Doctors Put Lawyers To Shame When It Comes To Practical Training

The legal field can learn a lot from the medical profession in how we train future lawyers so that graduating law students are better equipped to practice law.

It is well understood that law schools do a terrible job at training law students to be practicing attorneys.  Indeed, many law schools have absolutely no practical component, and merely teach students how to read cases, digest points of law, and write law school exams.  Most law students do not learn the “nuts and bolts” of being an attorney until they study for the bar.  However, even the bar review process doesn’t teach lawyers how to be practicing attorneys.  In fact, now that many states have transitioned to the Uniform Bar Examination, most bar candidates don’t even learn rules related to the specific states in which they intend to practice.

The medical profession, however, does a much better job at training future practitioners.  Unlike most law schools, medical schools have a vital practical component, so that future doctors can gain hands-on experience practicing medicine.  In addition, doctors typically complete residencies and fellowships after graduating to further learn practical skills.  The legal field can learn a lot from the medical profession in how we train future lawyers so that graduating law students are better equipped to practice law.

Many people attend law school with the “unreasonable” expectation that they… will actually learn the law.  In reality, law students do not learn black-letter, practical law too much while earning their law degrees.  Rather, law students simply learn skills while attending law school, such as digesting cases, legal research, and some writing skills.  Even when law schools offer more practical courses, these classes usually do not convey the hands-on wisdom necessary to be successful as a practitioner.  In addition, the three years people spend earning a law degree is usually much more than is necessary to master the skills that law schools purport to teach.

Medical students, on the other hand, have much more hands-on training than law students.  It is true that the first few years of medical school are typically spent in a classroom setting.  However, even academic courses in medical school like anatomy include much more hands-on involvement than the lecture classes most law students take.

In the latter part of medical school, medical students learn practical skills in actual hospitals, interacting with actual patients.  The doctors who are involved with clinical rotations are actual practitioners, unlike most law professors who spend most of their energy writing law review articles no one will ever read and who usually have little experience practicing law.

Of course, some law schools do offer practical experiences through clinics, externships, and other opportunities.  However, this is usually a small component of a law student’s educational experience, and the practical offerings of most law schools are rather limited.  In addition, many clinics are restricted in how many practical skills they can impart, since it’s not like students are learning in actual law firms like medical students learn in actual hospitals.

The training of doctors after they graduate from medical school also exceeds the postgraduate training of most lawyers.  Besides studying for the bar exam, most lawyers have no postgraduate training of any kind.  Indeed, with the spread of the UBE, bar candidates typically do not need to know actual law related to the states in which they hope to practice.  Much like law school, most bar candidates simply need to learn impractical legal principles and write essays for the bar exam that are nothing like anything a lawyer would have to write as an attorney.  Some lawyers are fortunate to have employers who train them once they begin working, but the vast majority of young lawyers enter the profession with little practical knowledge.

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On the other hand, doctors typically train for years after they graduate from medical school.  Most doctors complete a residency program, during which new doctors work at a hospital under the supervision of more senior doctors.  As a resident, doctors learn the hands-on, practical skills that will be vital to these practitioners later in their careers.  If they wish to specialize in a certain medical field (like my triplet brother), doctors need to complete a fellowship program.  All of this postgraduate training can exceed the amount of time doctors spend in medical school, as these doctors learn how to practice their profession.

Of course, the training that doctors undergo is not perfect.  Indeed, there has been some debate over how little medical residents and fellows are paid, and how much these individuals need to work.  Some have even called this system exploitative, since new doctors work long hours for little pay.  Yet, medical professionals who go though this process will have far more hands-on training than new attorneys.

Law students spend insane sums of money pursuing a legal education, and law schools should do a better job at training future lawyers.  It is ridiculous that law students spend three years honing a handful of skills, and then must learn the most critical details of practicing law on their own.  Of course, it is difficult for changes to be implemented in how the legal progression trains future practitioners.  However, the medical field provides a useful example for how practical skills can be taught to novice attorneys.


Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at Jordan@studentdebtdiaries.com.

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