Annotations of the South Texas College of Law (Houston, Tex.), December, 1968 Page: 1 of 7
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AH NOTATIONS
Of
The South Texas College of Law
1220 POLK - HOUSTON, TEXAS
DECEMBER 1968
TOWARD A LEGAL
SPECIALTY
by CHARLES J. WEIGLE
A small boy with an interest in the
legal profession, if asked what he
would like to be on reaching maturity
will reply in straight forward una-
dorned fashion, 'a lawyer.' Two dec-
ades later, on the eve of his entry
into the world of, law, he is apt to
produce the same answer, with unfortu-
nately little or no interim thought
devoted to the type, style, mark or
modification of 'lawyer' he can and
perhaps must be if he is to succeed or
even survive.
Formal legal education would be a
unique entity were it not for the fact
that the United States Navy has a-
dopted the same format in its singu-
larly surprising OCS program. There,
would-be officers are carefully nur-
tured in theory, with the utmost pre-
caution taken to protect them from
ever going near the water or even on
board a vessel in dry dock until such
time as they are commissioned Ensigns
of the line. Then they go to sea, and
are immediately inundated with a Myr-
iad of mysterious practicalities that
never troubled their sleep back at
Newport.
Law schools also, for the most part,
stay detached from the future arena of
most of their students, the courtroom,
and they too turn out a general line
product, which according to the alle-
gation adorning the resulting license,
is qualified to undertake the duties
of Attorney and Counselor at Law for
any and all who approach his door. The
basic skill a student can attain while
In school is that of analysis, a-
chieved during the course of his wan-
derings through the substantive frame-
work of many, and quite often totally
unrelated, studies of narrow areas of
the law.
Fortunately the Navy, even when
faced with a penurious Congress, pur-
chases sturdy ships which usually can
survive mistakes of young deck offi-
cers until such time as they acquire
sufficient background in one depart-
ment or class of vessel or another to
no longer be a floating hazard if not
of some real value. Unfortunately most
clients are not as durable, and the
novice attorney cannot afford the lux-
ury of mistakes while facing first
this new problem and then that, each
requiring special study and prepara-
tion. It is not often that he has- the
depth, background and agility to han-
dle everything that comes his way in
the efficient and accurate manner that
the client deserves. Thus for the
average aspirinq attorney it becomes
necessary for him to make some prepa-
ratory efforts to distinguish himself
from the thousands of other fine,
likeable, inexperienced siblings re-
leased on the public every year, en-
hancing his marketability as well as
his ability by so doing.
First, he can consider those types
of practice or fields of law in which
he feels he can be most comfortable
and successful after leaving school.
Secondly, he can, after giving the a-
bove serious thought-, work toward some
practical foundation while still in
school, obtaining general knowledge
and, with good furtune, some little
experience in one or more of his areas
of interest.
By the time a student has completed
forty hours of law school he should
have some vague notions of that type
of law he likes and that which he
doesn't. He may never again care to
hear the words 'fee simple' in this
life or the next, but he might find
that contemplation of the vicissitudes
of proof of pain and suffering is
pleasant for him. Another student,
through background, may be possessed
of a wealth of specialized knowledge
in the petroleum world and can build
on this to create a distinctive field
of Interest. Cont. Paje 8
HOLIDAY
GREETINGS
from the staff
of the
ANNOTATIONS
STUDENT LEGAL
AID
AN ANSWER TO A CRISIS
IN LEGAL EDUCATION ?
by Richard Cross
It has been suggested that the
modern law school is failing in its
basic duty to provide society with
problem-oriented and people-oriented
counselors and advocates to meet to-
day's broad social needs. This failure
is largely attributed to Langdell's
case method of study and the failure
to recognize its inherent fallacy.
Professor Langdell was almost guil-
ty of a form of fraud in the very
naming of his system. It is miscalled
the "case" method of study. It should
have been called the op i ni on method or
the appel1 ate method. This is very im-
portant because students thought they
were dealing with cases when they were
really dealing with opinions and ap-
peal s, and there is an enormous dif-
ference. Langdell taught students to
sort out, classify and analyze legal
principles to be applied to agreed
facts but never really prepared them
for raw facts and real problems.
In retrospect one could hardly con-
ceive a system of legal education far-
ther removed from the realities of
life than the case method. We may shed
some light on the problem by asking!
whether we could train doctors simply
by having them do autopsies for 5
years in medical school and perhaps
wind up with one course on how to exa-
mine and question and diagnose a 1 i ve
patient. Medical educators real i zed
many years ago that the purpose of
medical education was to train doctors
to heal patients and that this could
be done only with patients. Today the
education of a doctor is approximately
25 per cent academic and 75 per cent
c1 inica 1. What would be your opinion
of a doctor who put out his shingle
and began to deliver babies and remove
gall bladders without ever observing!
such operations or assisting with them
or taking a case history or making a
di agnosi s?
Yet today, in a vast number of
courtrooms, good cases are being bun-
gled by inadequately trained lawyers,
and needy people suffer because law-
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Seabolt, James M. Annotations of the South Texas College of Law (Houston, Tex.), December, 1968, newspaper, December 1968; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144319/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.