Clifford Winston

Congratulations, associates!

The issue du jour is whether or not it is worth getting more education to get a (better) job. Valerie Katz is talking about the Small Business LLM from Concord Law School. Tuition is $600 per credit hour, or $14,400 for the program. Is it worth it? Let’s discuss the pros and cons....

Critics of the current legal-education model, including my colleague Elie Mystal, have accused the American Bar Association of failing to uphold sufficiently stringent accreditation standards. ABA-accredited law schools proliferate, even though thousands of law school graduates find themselves unemployed or underemployed. The ABA was recently chided by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and […]

Last week, Clifford Winston, drew up some controversy when he suggested that we do away with law school and bar exams and let anyone practice law. Valerie Katz cannot help but wonder if we were to do away with law school and license requirements, would that mean an end to small law firms? How could a small group of trained and experienced attorneys compete with a superstore of the Winston variety of attorney?

Occasionally lawyers have to deal with op-eds like the one just featured in the New York Times. Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution argues that everybody should be allowed to practice law. Seriously, everybody. No law school, no bar exam, if you want to do legal work, go right ahead. Somehow Winston believes that allowing untrained dumbasses to take advantage of poor people who don't know any better will magically help poor people....