W'hat One has toLeam to be a Lawyer method is the only practical one.
It
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ditions, and it will be discussed later.
the student who desires to pursue the law course.” The belief has been expressed that
For those who can do so it is advisable to take a college degree before entering
it does not make any difference what the boy who intends to enter the law
is a good one too, under proper con
the law school. The Harvard and Columbia schools demand this. Some of the other institutions require two years, others one year of college work,
and the rest simply inforce, in a more or less scrupulous fashion, the presenta
school studies in college, as long as he
gets the mental training that comes from following any systematic course of study. It seems to be the more general opinion, however, that a know ledge of certain definite subjects aids
tion of some proof of a high school education or its equivalent. The law
materially in the study of law.
school course usually covers three years.
in any well-rounded college course, so
There are some schools in the South
that the boy who goes through college
which offer a two
before entering the law school gets his mental training and his useful knowledge together. But for the boy who has only the time and money to go through
although
years
course, but
they have some warm de
fenders, all that they can be said in favor of the short course seems to be greatly offset by the fact that there is much talk among the larger schools
Most
of these would almost surely be included
high school or at most to spend a year or two in college, all the knowledge
of lengthening the course to four years A quotation or two from the writings
he can acquire which bears either directly or indirectly on the study of law, becomes doubly important. of legal educators will explain why a ~ To understand the law one must know college degree is preferable. We find something of its historical development. this in the article just quoted: "The The law is not a set of rules written law teacher realizes more keenly prob out in statute books which can be ably than any one else, because his learned and applied like mathematical attention is constantly challenged to formulas. It is a living thing that is the fact, that, as a rule, the strongest subject to change like all living things. students in law are those who had an In order to understand it one must extended and systematic preparatory be familiar with the processes of change training." Another writer says: “We and development through which it has take it to be conceded at least among passed in arriving at the point where it is today. A lawyer who knows our brethren, that there is no pro fession or calling which requires a simply the law of the community in broader, deeper, fundamental know which he practises is like an engineer ledge than the profession of the lawyer. who knows his formula by rote but The various and diverse phases of life
knows nothing of the mathematical
with which it deals necessarily require
principles involved in their derivation.
this for the successful practitioner, so that today there is a universal demand and a general trend among the law
But just as it is impossible for an engineer to carry all the necessary
schools of our country requiring a broader fundamental knowledge, and a higher mental training on the part of
formula: in his head, it is impossible for the lawyer to carry in his head the whole body of law that he is called upon to use.
Both have their books to fall
