Why Law Schools Should Teach Social Justice As Well As Legal Ethics
A horrible reputation takes a lot of work to change.
Whether it is deserved or not, lawyers in the United States have a horrible reputation which is a shame. Though the nature of the legal profession makes it easy to become a magnet for offense, lawyers are largely to blame for the way in which their profession is perceived because law schools and attorneys in practice have failed to emphasize ethical foundations and the inherent nobility of the rightly practiced legal craft.
Instead a patchwork of “professional responsibility” courses in law schools across the nation make it hard for lawyers to learn the value of human dignity much as medical students learn the value of human life through concepts such as the Hippocratic Oath and courses in bedside manner.
Though a number of law schools, including my alma mater, Pepperdine University, provide a robust curriculum on legal ethics, morality, professional responsibility and relationship-building, the majority of law schools fall woefully short.
Moreover, by neglecting to develop a consistent ethical and moral curriculum, law schools have failed to show the general public that legal institutions care about ethics. My non-lawyer friends are often surprised to learn that I had an “ethics bar” or that I took a class on professional responsibility.
But perhaps most troubling of all is the legal profession’s total lack of desire to talk about larger social justice issues. For instance, had the boardroom lawyers in the United States displayed the same sense of drive for social justice as those in Pakistan a few years back, perhaps something like Abu Ghraib or the Enron fiasco, or the mortgage meltdown could have been avoided.
These kinds of lawyers are best formed in the crucible of law schools that encourage independent ethical thinking and legal responsibility beyond the norm of the professional responsibility codebook. It takes more than a class to teach young legal minds the courage to do the right thing. Instead, immersion in real-world experience through internships, externships and summer work and a holistic set of courses on ethics, responsibility and relationships allows students to confront decisions that have real consequences. These tools will eventually allow lawyers to blossom into the ethical and moral voice of this country rather than the butt of bad jokes.
