For most
of the history of the legal profession in the
United States, once a lawyer was admitted to
practice no further professional education or
re-qualification was required. Over the last
twenty-five years there has been the growing
recognition that this standard for lawyer
competence, if ever valid, is not now. Lawyers
must maintain currency in the law, stay abreast
of new developments in the delivery of legal
service, and sustain a keen sensitivity to
professional responsibility issues to remain
qualified to serve the public.
The
first step in meeting the task of maintaining
lawyer competence over the course of a career in
Kentucky was the establishment of an annual
continuing legal education requirement. In
Kentucky, lawyers must earn each year 12.5 hours
of CLE, two of which must be in the area of
lawyer professional responsibility and
ethics.
The next
step was the recognition that newly admitted
lawyers enter the profession with some
significant gaps in their understanding of how
law is practiced. This concern was highlighted
in an American Bar Association study known as
the MacCrate
Report. One of the report’s major
conclusions was that new lawyers often have
inadequate practice skills and an incomplete
understanding of professional values. The report
described fundamental lawyering skills as:
-
Problem Solving
-
Legal Analysis and Reasoning
-
Legal Research
-
Factual Investigation
-
Communication
-
Counseling
-
Negotiation
-
Litigation and ADR Procedures
-
Organization & Management of
Legal Work
-
Recognizing & Resolving Ethical
Dilemmas
The fundamental values of the
profession were determined to be:
-
Provision of Competent
Representation
-
Striving to Promote Justice,
Fairness, and Morality
-
Striving to Improve the
Profession
-
Professional
Self-Development
In
responding to this perceived need of helping new
lawyers get off to the best possible start,
the
Kentucky Supreme Court mandated that all lawyers
within the first year of practice attend
the
KBA’s New Lawyer Program. This two day program
is designed to address some, but not
all,
of the areas identified by the MacCrate
Report . . . to assist in filling the
small, but critical,
gap
between law school education and the acquisition
of meaningful practice experience. The
program
emphasizes your new role as “an officer of the
court”, the relationships involved in
fulfilling
that role, and contains as much information as a
two day program will allow on "getting
started."
A substantial part of the program is presented
by the KBA Young Lawyers Division in a
mode
that will allow you to interact with lawyers who
have just successfully navigated the first
few
years of practice.
