Reading law

"Reading the law" redirects here. For reading of the law in Judaism, see Torah reading.

Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the tutelage or mentoring of an experienced lawyer. The practice largely died out in the early 20th century. A few U.S. states still permit people to become lawyers by reading law instead of attending law school, although the practice is rare.^[1]

In this sense, "reading law" specifically refers to a means of entering the profession, although in England it is still customary to say that a university undergraduate is "reading" a course, which may be law or any other.

History

United States

In colonial America, as in Britain in that day, law schools did not exist at all until Litchfield Law School was founded in 1773. Within a few years following the American Revolution, some universities such as the College of William and Mary and the University of Pennsylvania established a "Chair in Law".^[2] However, the holder of this position would be the sole purveyor of legal education for the institution, and would give lectures designed to supplement, rather than replace, an apprenticeship.^[3] Even as a handful of law schools were established, they remained uncommon in the United States until the late nineteenth century. Most people who entered the legal profession did so through an apprenticeship which incorporated a period of study under the supervision of an experienced attorney. This usually encompassed the reading of the works considered at the time to be the most authoritative on the law, such as Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England, William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, and similar texts.^[4]

The scholastic independence of the law student is evident from the following advice of Abraham Lincoln to a young man in 1855:

If you are absolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself the thing is more than half done already. It is a small matter whether you read with any one or not. I did not read with any one. Get the books and read and study them in their every feature, and that is the main thing. It is no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people in it. The books and your capacity for understanding them are just the same in all places. [...] Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.^[5]

Reading law to become an attorney would be the norm, until the 1890s, when the American Bar Association (which had been formed in 1878) began pressing states to limit admission to the Bar to those persons who had satisfactorily completed several years of post-graduate institutional instruction.^[6] In 1941, James F. Byrnes became the last (July 8, 1941) Justice appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States who had never attended college or law school, and he was the penultimate appointee who had been admitted to practice by reading law. Byrnes was followed by Robert H. Jackson, who was commissioned just three days later (July 11, 1941) and had also been admitted to the practice of law by reading, although he had attended University of Albany's law school for less than one year (taking a two-year program in the single year to save money).

As of 2014, California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington permit students to take the state bar exam after reading law with the help of an attorney as an alternative to law school. New York, Maine, and Wyoming allow students to study in a law office together with some period of time in law school.^[7] In California the requirements of the state bar association for reading law are set forth in Rule 4.29, Study in a law office or judge's chambers.^[8]

Notable Americans who became lawyers by reading law

U.S. presidents

• John Adams^[9]
• Thomas Jefferson^[10]
• James Monroe
• John Quincy Adams
• Andrew Jackson
• Martin Van Buren
• Millard Fillmore, also Vice President and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee^[11]
• Abraham Lincoln
• James A. Garfield^[12]
• Chester A. Arthur^[13]
• Grover Cleveland^[14]
• Woodrow Wilson,^[15] left University of Virginia School of Law to read law; also governor of New Jersey and president of Princeton University
• Calvin Coolidge^[16]

U.S. legislators

• Alben W. Barkley, Vice President and Senate Minority Leader^[17]
• Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts
• Charles Curtis,^[18] Vice President and Senate Majority Leader
• George Gray,^[19] Senator and Judge United States Court of Appeals
• George S. Houston,^[20] Senator and Governor of Alabama
• John H. Mitchell, U.S. Senator for Oregon in the 1870s. Mitchell studied law on his own in Pennsylvania.

U.S. Supreme Court justices

• John Rutledge
• Joseph Story
• Joseph Rucker Lamar^[21]
• Mahlon Pitney^[22]
• George Shiras Jr., left Yale to read law
• William Henry Moody, left Harvard to read law
• Edward Douglass White^[23]
• Pierce Butler^[24]
• George Sutherland, left University of Michigan to read law^[25]
• John Hessin Clarke^[26]
• Robert H. Jackson
• James F. Byrnes, Justice and Governor of South Carolina^[27]
• Stephen Field

Other politicians

• Patrick Henry, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia
• Marilla Ricker,^[28] Examiner in Chancery
• Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State
• Thomas R. Marshall,^[29] Vice President and Governor of Indiana
• Thomas Clarke Rye, Governor of Tennessee
• Granville Pearl Aikman, Judge and suffragist^[30]
• Edmund Pendleton, 1st Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Virginia
• William Simon U'Ren, Father of the Oregon System
• Rush Limbaugh Sr., Missouri judge

Non-governmental

• Francis Scott Key
• John Neal,^[31] writer and activist
• Charles D. Drake,^[32] one of Dred Scott's attorneys
• Clarence Darrow^[33][34]

Canada

Unlike their U.S. counterparts, early lawyers of Canada did get some legal training, but not within a higher institution like a school. Following English tradition, early Canadian lawyers trained by "learning law" through another lawyer. To practice fully, these legal students (articled clerk) are required to pass a bar exam and be admitted to the bar.

