A Flawed System of Law Practice and Training.

Abstract

All graduate schools risk becoming captives of their professions, absorbed in preparing skilled professionals and seeking new knowledge for practitioners to employ. This preoccupation is understandable, since the acquisition and transmission of specialized knowledge are the central tasks of a professional school. But they are not its only tasks. A vigorous school should address the larger problems of its calling, serving as a conscience to its profession and a stimulus for change. In fulfilling this function, a faculty must be knowledgeable enough to speak convincingly to practitioners, detached enough to see the blemishes of their profession, skilled enough in research and analysis to explore each defect thoroughly and offer thoughtful suggestions for reform. These responsibilities are always important, but particularly so today when the public is disenchanted with the professions and highly critical of their performance. . . . Our legal system bears a strong resemblance to our health care system twenty years ago. At that time, the medical care offered to paying patients was rapidly becoming more effective, more sophisticatedand more expensive as well. But quality medicine was available only to the well-to-do or to those who happened to be covered by an adequate prepaid plan. Millions of people with modest incomes could not afford decent care; they visited doctors less often and their mortality rates were distinctly higher. From my distant perch, our legal system seems to occupy a comparable position today. As in medicine, there is much in our law which represents a triumph of the human spirit: the steadfast defense of individual freedom and civil liberties, the constant elevation of reason over prejudice and passion, the protections afforded to minority and disadvantaged groups. But there are also similarities of a darker kind. The laws that govern affluent clients and large institutions are numerous, intricate, and applied by highly sophisticated practitioners. In this sector of society, rules proliferate, lawsuits abound, and the cost of legal services grows much faster than the cost of living. For the bulk of the population, however, the situation is very different. Access to the courts may be open in principle. In practice, however, most people find their legal rights severely compromised by the cost of legal services, the baffling complications of existing rules and procedures, and the

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