Ask Howard Treesong About Law or Lawyering

[ahnuld]

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this is very me specific, but im hoping you could answer anyways:

My brother is debating between law schools and has a full preacceptance scholarship offer from GWU. If he accepts the conditions is he has to go there. Im wondering 1) What can they do if he doesnt? And 2) It is that much more highly regarded than a canadian school like University of Toronto or Mcgill?

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I would be surprised if it weren't less regarded, generally. Looking at rankings online, it looks like Toronto and McGill are 2 of the 3 most esteemed law schools in Canada, and GWU is in the 20s in the US. Especially if he wants to practice in Canada, the Canadian schools seem like a better bet, but a free ride is nothing to sneeze at here.

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Yes, those were my thoughts. However because of the fact that american school put so much weight on LSAT scores (he got 171) and less weight on GPA (3.3) he has a much better chance of getting in to a tier 1 american school than the best canadian school (U of T).

Is law something where if you learn it in the states you can only practice in the states? I know quebec/montreal is very unique because we have civil law as opposed to common law. But if you learn common law its transnational as long as the other country/state has common law as well?

[FlyWf]

The distinction between common and civil law is philosophical, not procedural.

Also civil law is more popular than common, continental Europe is all civil law. Louisiana and Quebec are unique when compared to the rest of Canada and the US, UK/Canada/US are unique compared to the world at large.

[JaBlue]

From what I've seen, lawyering seems to be nothing more than oration, trying to make the worse argument the better, to flatter the jury, to win an argument with little regard for truth. Why should anyone respect lawyers?

[Howard Treesong]

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From what I've seen, lawyering seems to be nothing more than oration, trying to make the worse argument the better, to flatter the jury, to win an argument with little regard for truth. Why should anyone respect lawyers?

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Oration is the visible tip of a much deeper and more complicated iceberg. Good lawyering involves finding out and understanding facts, doing accurate risk assessment, and organizing highly complex processes. Truth matters quite a bit, although the adversarial process isn't necessarily the best way to root it out. In my case, I'm not a high-charisma guy, and typically rely on more thorough and careful analysis to carry the day. That's also why I was mostly a defense lawyer. If I had to characterize in very very broad strokes, I'd say the plaintiffs' bar rates higher in charisma, while the defense bar rates higher on the analysis scale. That's certainly not a universal truth, of course.

At the edges, your criticisms have merit. At root, I don't think they accurately reflect what most litigators do, setting aside all the other types of lawyers out there.