On Becoming a Lawyer

• Author: Joel W. Barrows
• Position: Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Iowa
• Pages: 1511-1513

1511

On Becoming a Lawyer

Joel W. Barrows

Until the early part of the last century, many lawyers were trained

entirely through what was effectively an apprenticeship. Of course, you were

only as good as the person who trained you. Not surprisingly, no one

advocates a return to that system. Today, in fact, the trend is toward law

schools assuming more of the responsibility for practical-skills training.

Legal educators are keenly aware of the fact that clinical programs and

internships have become an important, if not indispensable, part of the law-

school experience. The degree to which those programs should be utilized,

and their scope, are two of the issues I will address in this essay.

Traditionally, the function of law schools was to teach students to think

like a lawyer, while future employers were left with the task of training new

lawyers to find the courthouse, draft a petition, and the like. That equation

is changing, with law schools increasingly taking on more of the latter role in

addition to their traditional responsibilities.

There are currently 200 ABA-approved law schools.1 Clinical programs

are now common, in top-tier schools as well as those recently accredited.2

Both of Iowa’s law schools provide good examples. The University of Iowa

College of Law has a multifaceted in-house clinic where students can gain

experience at all stages of the administrative, state, and federal legal

processes.3 The College of Law also offers externships in a wide variety of

 Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of Iowa. The author wishes to thank

Jordan Bergus (J.D. Candidate, The University of Iowa College of Law, 2012) for his assistance

in the preparation of this article. The views expressed herein are s olely those of the author and

not necessarily those of the United States Department of Justi ce or the United States Attorney’s

Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

1. ABA-Approved Law Schools, AM. BAR ASS’N, http://www.abanet.org/legaled/approved

lawschools/approved.html (last visited May 5, 2011).

2. See Mills Legal Clinic of Stanford Law School, STANFORD LAW SCH., http://www.law.

stanford.edu/program/clinics/ (last visited May 5, 2011) (noting clinical offerings available at a

top-tier law school); see also Clinical Programs, UNIV. OF LA VERNE COLL. OF LAW, http://law.

laverne.edu/academics/clinical/ (last visited May 5, 2011) (describing the clinical offerings of a

more recently accredited law school).

3. Clinical Law Programs, THE UNIV. OF IOWA COLL. OF LAW, http://www.law.uiowa.edu/

clinic/ (last visited May 5, 2011).