Variations of the expression that “those that don’t examine historical past are doomed to repeat it” have been attributed to Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, and George Santayana. In any occasion, individuals who don’t study the teachings from the previous won’t understood how they’ll keep away from comparable errors sooner or later, and it’s helpful to study historical past to have a stable basis for making decisions within the current. Authorized historical past is probably going not a required course in lots of — if any — regulation faculties, however legal professionals ought to know concerning the historical past of the authorized occupation in order that they’ll keep away from making dangerous decisions.
I’ve at all times been a historical past buff. I acquired my grasp’s diploma in American historical past throughout my senior yr of school, and whereas in regulation college, I took just a few authorized historical past lessons. Top-of-the-line assets of Above the Legislation is that it’s a stable chronicle of latest authorized historical past, and I often google latest authorized historical past occasions and see ATL articles discussing them.
Nonetheless, many legal professionals won’t know some latest occasions within the authorized occupation, which might make it tougher for these attorneys to study from the teachings of the previous. Some time in the past, I used to be at a celebration, and I met a lawyer who was across the identical age as I used to be however who had entered the authorized occupation a lot later in life. We have been discussing giant regulation corporations and the dialog took us to regulation corporations that not existed.
At one level I discussed the dearly departed Dewey LeBoeuf, and the way I knew a bunch of legal professionals who have been impacted by the collapse of that agency. The lawyer confessed that he had by no means heard of Dewey LeBoeuf, seemingly as a result of he had solely entered the authorized occupation prior to now few years. This was unlucky, since many classes could be realized from that episode, together with how regulation corporations mustn’t develop too shortly or promise companions an excessive amount of cash, and the way legal professionals mustn’t manipulate numbers to make it appear to be a regulation agency is working higher than it really is.
After all, I can’t actually fault this lawyer for not figuring out about an episode that occurred within the occupation years as a result of that individual grew to become an legal professional. What occurred to Dewey LeBoeuf positively didn’t break into the mainstream information cycle, and authorized information shops have been seemingly the one ones to cowl this story closely. Nonetheless, this cautionary story ought to be recognized by extra legal professionals for instance of what regulation agency leaders mustn’t accomplish that that they’ll keep away from the same blowup sooner or later.
As one other instance, I met a latest regulation pupil not too way back, and we have been speaking about our experiences in regulation college greater than a decade aside. I talked about how after I was in regulation college, the regulation college students have been pressured to do guide analysis within the regulation library although all the college students got free accounts to Lexis and Westlaw. This concerned us utilizing reporters and digests to search for circumstances, and double-checking summaries to make sure that authority was nonetheless good regulation.
This latest regulation college graduate didn’t must do guide analysis at school, which makes full sense since virtually no legal professionals nonetheless seek the advice of reporters and books when writing authorized papers. As we additional talked, this latest graduate conveyed that he didn’t understand that authorized citations have been made to reporters that was printed and consulted in regulation libraries. After all, this isn’t an enormous deal, however not studying about antecedent practices within the authorized occupation would possibly make it tougher to function within the current in some circumstances.
I’m not calling for regulation faculties to mandate lessons in authorized historical past, and understanding the historical past of the authorized occupation would possibly solely present marginal advantages to authorized practitioners. Nonetheless, extra legal professionals ought to know concerning the historical past of the authorized occupation so that they have a basis to answer conditions they face within the current.
Jordan Rothman is a companion of The Rothman Legislation Agency, a full-service New York and New Jersey regulation agency. He’s additionally the founding father of Scholar Debt Diaries, an internet site discussing how he paid off his pupil loans. You possibly can attain Jordan via electronic mail at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.
