gained their legal education by apprenticing to a practicing attorney rather than attending law school. Many famous lawyers started their careers this way. In fact, some states, notably California, still provide a mechanism whereby a lawyer who has not attended law school can still practice law. If, after reading the rest of this section, he feels that law school isn’t offering him anything, he may want to consider that option.

So am I advocating some kind of revolutionary movement to kill off law schools? Far from there! Instead, I believe law school serves a number of useful purposes. Those purposes are the subject of this article.

What I do have a problem with is the fact that law schools do very little to provide the practical training that young lawyers need to get through a day’s work at their first job, and that many of them try to pretend otherwise. .

While there is much to be said for what law schools can do to improve, that is not the subject of this article. Instead, I’m going to focus on four significant benefits that I believe law school offers to students, society at large, and the legal profession:

• First, the requirement that new lawyers graduate from law school serves a valuable purpose as a significant barrier to entry into the already crowded legal profession;
• Second, law school serves as an introduction to the legal community, especially in the region where the law school is located. You will be blessed with three years and multiple opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with your classmates, teachers, judges, and attorneys;
• Third, a law degree from a recognized institution can be a valuable credential that will serve you throughout your life, whatever you do;
• Finally, law school gives you time to think.