“…If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.” – Charles Dickens.
Most of the lawyers I know do a good job for their clients. It is cliché to observe that it is a bunch of lawyers that make the laws. I find it odd that while lawyers make the rules – the rules do not always apply to the rule makers. Every other profession requires education, background inquiries, registration forms, and training. Training as in – internships, residencies, observations of those actually functioning in the profession for which you have been schooled and licensed. The ignored important principal explored here is training.
Lawyers are trained to spot issues and to apply statutes, regulations, common law, and case law to the “spotted” issues. Three or four years of legal education, passage of the grueling two or three day bar exam, passage of a grueling ethics exam, and approval by the legal ethics body would seem like enough “training” to ready a practitioner to represent clients. In fact, most law school training has virtually nothing to do with working as a lawyer. There are no mandatory internships, residencies, or even required hours observing how to handle a case, prepare a document, and help a real live client. It is entirely possible to ace the law school admission test, graduate at the top of a law school class, and earn the top score on the state bar exam, without having the first bit of experience in representing a real client with real legal problems. We lawyers have always known this and miraculously, most fight through their inexperience and force themselves to become experienced and capable in helping clients, preparing pleadings, litigating cases, preparing documents, and giving sound advice.
Why, after seventeen years, am I writing about this? Physical therapy. Each time I visit the physical therapist, there is an aspiring physical therapist observing and assisting the licensed professional. I am told that in order to enter physical therapy (“PT”) school after concluding undergraduate work, there are minimum requirements for “observing” in various clinical settings before one can even be admitted to PT school. Further, once admitted to PT school, the student will have hundreds or thousands of hours more time observing and assisting with real PT patients. The new therapist will have seen the anguished look on the face of the recovering patient and played an important role in modifying a patient’s program in order to achieve success.
One of the great challenges for the new lawyer is delivering difficult news to the client. It is no fun for the experienced practitioner and I find for the inexperienced practitioner and the faint of heart it is nearly impossible to deliver bad news in a compassionate and convincing manner. Timely delivery of objective analysis is the cornerstone of effectively representing clients, and aiding good decision making. If a principle role of the legal system is to produce lawyers ready to help clients from day one, a mandatory internship program must be made part of the legal training process.