Reading law was also used in Ontario to train lawyers until 1949. People training to become lawyers need not attend school, but they were asked to apprentice or article with a practicing lawyer. Changes in the late 1940s ended the practice.^[35]

In Quebec, civil law required formal education; and in Nova Scotia, lawyers were trained by attending university.^[35]

Modern practice

A small number of jurisdictions still permit this. In the states of California,^[1] Vermont,^[1] Virginia,^[36] and Washington,^[37] an applicant who has not attended law school may take the bar exam after reading law under a judge or practicing attorney for an extended period of time. The required time varies. Exact rules vary as well; for example, Virginia does not allow the reader to be gainfully employed by the tutoring lawyer, while Washington requires just that. The State of New York requires that applicants who are reading law must have at least one year of law school study^[38] and Maine requires applicants to have completed at least two-thirds of a law degree.^[39] Such persons are sometimes called country lawyers or county-seat lawyers. In 2013, 60 people qualified to sit for the bar exam this way as opposed to 83,926 via law schools, and of those 60, 17 passed on their first attempt.^[1]

References

1. Adwar, Corey (July 30, 2014). "There's A Way To Become An Attorney Without Setting Foot In Law School". Business Insider.
2. Harno, Albert J. (1953). Legal Education in the United States: A Report Prepared for the Survey of the Legal Profession. p. 23.
3. Harno (1953), p. 27.
4. Harno (1953), pp. 19–20.
5. Allen, Frederick James (1919). The Law as a Vocation. Harvard University. p. 25.
6. Harno (1953), pp. 86–87.
7. Journal, A. B. A. "Students try to avoid law school costs with 'reading law' path to law license". ABA Journal.
8. "TITLE 4. ADMISSIONS AND EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS Adopted July 2007 DIVISION 1. ADMISSION TO PRACTICE LAW IN CALIFORNIA Chapter 1. General Provisions, Rule 4.29 Study in a law office or judge's chambers" (PDF).
9. "Education | John Adams Historical Society". www.john-adams-heritage.com. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
10. Meacham, Jon (2012). Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. Random House LLC. pp. 29, 39. ISBN 978-0679645368.
11. "Millard Fillmore". HISTORY. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
12. "James A. Garfield Papers". Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
13. "Chester A. Arthur | Biography, Presidency, Accomplishments, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
14. "Grover Cleveland | Biography & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-02-21.
15. "Wilson, Woodrow (1856–1924)". www.encyclopediavirginia.org. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
16. "Calvin Coolidge: Life Before the Presidency". Miller Center. 2016-10-04. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
17. Libbey in "The Making of the 'Paducah Politician'", p. 255.
18. "U.S. Senate: Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President (1929-1933)". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
19. "George Gray". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
20. "Alabama Department of Archives and History: Alabama Governors--George Smith Houston". archives.alabama.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
21. "Lamar, Joseph Rucker at the Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
22. "Pitney, Mahlon at the Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
23. "White, Edward Douglass". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
24. "Butler, Pierce at Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
25. "The Supreme Court . Capitalism and Conflict. Biographies of the Robes. Alexander George Sutherland | PBS". www.thirteen.org. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
26. "Clarke, John Hessin at the Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
27. "James Byrnes: South Carolina's Governor, 1951-1955". www.sciway.net. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
28. "Marilla Ricker, 1840-1920 | Library". www.library.unh.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
29. "U.S. Senate: Thomas R. Marshall, 28th Vice President (1913-1921)". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
30. staff (November 1, 1900). "Endorsed by Bryanites". The Eureka Herald.
31. Neal, John (1869). Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life. Boston, Massachusetts: Roberts Brothers. pp. 273–288. OCLC 1056818562.
32. "Drake, Charles Daniel - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
33. "Clarence Seward Darrow Facts". biography.yourdictionary.com. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
34. "Clarence Darrow | American lawyer". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
35. Sworded, Philip James (2006). An Introduction to Canadian Law. Emond Montgomery Publications. ISBN 9781552391457.
36. "Law Reader Program". Virginia Board of Bar Examiners. 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
37. "Rules and Regulations Governing the Washington Law Clerk Program". Washington State Bar Association. 2002. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
38. "New York Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys". New York State Board of Bar Examiners. 2000. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
39. (PDF). Maine Board of Bar Examiners. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 27, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.

External links

• Search of Federal Judicial Center for 'Read Law'
• California First-Year Law Students' Examination, aka 'The Baby Bar'
• VERMONT SUPREME COURT, LAW OFFICE STUDY PROGRAM
• The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, Law Reader Rules & Regulations