Section II Wednesday February 09 2011 3 47 PM A Becoming a Lawyer An Overview 1 B A B S In the US a bachelors degree is necessary for law school There is no required undergraduate material Law schools like diverse majors Not just English Philosophy and Political Science In most other countries law school is an undergraduate endeavor LSAC made up of GPA LOR LSAT Law School Admissions Council assembler of your admissions packet GPA LSAT Law School requires that you stand out in your undergraduate Bottom threshold is a 3 0 Problem arises in how do you compare GPAs from other schools LSAT was created If you apply in October of your Sr year only your first 3 years of grades are looked at LSAC looks at s and s on grades and doesn t recognize D F repeats Aptitude test doesn t question facts designed to see who will succeed in law school Operates on a bell curve from 120 180 with the mean score at 150 Offered 4 times per year February June October September most taken December Letters of recommendation Best to have a professor who has had you for many classes A professor in a class that you write or participate regularly Managers at work are ok they might not necessary talk about what a law school wants to hear Letters from law related managers are great 1 2 3 Personal Statement usually no more than 3 pages Involves writing a statement about yourself and why you should be admitted to the school Get this proofread by multiple people 2 Law School Approximately 210 law schools there is money to be made in providing law school 175 Schools are ABA approved Graduation from one of these schools allows you to sit for the BAR licensing exam in any state Going to a non ABA approved school will only allow you to take the BAR at the state you went to school in National School Ivy league schools that admit very sucussesful individuals Focus on a national curriculum Students from these schools tend to be placed in the top firms in the top legal markets Regional Schools Sports schools take students from the top 25 of the applicant pool Draw students from their region Curriculum is based on a national focus and not on a state focus These schools tend to place their students in the best firms in their region Local Schools The remaining schools land grant schools draws students form their region More likely to focus on the regional laws Place students in local jobs Prior to 1900 the way we trained law students was different If you wanted to go to practice law your job was to find an apprenticeship with an attorney The lawyer would give you increasingly more tasks and teach you more and more difficult things The lawyer would also supervise your reading of the law Your job was to read the law during free times Finally the lawyer was responsible for determining when you should go before the judge and swear that he trained the lawyer and that he is ready The judge would then let you in the bar The presidents of universities didn t want to train lawyers they wanted to teach people to think This moved legal training from practical hands on learning to training to think In Scotland Law school involves a 1 year apprenticeship at the end of 3 years of school Law schools are trying to sneak in clinics where 2nd and 3rd year law students work with clients In the US law school is intended to be a general education not a specialization There is only one degree J D It is intended to be a general degree The first year of law school is designed to be extremely uncomfortable it is designed to test your limits 1 2 3 The law school will try to set up your schedule so that it is as inconvenient as possible to make you leave the law school T hey want you to be there M F 9 5 This makes it difficult to work during school First year of law school is exactly the same everywhere Law school relies on the Socratic method case study method You aren t lectured instead you are given readings and requir ed to give briefs and discuss them in class The idea is not to spoon feed you but to make you think for yourself A professor will ask more a nd more difficult questions until he gets you to screw up 2nd and 3rd year law schools are much more pleasurable You can pick the classes you want to take Classes decrease in size and become less Socratic Summers in between years become times of employment for law students They often take up summer internships with law firms Criticisms against law school 1 2 3 Not enough practical skills taught Professors are too busy Law school is to emotionally and physically taxing You don t need the added stress LLM M A in Law Here you can specialize on an area of the law LLD Ph D Generally professors of law school At the end of the 3rd year you still cant practice law You must pass the Bar Exam 3 BAR Exam The 50 States are responsible for licensing lawyers not the federal government Designed to see if you have the practical knowledge to represent a client Graded by lawyers who work for the state you might have to take multiple exams for local states 5 year reciprocal agreement after 5 years of practice a bordering state will most likely give you a simplified bar exam or just admit you to it This is only if you go to an ABA approved university Bar cram course around 3 months where you take a course taught by lawyers If you flunk the exam you can take it again It is often available 2 or 3 times a year A state controls the easiness of the their exam Utah has a 90 passage rate California has a 56 passage rate PA OH 82 WV 80 Often very expensive Section II Page 1 2 14 2011 3 40 PM Often very expensive B Demographic View of the bar bar everyone who is an American lawyer Bar American Bar Association Based in Chicago and Washington It is there to represent the interest of lawyers 50 state bar associations dependent on the A B A Then thousands of local city and county bar associations Most lawyers don t join the Bar it is very expensive The 50 state bars are voluntary as well States rely on these bars to do licensing Local bar associations most people join these to relate to their community 1951 220 000 lawyers 1971 355 000 1985 655 000 1995 860 000 2000 1 1 million As the bar grew the average age became younger and there were more women Typical American lawyer White male 41 years old 100 000 a year In a private firm with 7 colleagues that did business civil law 1908 Deals with gender discrimination dealt with whether or not women should …