The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - Mentorships

Theoretical · #18 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredtgreco

Scott,

I don't want to enter the lists again on this, but I must ask that you drop the "lawyer" argument. You're not a lawyer, and I don't think the nature of legal training advances your point, but rather militates against it.

Any lawyer worth his salt knows that law school is generally a vetting process and does not provide a correlation with with success as an attorney. What correlation there is, relates to the quality of students admitted rather than the training received. Businesses that hire outside counsel do not focus on where a man or woman went to law school, but rather what their training in the workplace was, what firm they are (or were) with, and what their skill level is now. That is a fact that I have observed first hand in business and the legal profession at the highest levels (when I graduated, Michigan law was ranked in the top 5 in the nation, so I am no academic slouch).

As for continuing ed for lawyers, it is among the biggest jokes going. Almost every lawyer views it as a complete waste of time (at worst) or a "free" vacation at best. Google the best seminars and see where they are held (hint: NYC, Ft Lauderdale, Scottsdale, etc). Lawyers do everything they can to avoid them, because it stops the real growth of a lawyer - work in the field with other (better) lawyers.

The mentoring/apprenticeship approach used to be an option for attorneys to practice, and the nature of legal work makes it an excellent way to develop the necessary training to pass the bar exam and be a quality advocate. The law-school only approach is simply the establishment of a highly sophisticated monopolistic guild on the part of the American Bar Association.

I'm working as a legal assistant right now in a firm where my position is basically of a apprenticeship-type experience in terms of the type of work I'm learning.