University of Michigan Law School - Quad Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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or so important as in our own, nowhere within the pale of civiliza- tion is the matter of his general training for those functions so utterly neglected as with us. The necessity for reform should commend itself to the public generally quite as much as to the profession and the law teachers. . In its methods the law school of to-day is essentially a modern product. They are the result of an attempt on the part of legal educators to place the teaching of the law upon a university basis, so to speak. Until within a comparatively recent period, the law instructor was also engaged in active labors either at the bar or upon the bench: His duties as teacher were secondary. His services were frequently gratuitous and necessarily subject to pro- fessional demands. During the first twenty-four years of its exist- ence, the Law Department of. Michigan University had no one upon its Faculty who was devoting his entire energies to the school. For many years the period of instruction was confined to two terms of six months each. In 1884 the term was extended to nine months. And in 1886 the classes were for the Hrst time separated for the purposes of instruction. The history of the Department in the particulars mentioned finds it counterpart in the history of other schools. Under the old regime the success of the schools was due more to men than to methods. Many of them had upon their staff judges and lawyers of national reputation, men of broad culture, of extended and varied. professional experience, who were fitted by nature as well as by their acquirements for the work of instruction. Such men give to the earnest student a quickening impulse that becomes the companion of a life time. They bring to the lecture-room a wealth of experience, a freshness of illustration, and an up-to-date quality in their instruction that serves to stimulate and encourage. It was the good fortune of our Department that its first Faculty was made up of such men, and that it was able to retain them in active service for so many years. But the time has gone by when a school can de end t' - l f p en ire y or its instruction upon the necessarily irregular labors of men drawn from active life. Those best informed upon the subject of legal education very generally agree that instruction in the law should be conducted Wlth the regularity and system that characterize other universitv W0fk3 that 21 COUISC Of legal study should be a progressive one and should be pursued in accordance with Well established educational

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coulined very largely to the students thus handicapped. But under anysystem, a low preliminary standardis demoralizing, and under one which involves daily examinations upon topics previously assigned and the discussion by the student of legal principles and adjudi- cated cases, it is fatal to a high grade of Work. The presence of any considerable number of poorly equipped men must inevitably make the best results impossible. The law schools of to-day feel the practical difficulties of the situation and realize fully the neces- sity for reform. Those of the better class, particularly those con- nected with the universities, are doing what they can to remedy the evil by increasing their requirements for admission. Some have made radical changes in this regard, and many have -taken the initiative. Our own increased requirements go into effect in 1897, and it is the purpose of the Faculty to push the reform as rapidly as good judgment shall dictate. But the solution of the problem does not and cannot, under existing conditions, rest with the schools alone. This is not generally appreciated and I wish to make it emphatic. If every candidate for the bar were compelled to seek the schools for his professional training, the matter of preliminary education Would be exclusively in their hands. Under such cir- cumstances there Would, I am sure, be no hesitation on the part of law-school authorities in at once advancing the standard. The same result would undoubtedly be realized if the statutes governing admission provided for a substantial educational qualification. But the embarrassment of the schools must be appreciated when it is remembered that in the great majority of States there is abso- lutely no requirement as to general qualifications. The schools must lead, but they cannot, in the nature of things, bevery much in advance of the opinions of the public and the profession. The schools, the public, and the profession have a common duty to perform. They should act together. In no other Way can the ' difficulties of the situation be fully met. Qpportunities for educa- tion are now so general that substantial requirements by the State as a prerequisite to legal study wherever pursued, could rarely Work a hardship. Inna few of the States the experiment has been tried and with most satisfactory re sults. Until such requirements become general the work of the schools must be hampered by serious limi- 7 tations. We are confronted with this anomalous condition, that while in no country are the public functions of the lawyer so many

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methods: that instruction should be personal so far as it is possible to niakc it so: that the inifornial exercise based upon an approved text or adjudicated cases should, in the ordinary and fundamental subjects at least, take the place of the formal lecture, and that in all the work the student should be subjected to the spur of daily examinations and discussions conducted with a view of testing his acquirenients and at the same time making him familiar with the methods of legal reasoning. It is apparent that to conduct a school along the lines indicated, a resident corps of competent instructors, whose duty it is to give their predominant energies to the Work, must be provided. This the leading schools have done. With us the change from the old to the new has been a conservative and gradual one. Regular text-book instruction was introduced in 1883. For a time it was confined to the junior class and to assign- ments from the Commentaries of Blackstone. A newly elected resident professor, the hrst to devote his entire time to the Depart- ment, had charge of the work. The departure was at .once recog- nized as a step in the right direction. From time to time other text-book courses were added. lVith the introduction of the three years' course, it was thought advisable not only to provide for additional text-book instruction, particularly in the earlier part of the course, but also to increase materially the number of required daily exercises. Seven of the eleven subjects of the first year and four of the eleven subjects of the second year are now taught with a text as the basis of the work. In the third year the change is less marked. The most of the instruction is still by lecture. But the lecture course of to-day, supplemented as it is by section quizzes and the careful study of selected cases, is to all intents and purposes a text-book course. While the resident Faculty has been largely increased in numbers, in order tolmeet the demands of changed methods and additional requirements, it is still the policy of the Department, and properly so I think, to retain upon its staff repre- sentative men from active professional life. The practitioner has, and must always have, an important service to perform in the Held of legal education. It is through him that the school is kept in touch with the activities of the profession. He brings to the discussions of the class-room a present experience that gives a practical touch to his instruction and challenges attentiO11- IH hifi hands the dry legal principle becomes a living reality, for he shows