Vol. 76, No. 12, December 2003

Teaching the Art of Law

by George Burnett

Some say the education of a lawyer begins in earnest upon graduation from law school. Our law schools educate students about important legal principles and train them very well, as we are fond of saying, to think like lawyers. But the practice of law is an art and the responsibility of teaching the next generation this art falls to the profession.

As Chief Justice Edward Ryan noted in an oft-quoted address more than a century ago:

"[T]hough there may be geniuses who think they are born lawyers, we know that a lawyer is born only of years of patient, steadfast, laborious study. And even then the safest knowledge of the wisest lawyer is the comprehension of how limited and uncertain his knowledge is. ... It is to the profession that, in time of peril, all rights of person and property are committed. The bar is the trustee of everything which man holds sacred. ... Indeed, it may be truly said that integrity of character is as essential to a lawyer as professional learning. For without innate love of truth and justice, it is impossible to truly comprehend a profession essentially founded on truth and justice."

Few among us do not recall the first anxiety-filled days and years of our professional lives. There was a terror in uncertainty, of not knowing quite what to say or where to stand or how to act. We learned the law as much by doing and watching as by reading and study. There was no substitute for hard work and patient endurance.

Many are blessed by training at the desk of an older, wiser, more experienced lawyer, someone who dedicates the time to tutor a young lawyer, not in the fundamentals of the law, but in the folkways of legal practice.

I recently met a lawyer from Fond du Lac, who was receiving an award acknowledging his significant career accomplishments. We spoke through dinner about the early years of practice. He had the luxury of learning from his father, a Harvard-trained lawyer who returned to his boyhood home. This lawyer told me that as a young man, he learned as much over lunch with his father as he learned in a library filled with law books. He told me about one day, early in his career, when he and his father were returning from lunch, walking down Main Street back to the office. The son looked at his feet and the sidewalk while pondering an inscrutable legal problem. His father tipped his hat and greeted almost everyone they passed. When the two returned to the office, the father said, "Son, there are two reasons to say hello to people on Main Street. The first is moral - it is the right thing to do; the second is practical - these are future jurors."

Not every new lawyer has the benefit of such mentoring. Increasingly, the economics of the times deprives young lawyers of this opportunity. More young lawyers must practice alone or with another equally youthful colleague. Even in established firms there is a frequent lament that time is too short to fully train young lawyers. Increasingly young lawyers learn this profession by doing. It is not surprising then that more young lawyers are leaving the practice of law, disenchanted with the hours, the anxieties, the financial worries that accompany this profession. It is tragic when a young lawyer, having spent thousands of dollars and years of effort, concludes that he or she mistakenly chose this profession.

It is incumbent on those of us who have benefited from the generosity of a more experienced colleague to pass on that kindness. It is incumbent upon the organized Bar to help young lawyers learn the art of our profession. One small step will occur in January with the State Bar program, "Building for Success: The Ultimate 'How- to' Guide for New and Not-So-New Lawyers," in which prominent judges and lawyers will address topics of special interest to new lawyers. The program is dedicated to the memory of former State Bar President Leonard Loeb, who was instrumental in developing the project and who had a warm spot in his large heart for new lawyers.

The cost to attendees is modest and the financial success of the program to the Bar is unimportant. What is important is this small but noteworthy step toward training the next generation for this great profession.

Wisconsin Lawyer