Via Above the Law, Kurzon has sent Judge Lippman a letter asking that he use his authority as chief judge to make a difference.
In the past few years, there has been a wide public debate about the number of lawyers practicing law throughout the country. Our concern is not with the quality of education, but rather the quantity of lawyers being produced each year who graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt at the expense of tax payers - and then have no way to pay such nonbankruptcy dischargeable debt back by practicing as lawyers.
While it is true that legal access for the poor is a concern, what is troubling is that recent law school graduates are graduating without jobs and with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. And so enticed by the dream of becoming a lawyer, what happens is that they become worse than poor; they become enslaved to a lifetime of debt.
Kurzon points to Thomas M. Cooley Law School as the poster boy of all that's gone wrong under the control of the American Bar Association.
And thus the question is asked: when is enough enough?
Would the American Medical Association permit half of its recent graduates to graduate with no job or no way to payoff their loans?
Essentially, there is a systemic failure in the legal academy and we write this letter to ask that the Court establish a special task force to review the authority it has delegated to the ABA and make specific recommendations and force their enactment on the ABA on how to improve the legal education system in our country.
Think of the tag line, "Think Globally. Act Locally." We've grown inured to the control of the ABA, their requirements for accreditation and their choice as to how many law schools should be out there, raking in tuition, providing homes for scholars, cranking out young men and women who expect to practice law, or at least have a secure financial future as a lawyer. Brian Tamanaha, in his book, Failing Law Schools, offered the backstory of how the ABA came into power over law schools. There was nothing magical about it.
That a problem exists isn't in dispute, at least not among anyone to be taken seriously and who doesn't have a huge paycheck in the race. But while there are well-meaning folks trying to find a global solution, we can't even get the stakeholders in the same room, no less engaged in any kind of meaningful discussion.
Some, like the lawprofs, are holding symposiums amongst themselves. Others, like practitioners, are too busy scratching for their own business to be bothered. And still others, like me, aren't welcome in the talks because we neither represent Biglaw nor the Legal Academy, and those are the only players who matter.
By sending this letter to Judge Lippman, Jeffrey Kurzon has taken a new direction that has a great deal of merit. If we can't come up with a global solution, and the ABA, an insular community of lawyers who are deeply concerned with their own importance as Leaders of the Bar and protectors of the status quo, won't deal with it during the timeframe of a life in being, then what's left for the tens of thousand (yes, tens of thousands) of new lawyers being cranked out of law school with nowhere to go?
Like Kurzon, I have no doubt that part of the solution lies in part with the closure of law schools. Despite the progressive dream that more lawyers means lower cost legal services and greater availability to the poor and working classes, the numbers do not crunch. They never had. They never will. It's a flawed dream, and no theoretical band-aids are going to change it.
Lawyers need to earn enough money to pay for law school, to cover their lost opportunity costs, and to feed their families. Lawyers, no matter how deeply they feel the responsibility of their position, still need to eat, put a roof over their heads and occasionally drive a car. They can't do this on the adoring appreciation of their clients alone. And most have no interest in trying.
So if the ABA refuses to fix the problem they created, and continue to perpetuate, the big fix will remain out of reach. Why, then, not shoot for the smaller fix?
As Judge Lippman has taken the lead with the pro bono requirement for admission to practice, so too can he take the lead in putting an end to the ABA's tyranny. He has the rule-making authority for admission, and is under no obligation to continue to recognize the ABA's acceditation of law schools as being anything more than one voluntary association's view of lawyer-life. They won't deal with the mess? Screw 'em. They aren't the center of the legal universe, even though they think they are and we've let them be.
Each year, more law students flip their tassels. Put aside their worthiness to be lawyers, as some will be great ones and others will suck, and we can't tell who is who yet. What we can tell is that many are walking away from law school to life as a slave to debt and a future of misery. We know this, and yet we allow it to happen. Judge Lippman doesn't have to let this happen in New York on his watch.
Jeffrey Kurzon is right, and if Judge Lippman forms a task force, I will volunteer to be on it. I only hope it reports back before another ten fifty thousand souls are buried in misery, but I will do my best to help Kurzon, and Judge Lippman, to see that doesn't happen.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/10/24/now-that-judge-lippman-has-taken-charge.aspx?ref=rss
stupid laws traffic attorney traffic lawyer traffic ticket lawyer absolute power of attorney
No comments:
Post a Comment