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Variations of the expression that “those that don’t research historical past are doomed to repeat it” have been attributed to Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, and George Santayana. In any occasion, individuals who don’t be taught the teachings from the previous won’t understood how they’ll keep away from comparable errors sooner or later, and it’s helpful to be taught historical past to have a stable basis for making decisions within the current. Authorized historical past is probably going not a required course in lots of — if any — legislation colleges, however legal professionals ought to know in regards to the historical past of the authorized career in order that they’ll keep away from making unhealthy decisions.
I’ve all the time been a historical past buff. I acquired my grasp’s diploma in American historical past throughout my senior 12 months of faculty, and whereas in legislation college, I took just a few authorized historical past lessons. Top-of-the-line sources of Above the Legislation is that it’s a stable chronicle of current authorized historical past, and I usually google current authorized historical past occasions and see ATL articles discussing them.
Nonetheless, many legal professionals won’t know some current occasions within the authorized career, which might make it tougher for these attorneys to be taught from the teachings of the previous. Some time in the past, I used to be at a celebration, and I met a lawyer who was across the similar age as I used to be however who had entered the authorized career a lot later in life. We have been discussing giant legislation corporations and the dialog took us to legislation corporations that now not existed.
At one level I discussed the dearly departed Dewey LeBoeuf, and the way I knew a bunch of legal professionals who have been impacted by the collapse of that agency. The lawyer confessed that he had by no means heard of Dewey LeBoeuf, probably as a result of he had solely entered the authorized career previously few years. This was unlucky, since many classes might be realized from that episode, together with how legislation corporations shouldn’t develop too rapidly or promise companions an excessive amount of cash, and the way legal professionals shouldn’t manipulate numbers to make it appear like a legislation agency is working higher than it really is.
After all, I can not actually fault this lawyer for not realizing about an episode that occurred within the career years as a result of that particular person turned an lawyer. What occurred to Dewey LeBoeuf undoubtedly didn’t break into the mainstream information cycle, and authorized information shops have been probably the one ones to cowl this story closely. Nonetheless, this cautionary story needs to be recognized by extra legal professionals for example of what legislation agency leaders shouldn’t accomplish that that they’ll keep away from an analogous blowup sooner or later.
As one other instance, I met a current legislation pupil not too way back, and we have been speaking about our experiences in legislation college greater than a decade aside. I talked about how after I was in legislation college, the legislation college students have been pressured to do e-book analysis within the legislation library despite the fact that all the college students got free accounts to Lexis and Westlaw. This concerned us utilizing reporters and digests to search for instances, and double-checking summaries to make sure that authority was nonetheless good legislation.
This current legislation college graduate didn’t have to do e-book analysis in class, which makes full sense since nearly no legal professionals nonetheless seek the advice of reporters and books when writing authorized papers. As we additional talked, this current graduate conveyed that he didn’t notice that authorized citations have been made to reporters that was printed and consulted in legislation libraries. After all, this isn’t a giant deal, however not studying about antecedent practices within the authorized career would possibly make it tougher to function within the current in some circumstances.
I’m not calling for legislation colleges to mandate lessons in authorized historical past, and understanding the historical past of the authorized career would possibly solely present marginal advantages to authorized practitioners. Nonetheless, extra legal professionals ought to know in regards to the historical past of the authorized career so that they have a basis to answer conditions they face within the current.
Jordan Rothman is a accomplice of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey legislation agency. He’s additionally the founding father of Student Debt Diaries, a web site discussing how he paid off his pupil loans. You’ll be able to attain Jordan by way of e mail at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.
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