Who says a lawyer needs law school?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/09/21/unschooled.lawyers.ap/index.html

excerpt...
----------------------

...California, Vermont, Virginia and Washington allow law readers to take bar exams after three or four years in apprenticeships registered with the state. Three other states -- New York, Maine and Wyoming -- let non-law school graduates take bar exams if they have a combination of office study and law school experience...

Although the ABA maintains rigorous standards for approved law schools, it doesn't advise against law reading. Related groups see it as a state's right to allow an alternative to law school.

"The highest court of each state owns the decision about how to meet the need for consumer protection," said Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners in Madison, Wisconsin. "For some people, it's probably the only way that they can combine working and studying.
----------------------

 

distance apprenticeship

It would be interesting to how one could turn this into a distance education opportunity that would pass muster with the local regulators.

 

Reading the Law

Oh, yes, this is by NO means news to this Board!

The program I find most interesting is actually run by the Washington State Bar Association. It has a mandatory structure concerning subject matter and examinations and extends over a four year period. You can download the program info leaflet at www.wsba.org

British-American Law School, I think it was, used to offer their non California Bar qualifying J.D. program to clerks in the Washington State program. The school offered the pedagogy materials and a J.D. degree whilst the clerkship actually qualified the student to take the Washington Bar exam. I don't know if they are still doing this.

This matters because while some states will allow an experienced attorney to take their Bar exams whether he has a degree or not, others, like Oregon, require a J.D. from a law school located in the United States (though not necessarily accredited) of all attorney applicants. So if the nondegreed Washington lawyer wants to move to Oregon, the BrAm J.D. degree would be handy.

Naturally, if one wanted to, one could do the Washington clerkship and a California Bar qualifying J.D. at the same time and get admitted to both bars. There would be a LOT of duplication in the two programs.

There's a Washington State lawyer who posts here every now and then who says that few, if any, Washington lawyers have been created via the clerkship program in recent years. I don't know why that would be; I agree with you that the idea is intriguing!

 

I thought Alabama was one state like that, too. I have a distant cousin that I met at a funeral down in Huntsville. He practiced and I don't think he went to college. He started working for a judge when he was a kid and did some sort of apprenticeship/clearkship for the judge. I think he does a specialty in VA law...or something like that. It's been 10 years back since I saw him, though.