Monday, March 10, 2008
Explaining Ourselves
I was discussing lawyers with a layperson the other day, an intelligent, well-educated, sophisticated person who is expert in her own profession, and who happens to need some assistance with what lawyers likely would regard as an engagement that is interesting but not especially out of the ordinary. I was surprised that the task of retaining a lawyer, however, seemed to her to be extraordinarily difficult, a prospect to be dreaded. Of course, that is the nature of many legal matters, that the need to bring in a professional is caused by a problem quite unfamiliar to the would-be client. It is not the lawyer but the issue itself that generates anxiety.
Nonetheless, it would not be unfair to say that she was intimidated by lawyers. I suspect her apprehension is shared by others who need legal services. It shows that we have much more work to do in training advocates and counselors. The most effective among us are those who have the trust of their clients, who are able to communicate effectively with, for, and about people whose causes they have taken up. Our responsibility is not only to do the work well, but to explain it in a comprehensible manner. Hence the establishment of rapport must be a preliminary task in taking up representation.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Grades
People sometimes ask me about grades, specifically what I think about students who study for the sake of grades. My view is that whether this is to be praised depends on what it is compared to: the realities of the world around us or the ideals we may espouse. Certainly it is better that a student study than that she not study, and if grades are the only incentive that is effective then at least they are a motivation that indeed will be effective. To the extent a student does homework, attends class, takes notes, engages in discussion with colleagues, reviews for exams, and does everything else that she ought to do as a matter of course, because she hopes for high marks, well, there are worse problems with which we can be concerned. Yet it would best if a student wished to gain knowledge for it’s own sake, though such purity of purpose turns out to be rather rare in any context.
One of the most disheartening experiences I have ever had as a teacher was trying to persuade students at an elite institution, almost all of whom had spent most of their formative years excelling in academic pursuits as measured by their transcripts, that they should disregard the very criteria by which they had been selected, as was known by all. The exercise was as frustrating for them as well, I am sure, even if a few individuals were persuaded or hadn’t needed to be lectured to about the matter to begin with. It made me understand the need to work within the community norms, even if modest efforts were made to reform those norms.
Perhaps the compromise toward which we can aspire is to make our evaluation as fair as possible, recognizing one its primary purposes is to perform a necessary task of sorting people into categories, and along the way we can nurture some skepticism. To the extent grades are used for the purpose of sorting, if they are to distinguish meaningfully among talented people, it must be impossible for every one to earn an “A.” Ironically, the more uniformly talented a group is, the more important it is to make fine distinctions that may not correlate well to any practical differences. So best to bear in mind that in the end grades are predictors of performance, not merit in itself.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Semantics
I’ve never understood the condemnation of law as “semantics.” It is true that the practice of law depends on rhetoric. But there is nothing wrong with that at all. To the contrary, it is the great triumph of civilization, that we are able to settle disputes, including those involving contested principles of great importance, through language – rather than physical conflict. It makes no more sense to condemn lawyers for their dependence on words than it does to condemn mathematicians for their dependence on numbers. Indeed, one of the great challenges for law students entering the profession is appreciating the tremendous importance of words – of accuracy and precision (and, incidentally, accuracy and precision, to be accurate and precise, are different concepts). There are numerous litigated cases, which have passed into urban legend, that turn on the crucial distinction between “and” and “or” or the omission of a comma, and so on. It is for this reason that grade-school grammar lessons are worth reviewing: a restrictive clause and a non-restrictive clause are different in substance, not style. Whatever laypeople may believe, a lawyer would be remiss if she believed that her work was merely “semantics” in a pejorative sense.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Closure
I write regarding the closure of the university. As President Irvin D. Reid has announced, Wayne State University is closed today, Wednesday, March 5, due to the weather conditions. This closure is for the entire day, including the evening. All classes are cancelled. All activities also are cancelled (including, e.g., the class photographs). The Law School facilities will not be open. At this time, we expect Wayne State University to resume normal operations tomorrow, Thursday, March 6. Individual instructors will make announcements regarding make-up sessions of their respective courses. Thank you for your attention.
