New Britain herald., 1929-10-25
EDUCATION AND THE LAW

EDJ CAIlON AND IHE LAW
 The American Bar Association, which met in convention at Mem phis the other day, had before it the recurring issue of educational stand ards for lawyers. Preponderating opinion appeared to be that every student of law, before being admit ted to the bar, should have at least two years of college training Tor it's equivalent"
 One of the objects Of the mov-- mn, it is claimed, is to make it hard- CT for persons to become lawyers through the instrum mentalities of eve ming attendance at law schools. Some such law schools of prominence exist in the large cities, and their ostensible object is to give to youths who are employed in the day time, but who are ambitious and
 
 law. Many of these, 1t appears, pass the bar examinations and become full fledged lawyers. This tends to increase competition in the field
 George Wharton Pepper, noted Philadelphia lawyer and a politician of parts, himself stood in favor of the two years college course or equivalent, although he himself ad- mitted he had never attended col lege and had never graduated from law school, He seemed to be in favor of higher educational stand ards on general principles.
 Of the value of high educational standards for lawyers there can be no doubt. But there Is an Ion the | other hand" in connection with the process that should not be overlook ed. An intelligent youth who through no fault of his own was denied educational qualifications such as proposed should never be denied the right to improve himself to the | point where he can qualify for any position in life that fits his talents and in which he would be an orna- ment in later life. How to do this and still retain the higher pre- liminary educational qualifications is indeed problem. After reading much of what the eminent lawyers in Memphis had to say on the sub- ject we find no constructive method.
 Times have changed to the point where high school and college train ing is much more common than in former generations. It is common | knowledge that some of the best lawyers of the past neither went to college nor to law school obtaining their skill in the old fashioned method of being identified as a sort of apprentice in law office for term of years. To our way of think ing that remains a good way to gain a thorough practical knowledge of legal practice, although it is not much in vogue in our times, when the average lawyer seems too busy to bother with the doddering efforts of apprentices. He is more inclined to select his apprentices from the graduates of law schools.
 The demand for higher education- al qualifications today is merely a move in line with higher standards in almost all endeavors It is vastly easier nowadays to obtain the higher educational standards than it was in former generations. We should not be in favor of putting the evening law schools entirely out of business. however, in order to aid the more formal schools. The situation, we should think, can be controlled to a great extent by the bar examiners. These standards, too, have risen with the years, but in the estimation of some critics are not high enough in , all of the states.