Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal Profession Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law and Society

Selected Works

General Law

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Legal Profession

Why The Bar Examination Fails To Raise The Bar, Carol Goforth Feb 2015

Why The Bar Examination Fails To Raise The Bar, Carol Goforth

Carol Goforth

This article considers whether the current bar examination format achieves its stated objectives of protecting the public by testing minimum competency to practice law. After discussing the nature of the current bar examinations offered in the United States, the article looks at the skills associated with legal practice, and evaluates whether the bar examination is assisting in the process of insuring proper legal training for lawyers or hindering it.


The First Thing We Do, Jorge R. Roig Dec 2013

The First Thing We Do, Jorge R. Roig

Jorge R Roig

There is currently a concerted effort to dumb down America. In the midst of this, the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar recently agreed to propose that tenure for law professors be eliminated as a requirement for accreditation of law schools. This article analyzes the arguments for and against tenure in legal academia, and concludes that the main proposed justifications for eliminating tenure are highly questionable, at best. A lawyer is more than a legal technocrat. Lawyers are policy makers and public defenders. They are prosecutors and activists. And the development …


The Law Of Corporate Purpose, David Yosifon Jan 2013

The Law Of Corporate Purpose, David Yosifon

David G. Yosifon

Delaware corporate law requires corporate directors to manage firms for the benefit of shareholders, and not for any other constituency. Delaware jurists have been clear about this in their case law, and they are not coy about it in extra-judicial settings, such as speeches directed at law students and practicing members of the corporate bar. Nevertheless, the reader of leading corporate law scholarship is continually exposed to the scholarly assertion that the law is ambiguous or ambivalent on this point, or even that case law affirmatively empowers directors to pursue non-shareholder interests. It is shocking, and troubling, for corporate law …


The Tenuous Case For Conscience, Steven D. Smith Dec 2011

The Tenuous Case For Conscience, Steven D. Smith

Steven D. Smith

If there is any single theme that has provided the foundation of modern liberalism and has infused our more specific constitutional commitments to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, that theme is probably “freedom of conscience.” But some observers also perceive a progressive cheapening of conscience– even a sort of degradation. Such criticisms suggest the need for a contemporary rethinking of conscience. When we reverently invoke “conscience,” do we have any idea what we are talking about? Or are we just exploiting a venerable theme for rhetorical purposes without any clear sense of what “conscience” is or why it …