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THE IMPACT OF THE 1921 CARNEGIE REPORT ON LEGAL EDUCATION

THE IMPACT OF THE 1921 CARNEGIE REPORT ON LEGAL EDUCATION. AND SOME LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT J. GORDON HYLTON MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL. THE CARNEGIE REPORTS ON LEGAL EDUCATION. 2007 EDUCATING LAWYERS: PREPARATION FOR THE PRACTICE OF LAW 1921 TRAINING FOR THE PUBLIC PROFESSION OF LAW.

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THE IMPACT OF THE 1921 CARNEGIE REPORT ON LEGAL EDUCATION

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  1. THE IMPACT OF THE 1921 CARNEGIE REPORT ON LEGAL EDUCATION AND SOME LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT J. GORDON HYLTON MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

  2. THE CARNEGIE REPORTS ON LEGAL EDUCATION • 2007 EDUCATING LAWYERS: PREPARATION FOR THE PRACTICE OF LAW • 1921 TRAINING FOR THE PUBLIC PROFESSION OF LAW

  3. EARLY CARNEGIE FOUNDATION REPORTS ON LEGAL EDUCATION • 1914 Josef Redlich, The Common Law and the Case Method in American University Law Schools. • 1917 Alfred Z. Reed, “The Study of Legal Education” (pamphlet). • 1918 Reed, “Legal Education During the War’ (pamphlet). • 1919 Reginald Heber Smith, Justice and the Poor. • 1921 Reed, Training for the Public Profession of Law • 1922 Reed, “The Progress of Legal Education” (pamphlet). • 1923-1925 Reed, “Legal Education” [title varies] (pamphlets). • 1928 Reed, Present Day Law Schools in the United States and Canada

  4. ALFRED REED

  5. BLIND ALFRED REED

  6. REED’S CONCLUSIONS • 1. Law was a public profession. • 2. Contrary to the claims of most American bar associations, there was no “unitary” legal profession in the United States. Some lawyers served the needs of business while others provided legal services to ordinary citizens. • 3., American law schools were generally divided into two categories: (a) university affiliated law schools with professional law teachers that maintained high entry requirements and offered full-time instruction in national law through the case system, and (b) part-time or short course law schools which relied upon practitioner-teachers who lectured on local law. • 4. This two-tiered system of law schools was democratic and served the needs of the public by providing an adequate number of lawyers properly trained for the type of law they practiced.

  7. REED’S RECOMMENDATIONS • 1. The two-tiered system of law schools should be maintained. Efforts to eliminate part-time law schools were misguided. • 2. Part-time law schools should demand some pre-law collegiate education but the standard need not be as high as that imposed by the full-time, university law schools. • 3. The length of the part-time law course should be extended, preferably to six years.

  8. WHAT PROMPTED THE REED REPORT? • Developments in Legal Education, 1890-1920. • Rise of the case method is not the primary story. • Number of law schools and law students increased dramatically with the widespread introduction of the written bar exam in the 1890’s and the 1900’s. • Association of American Law Schools (1900) campaign for higher standards.

  9. Law Schools and Law Students, 1890-1920 • YearSchoolsStudents • 1890 61 4,486 • 1900 102 12,384 • 1910 124 19,498 • 1920 150 27,313 • Pct. of Students Attending Short Course Law Schools. • 1890 71.0% • 1900 37.8 • 1910 22.1 • 1920 5.2 • Pct. of Students Attending Part-time Law Schools, Long Course. • 1890 2.4% • 1900 23.9 • 1910 34.7 • 1920 53.5

  10. Response to the Reed Report—American Bar Association • Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s opposition to a draft of the Reed Report. Had hoped for the legal equivalent of the Flexnor Report. • The Root Report • Law is a unitary profession • Three year law course • Two years of college education as a prerequisite • Same admissions standards for full-time and part-time students • Same number of hours of total instruction in full-time and part-time students • 1922 Bar Association conference endorsed Root Report • Culminated in ABA law school accreditation process (1923)

  11. ELIHU ROOT AND WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

  12. OTHER RESPONSES • Part-time Law Schools • Length of course extended to 4 or 5 years at 60 of 108 schools • No law school adopted 6-year recommendation • In 1931, 48 of 106 part-time law schools required two years of college • State Governments – In the 1920’s, fifteen states adopt a two years of college pre-requisite for bar admission • Reed’s Second Report (1928) – a more detailed study of law schools with an emphasis on the continued diversity of American law schools

  13. TEN YEARS LATERDIVERSITY PREVAILS • American Law Schools in 1931 • Only 78 of 188 law schools have secured ABA accreditation. Only 77 were members of the Association of American Law Schools. • 30.9% of law schools require no prior college study • 64.3% of law students are enrolled in law schools that offer part-time legal education or a short law course (1.6%) • 33.9% of students are enrolled in schools that offer only part-time legal education programs of three or more years. • Only 5 of the 23 largest law schools in the United States were full-time only schools.

  14. LARGEST LAW SCHOOLS 1934 • SCHOOL ENROLLMENT % PART-TIME • St. John’s 2031 72.8% • Harvard 1451 0.0 • Brooklyn 1451 82.6 • NYU 1211 48.1 • Fordham 1011 77.5 • George Washington 921 77.4 • National (DC) 845 100.0 • Northeastern 816 100.0 • Suffolk 703 100.0 • DePaul 650 34.3 • Columbus (DC) 641 100.0 • Columbia 623 0.0 • Chicago-Kent 613 100.0 • Texas 573 0.0 • Michigan 539 0.0 • John Marshall (IL) 530 100.0 • Georgetown 518 65.4 • New Jersey 516 65.1 • Detroit 496 100.0 • Temple 458 76.4 • Pennsylvania 418 0.0 • Southwestern (LA) 403 100.0 • Kansas City 402 100.0

  15. THE SITUATION IN 1951 • Triumph of the Root Report • Standardized Model for Law School • No part-time only law schools • College degree or equivalent required for both law school and bar admission • Bar examination limited to graduates of ABA-approved law schools in most states • Three year, full time law course (or equivalent) for all law students • Substantial similarity between full and part-time programs • Use of casebooks marketed nationally by a small number of publishers • Substantially identical curriculum • Vast majority of faculty are full-time teachers

  16. WHY REED’S VISION OF A DIVERSE SYSTEM OF LAW SCHOOLS FAILED • Failure to secure the support of the elite elements of the legal profession • Aspirations of law schools with part-time or low admission standard law schools • Failure to anticipate the impact of the “overcrowding crisis” on state regulatory authorities. • Was too democratic for a status conscious profession?

  17. THE BIFURCATED PROFESSION MODEL • Distinctions made Informally even after the standardization of the 1950’s. • National law schools versus local law schools • Theoretical schools versus practical schools • Distinction usually not apparent from examination of official documents

  18. MARQUETTE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

  19. RELEVANCE FOR TODAY • Is a bifurcated model of legal education with both skills-oriented and theory-oriented law schools the solution to the problems identified by the Sullivan Report? • Is it too late to acknowledge that Reed was correct? • Does the unified profession model have any practical value for contemporary legal education? Do we need a single dominant theory of legal education

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