Recent Progress In Legal Education Bulletin 1926

For nearly half a century there have been organized efforts to effect a nation-wide improvement in the American system of legal education. The strictly modern phase of this movement may be said to have started--in so far as it is possible to assign a definite date--in 1910. It was in this year that similar long-continued efforts by the American Medical Association to improve medical education first impinged upon the public consciousness, and suggested to lawyers that methods which had proved successful with physicians might be applicable also to the legal profession. In many respects the task of legal reformers was far more difficult than that of their medical colleagues. Before recounting some of the particular obstacles and the progress which has since been made in surmounting them, a general explanation may be hazarded as to why the legal profession was then, and is still, in a relatively backward stage of development. The science of law, or at least that particular portion of this science (if it be a science) which primarily concerns American law schools and bar admission authorities, is not international in the sense that medical science is. It will be convenient to consider briefly what the situation was in 1910, then what has been accomplished to improve conditions in 16 years; and finally, what are the most important problems that still await a satisfactory solution. This bulletin is divided into three parts. Part I, The Past, contains: (1) Defective organization of the legal profession in 1910; (2) Division of the law schools among themselves; (3) Inadequate bar admission requirements; and (4) Diversified law school requirements. Part II, The Present, contains: (1) Improved organization of the legal profession; (2) Method and aim of legal education; (3) Strengthened bar admission requirements; and (4) Progress in law school requirements. Part III, The Future, contains: (1) Miscellaneous problems awaiting solution; (2) The problem of the evening school law school; and (3) The influence of part-time instruction upon the organization of the legal profession. (Contains 8 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.].