[37] Vocational Studies, U. S. Bureau of Education, pp. 6-7, Collins Publ. Serv.
The loss of an eye, a hand, an arm, a foot, or a leg would not seriously interfere with one’s success as a lawyer. Good health is highly desirable but physical strength is not an essential to the practitioner.
How Much General Education Ought I to Have as a Basis for a Course in Law?
Some years ago even the best law schools did not require any definite amount of education for entrance into the school. In fact many individuals with only a common-school education read law in an office and took up the practice without any training in a law school. At the present, however, every person looking forward to the practice of law is urged to graduate from a law school. All reputable law schools now require at least a four-year high-school course for admission. Many of these law schools, especially those connected with the large universities, require in addition to the four-year high-school work one year, and in some cases two years, of college work as a preparation. Two law schools admit only students who have a college degree of A. B. or B. S.
What Specific Training Should I Need, If I Decide to Become a Lawyer, and How Long Will It Take?
There was a time when by reading law in an office one could get a fairly adequate training for the practice of law. Particularly was this true of preparation for practice in small towns. Even at the present time this method is followed to some extent in small towns that are long distances from law schools. The rapidly increasing complexity of the law, however, now practically necessitates at least a partial course in a law school and makes desirable a complete course. The late Chief Justice Waite said:
“The time has gone by when an eminent lawyer, in full practice, can take a class of students into his office and become their teacher. Once that was practicable, but now it is not. The consequence is that law schools are now a necessity.”[38]
[38] The Law as a Vocation, p. 40, Vocation Bureau, Boston, Mass.
The method of training for the law now recommended, therefore, is training in a law school rather than in a law office. The practical experience of the office has recently been supplied in the best law schools by the practice court, thus doing away with the former objection to the law school, namely, that it furnished to the student no experience in methods of handling and conducting cases. The practice court or moot court, as now introduced into the progressive law schools of the country, is described by one of our State universities as follows:
“The work of the practice court is divided into three parts, that of the law term, that of the jury term, and that of the appellate jurisdiction. The court is provided with a full corps of officers, including the members of the faculty who may sit from time to time as a presiding judge, the full bench of judges sitting as a supreme court, a clerk, a sheriff, and the necessary deputies. Ample and commodious rooms have been provided for the use of the court, including a court room furnished with the fittings necessary for the trial of jury cases, and a clerk’s office. The latter is provided with the books and records used in actual practice. The purpose of the court is to afford to the student practical instruction in pleading and practice both at law and equity under the common-law system and the “Code” or “reformed” procedure, and actual experience in the commencement and trial of cases through all stages. In commencing the actions the students assigned to the cases are permitted to select the State in which the action is supposed to be brought, thus enabling the student to acquire the practice as prevailing in his own State. All questions of practice, pleading, and procedure are governed by the law of the State in which the action is so laid, but the questions of substantive law are determined according to the weight of authority.”[39]