Vol. 29, No. 5 #4 (October 2006). ETHICALLY SPEAKING.

• Author: Teaching Ethics (and other things) in Jordan

Wyoming Bar Journal

2006.

Vol. 29, No. 5 #4 (October 2006).

ETHICALLY SPEAKING

WYOMING LAWYER October 2006/Vol. 29, No. 5 ETHICALLY SPEAKING Teaching Ethics (and other things) in Jordan

By John M. Burman Jordan. The name meant virtually nothing to me. I knew it was a country in the Middle East and I thought it was located near Israel and Iraq (it is, it turns out, between them). But would I go there? That, I would have to consider.

It was the fall of 2004. A representative of ABA/CEELI (the American Bar Association's Central and Eurasian Law Initiative) asked if I would go to Jordan to, with others, conduct an assessment of legal education in that country. The concept was appealing. I love to travel, and I especially love to travel and teach or consult about legal education. But why Jordan? And why me?

A friend of mine (Chris Scott), who had formerly been the Country Director for ABA/CEELI in Russia, and with whom I had worked in Russia during the summer of 2000, had moved to Jordan to work for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID is the primary funder for ABA/CEELI, and that organization was looking for some folks to conduct an assessment of legal education in Jordan, and my friend had mentioned my name.

I contacted Chris by e-mail in Jordan. "Was it safe?" I asked. "Sure," he replied, "probably safer than Russia." So I agreed to go, particularly as one of the other two team members(fn1) was to be another friend, Professor Marcia Levy (then at Denver University School of Law, and now at Hofstra), who had replaced me in Russia as the Clinical Education Specialist for ABA/CEELI. She and I had met in Moscow, and I was eager to see and work with her again.

The Assessment

In December of 2004, I walked out of the last Torts class of the semester and onto an airplane, bound, ultimately, for Amman, Jordan. I met Marcia at DIA and Patrick Vovan (the third member of the assessment team-a French lawyer) in Amman. Over the next several days we met with dozens of Jordanians: lawyers, law students, judges, and two cabinet Ministers(fn2) (the Ministers of Higher Education and the Minister of Justice) in an attempt to learn about the Jordanian legal system, in general, and the legal education system, in particular. We also visited three law schools where we had the pleasure of meeting with students, and we met with most of the deans of Jordan's 22 law schools.

We learned a lot, though not nearly enough. We prepared a report, "Assessment of Legal Education in Jordan." That report was part of an attempt to upgrade Jordan's judicial system (ABA/CEELI had been invited to Jordan by the then Minister of Justice to assist in trying to improve its judiciary). While assessing the judiciary and considering how to improve it, it quickly became apparent that legal education was an integral link in the system, and it too should be addressed.

During our visit, we learned that law is an undergraduate program in Jordan, as it is in most of the world. It is "taught" almost exclusively by the lecture method, a method that really doesn't teach much of anything, and which has been aptly described as the process by which the professor's notes become the students' without passing through the minds of either.(fn3) As one young Jordanian lawyer said to us, the lecture method he experienced at a Jordanian law school "kills your brain." And while changing from lectures to other methods of instruction is, in my view, a critical step in changing that perception, which is wide-spread in Jordan, and improving legal education, it is both a long-term and difficult goal.

After only a couple days in Jordan, I called my wife and told her I had made a major mistake in not having her accompany me to Jordan. "You would not like it," I said, "you would love it." There were, I said, three things that already stood out. First, the history and culture are fascinating (we had visited the ancient city of Petra, which is the most remarkable manmade creation I have ever seen-those of you who saw "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" got a glimpse of Petra when Indiana Jones entered a temple carved into the rocks in search of the Holy Grail-that "temple" is a small part of Petra). Second, the food is astonishingly good. Third, the people are wonderful. Next time, I said, I would not come alone.

Talking to judges in Jordan was not unlike talking to judges in Wyoming. We heard similar complaints about the lack of professionalism among lawyers and a general need to improve the ethical standards of the profession.

We learned that legal education in Jordan is more than attending and graduating from law school. After receiving an undergraduate degree in law, graduates who wish to become lawyers must serve a two-year apprenticeship as (unpaid) trainee lawyers working for experienced lawyers (those with more than five years of experience). The theory is good. Before becoming lawyers, trainee lawyers learn the practicalities of law practice. And from what we learned, some of the apprenticeships are very good. The lawyers involved take their responsibilities seriously and provide a good experience for the trainee lawyers. Too often, however, the apprenticeships are not a good experience. Trainee lawyers spend time as unpaid clerical help for lawyers and don't learn a lot about being lawyers. They learn, instead, how to run errands, how to make copies, and how to make tea or coffee.

After completing the two-year training period, trainee lawyers are allowed to take the bar exam, the final step to becoming a "registered" (licensed) lawyer. The Jordanian Bar Association is responsible for registering (admitting) lawyers, and it is then responsible for regulating the practice of law, including sanctioning lawyers for violating the Code of Ethics, which, as discussed below, seldom happens.

Law...