Law School........A place where ordinary people are changed forever. Before law school, people have the ability to choose emotion over reason, they could make decisions based upon no analysis other than feeling, and they were probably happier. Law school transforms people. No, they don't change their appearance, at least not significantly. Law school changes the way people think. More accurately, it changes a persons thought process.
Law school, by its process, converts a persons thinking. Values do not change. Opinions and views of the world do not change fundamentally. What changes is a persons freedom to jump to conclusions based upon insufficient information. Lawyers think in a structure. Lawyers weigh the information available and initially decide whether there is enough information to draw any inferences or conclusions. By training, emotion is not (or should not) be part of the equation. The rest of the world has the freedom to think emotionally and act out of that environment. Lawyers do not.
What is it about the law school experience which causes this transformation?. It is really simple. Lawyers spend thousands of hours reading cases in law school. They read the analysis by judges of case facts. And, they eventually start to apply the same process to not only problems in their profession, but in their personal everyday life. It is a slow evolution of the thought process. Whether it is good or bad depends on your point of view.
Law students who take short cuts and use pre-written case briefs do not participate in the process. In my view, without the case law reading, law students never fully evolve, and are limited in their professional life by this. While very smart law students may pass the bar exam because they have memorized the rules and definitions. They, however, are lacking when a legal issue comes along and they cannot simply dredge up from their memory the rule which applies. Sometimes, there has been no rule set and the issue is one of first impression never considered before. Those who did not "evolve" through the tried and true process, are also handicapped in handling some legal issues later in their career.
Law school is the study of law and is self taught. Law professors like myself sometimes think their role is greater than it really is. Indeed, law professors are best when they make the student find the answer through the analysis of the facts, without providing the answer. This socratic teaching method works, and has been around as long as there have been law students. Law schools simply provide a structure for law students to become lawyers through their own work. Law professors are simply tour guides in this adventure.
About Me
- Lawyercop
- I am (or was)a career law enforcement officer. I am now retired and on to other things. I spent about 34 years as a California peace officer. Most of this was in the Investigation Division of the Butte County District Attorney. I worked my way up (or down depending on your view) to Chief Investigator, and I commanded the Bureau of Investigation for my last four years. The department is about the size of a medium sized city police department. And, it had the same problems and issues any police agency has. During my time there, I had the opportunity to work some very interesting murder cases, including a death penalty case, which I will talk about a little in this blog. I admit I have "gone over to the dark side" by obtaining a Doctor of Law (J.D.)degree, and taking and passing the California Bar exam. So you see, I am a member of the legal profession, although I kept an honest job working as a cop even though I was also an attorney. Five years ago I had the distinct honor to accept a teaching position with Cal Northern School of Law. I currently teach both Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law and I enjoy it very much.
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