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Abstract

The publication in 1992 of Legal Education and Professional Development- An Educational Continuum, the Report of the American Bar Association "Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap," has focussed increased attention on the issue of lawyer competency. The MacCrate Report, like other previous examinations of legal education, finds a pervasive failure to prepare lawyers to practice law competently and recommends that additional attention be paid both during law school and after graduation to insuring that lawyers are provided with the skills and values necessary to practice law. The Report includes a lengthy Statement of the Skills and Values needed for the competent practice of law (now commonly referred to as the SSV). However, the Report specifically provides that the SSV "is not to be used as a measure of performance in the accreditation process." Moreover, while suggesting a role for accreditation, the Report stops well short of recommending the use of the accreditation process to encourage or require law schools to do more to prepare law students for the practice of the law. Despite the Report's distinctly noncoercive approach, it has engendered a great deal of controversy. Part of that controversy stems from a fear on the part of some observers that the Report will push law schools toward too great an emphasis on training lawyers for specific tasks and away from other important responsibilities such as providing a general intellectual background for the practice of law and the pursuit of important legal research goals. These critics fear that the American Bar Association's accreditation process will be used to impose obligations upon law schools which will reduce their diversity and their ability to pursue other ends. In this article I will briefly argue that the SSV, while far from perfect, constitutes a useful minimum set of skills and values that competent lawyers should possess. While the Report has many critics, few have assailed its central finding that many practicing lawyers do not have these skills and values and that most do not have them upon graduation from law school. For the purpose of this article, I will assume that the Report is correct in this finding. I will then argue that it is unlikely, at least in the short term, that others will assume the responsibility for correcting this deficiency and that law schools can and must do so. Next I will explain why law schools will not adopt this change voluntarily. Finally I will suggest that the accreditation process is a necessary and useful mechanism for increasing the focus of law schools on preparing students to practice law.

Publication Title

Clinical Law Review

Volume

1

Issue

2

First Page

389

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