A DANGEROUS EDUCATION – SAVING SOULS By Sue Van Der Hout

I was a lawyer for many years and in the main – ye gads – loved it, which may show how out of touch I was with the climate, my peers and women with souls or that there is a majesty to the law that should still inspire awe and a passion for equality – which should extend to the "business of law". Maybe if we started legal education on a different footing no-one would ever have to say, as Shakespeare did, over 500 years ago: "The first thing we do, let´s kill all the lawyers."

Perhaps it’s not only the "business of law" that’s draining the brain pool but the psyche that’s developed through the educational process. Kennon Sheldon, a professor of psychology at the University of Missouri and Lawrence Krieger, a law professor at Florida State did a study: "Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory," which targets how the law schools "hire and reward faculty primarily based on scholarly potential and production" rather than teaching excellence with the result that students are trained "to ignore their own values and moral sense," that ultimately "undermine students’ sense of identity and self-confidence, and create[s] cynicism." Ouch.

Or maybe we should just blame Socrates. Consider the centuries of torture inflicted on law students by the Socratic method which through a series of questions that pits one point of view against the other, forces the "loser" to publicly contradict her/himself. While rarely pleasant for the questionee, it’s observed with glee by the questioner and the audience (be it a class, colleagues, judge or jurors). Professionally practiced, it shows that nothing is sacred and no-one above ridicule. We’re all just a bundle of premises and prejudices that are the subject of legitimate argument and personal attack. Good to give, tough to receive. What did your legal education do for you? Intellectually, emotionally?

Did law teach you to play nice?

06.11.2007

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