1972, November, Pg. 7. Legal Internship: The Professional and Ethical Responsibility of the Bar.

• Author: by Michael W. Anderson

2 Colo.Law. 7

Colorado Lawyer

1972.

1972, November, Pg. 7.

Legal Internship: The Professional and Ethical Responsibility of the Bar

7Vol. 2, No. 1, Pg. 7Legal Internship: The Professional and Ethical Responsibility of the Barby Michael W. AndersonMichael W. Anderson, Denver, is a third-year law student at the University of Colorado. His article as originally written was the prize-winning essay in the 1971-1972 essay competition of the Colorado Bar Association Ethics Committee, in which students in Colorado law schools are asked to submit their essays on a topic specified by the Committee. The article has been abridged slightly to facilitate publication. The views expressed do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Committee, the Association, or The Colorado Lawyer.The Bar's ResponsibilityInternship programs for law students have been widely discussed, and it is the premise of this paper that the Code of Professional Responsibility points the way to the expanded role of private attorneys in the legal education field. Two specific Canons are in point: Canon 1 states, "A lawyer should assist in maintaining the integrity and competence of the legal profession." Canon 2 states, "A lawyer should assist in improving the legal system."

The well-known maxim that law school has not always taught the graduate how to find the court house steps can be expanded; once the graduate finds them he does not necessarily know how to climb them. Internship programs could allow the student to participate in actual cases and learn through first-hand experience. The legal profession is now allowing a tremendous amount of willing energy and manpower to go untapped: the law students, who find little or no demand for their services in law or related fields during their law school years.

This waste of manpower coupled with the professional responsibility of attorneys to improve both the legal system and the legal profession opens the door to suggestions of ways to implement legal education. Ethically, these considerations are demanded by the Code of Professional Responsibility (Ethical Consideration 1-2). The question which remains is how the bar can best meet this obligation for improvement in legal education. There are those who fear that law schools through the spread and dilution of the curriculum necessitated by the greater complexities of modern life are being forced to default in some areas of education.(fn1) Additionally, because law school is the only time in the attorney's life for concentrated and penetrating legal learning, the value of clinical or internship programs must be looked at carefully. What must be weighed is whether it is of value to have students doing in law

8school what they may be doing for the rest of their lives as opposed to the possibility that internship may show them a side of the law which they might otherwise never know.(fn2)A general objection to internship is that with so much to learn during law school there is not enough expendable time that can be devoted to internship. This problem has been overcome in some programs by emphasizing summer work for law firms. At present the jobs offered during these summer vacations are few and generally reach only those people in the upper part of the law school class. A large-scale program is needed to reach more than a select minority of students. The incentive for such a program could come from several sources. First, and practically, it must be financially possible for the private bar to allow students to be employed by them. A basic consideration is whether the inexperienced student could make enough of a contribution to the practitioner or firm to warrant a salary. A second incentive should come from the underlying ethical duty of the bar to further legal education and to improve the legal profession itself.(fn3) A third incentive may be a form of internship which could not only tap the reserve of unused law students and enable them to profit professionally and monetarily but could offer the bar a way to meet its professional responsibility to provide legal services to those unable to pay for such services.

Such expanded programs would be radical changes since they would involve the student in everyday problems---both the learning problems to lead to more competent and proficient counsel and the problems of public responsibility inherent in the private practice of law. Student interns would be faced with the ethical questions presented to members of the bar and would better understand the duty and ideals to which they must adhere. "Proceedings to gain admission to the bar are for the purpose of protecting the public and the courts from the ministrations of persons unfit to practice the profession." In re Monaghan, 126 Vt. 53, 222 A.2d 665, 676 (1966). It seems that this judgment on the character of potential members of the bar could be better made when students are given more exposure to actual practice; attorneys working with students would have knowledge of any deficiencies that the bar examiners or the state Supreme Court should be aware of. Likewise internship would "place law students in a position where they must face common and difficult problems of professional and public...