Law Commons^™

Calls To Eliminate Bar Exams Are Premature, A. Benjamin Spencer

Popular Media

Calls for eliminating bar exams to improve fairness and diversity in the legal profession are increasing, but A. Benjamin Spencer, dean of William & Mary Law School, argues that eliminating them is not the answer. They should be transformed into a more effective gauge of professional readiness, which, he contends, can be achieved if more states adopt the Uniform Bar Exam.

Law Schools, Law Firms Must Share Responsibility For Diversity, A. Benjamin Spencer

Popular Media

Law schools and law firms must partner to ensure that a pipeline of underrepresented students apply to law school and receive the professional development support they need to remain and advance at firms, William & Mary Law School Dean A. Benjamin Spencer says. Those who make, interpret, and apply the law must reflect the full range of human experiences, thought, and insight into the human condition, he says.

The Clerkship-Academia Continuum, Merritt E. Mcalister, Katherine Mims Crocker

Popular Media

In the spring 2021 edition of Judicature (Vol. 105 No. 1), Florida International University Law Professor Howard Wasserman published data analyzing the number of current law professors who have served in clerkships and for which judges those professors clerked. His study offered a compelling picture of “academic feeder judges,” or those on the bench whose clerks tended to matriculate professionally in large numbers within the halls of the academy.

We asked two law professors, Merritt McAlister at the University of Florida, and Katherine Mims Crocker of William & Mary Law School, to reflect on Wasserman’s findings and to offer a …

A New Era Of Legal Services: The Elimination Of Unauthorized Practice Of Law Rules To Accompany The Growth Of Legal Software, Julian Moradian

William & Mary Business Law Review

Since the inception of bar associations in the early twentieth century, states have promulgated rules that prohibit unlicensed individuals from providing legal services. These unauthorized practice of law rules have created a monopoly on legal services, which in turn has inflated the price of obtaining legal services to a point where a significant percentage of individuals who need such services are unable to obtain them. Legal software has the potential to disrupt the market for legal services and make such services available to the mass market. However, for innovation and widespread use of legal software to gain traction, these unauthorized …