John Marshall Law School - Abstract Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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THE ABSTRACT— 1937 - ■ - ■• -f K Vi ' 1 •, 1 FACULTY

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he £egal Profession and the Evening ais) School Noble W. Lee Two positive advantages aecruing to the le- gal profession from the training of lawyers in evening schools of the country have not re- ceived the attention which they deserve. Law students of course, and the lawyers who have enjoyed the opportunity afforded by these schools, appreciate the advantages which they have to offer. In son-ie quarters however, there has been a tendency to regard legal training thus obtained as being possibly the best avail- able to persons otherwise employed during the day time, but nevertheless not all that might be desired. That this opinion is not founded entirely on fact nor well supported by the evi- dence is manifest upon a closer examination of the method and circumstances of such law training. At the beginning it is well to note that or- iginally the man aspiring to become an advocate was trained by a pure apprenticeship method. He became personal assistant to a practicing at- torney and as a matter of fact became a part of the lawyer ' s family for a period of iive years or more. He thus worked with the lawyer in constant and close association every day and under the direction of the lawyer read and dis- cussed wnth him the law books of that day. Outside of office hours the student still con- tinued to live in a legal atmosphere, among con- versation about the legal incidents of the day, and reminiscences of other cases in which the attorney had proceeded; and participated in the fncndly informal gatherings of lawyers and other legal apprentices. The student thus learned the law by living in it and absorbing it from time to time both by working and stu- d ' ing upon it. The only cause for change in this method of training lawyers arose from the fact that many became too busy to devote the time and energy necessary to the building and the well- rounded training of a man ambitious to enter the profession. In fact, it was only a little over a centur ' ago that the first law school in the United States was established at Litchfield, Connecticut by a retired judge who conducted classes in the liv- ing room of his home until they became large enough for him to enlarge and remodel a wood- shed to serve as a one-room schoolhouse. The roll of graduates of this school, incidentally, included men of distinction who held every high governmental post from that of President of the United States down. Gradually other small schools were estab- lished in other parts of the country although it is noteworthy that up until the Civil War this modest school at Litchfield, then as now a re- mote New England village, attracted students from all over the United States, including the far south. More significant still, the teachers in all such schools were inevitably either retired or active judges or lawyers of long practice. No one thought of teaching law who had not been deeply immersed in its practice for many years of his active life. After the Civil War, the number of law schools began to increase gradually, especially by the addition of such departments to existing universities. While in the main their faculties continued to be built up from among the ranks of veteran practitioners at the Bar, a new type of instructor began to appear, namely, the teacher who during his days as a student in law- school had proved exceptionally brilliant but who upon completing the course felt no desire for practice and consequently turned his atten- tion to the more peaceful life of the legal scholar. An impetus to add teachers of this type to law faculties was given by the note- worthy position attained by Dean Langdell of Han. ' ard Law School who was one of this type . ' ind whose exceptional scholarly attainments and brilliance made him stand out. Conse- quently, other law schools, particularly those associated with universities, sought also to seek out and give teaching positions to the more brilliant of their students in the hope that some of them also might become second Langdells. The use of the teacher who has never en- gaged in the practice of law or whose practice has been limited to less than five years and who has become the teacher of law primarily because of his acquaintance with the teachers whom he had and their appraisal of his qualities rather than any recognition of his legal capacity by members of the profession at large has greatly increased in the last twenty-five years. In fact the method of obtaining law faculties by this manner is somewhat in the nature of a vicious circle. When a law teacher has begun teaching law with little or no experience in practice, his acquaintance usually does not include any (Continued to page 71) Page Fourteen

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ilnt ' ™ - !-!, FACULTY 1904-1909 Page Sixteen