School of sharks? Bar fitness requirements of good moral character and the role of law schools

"What do you call three lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start!"

INTRODUCTION

Lawyers do not enjoy a positive public image. Lawyer jokes have been a perpetual source of "entertainment" for a long time. Lawyers today are faced with greater disrespect than yesterday's generation, as the public's perception of lawyers has declined over time.1 One possible cause may be our society's ability to communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere. We have become an instantaneous society. With the speed of technological advances, young lawyers have little time for reflective decision-making, and this pressure has substantially increased for inexperienced lawyers to engage in unethical behavior.2 Our society is changing rapidly, but the one thing that has remained consistent over the past few decades is the perception that lawyer professionalism is declining.

The legal profession's efforts to ensure professionalism and resurrect a professional image must begin with law schools. Law schools have the ability teach students important legal ethics and to report unethical behavior. Law schools are participants in the legal profession and should take an active role regarding unethical law students. Law schools should not feed the feeding frenzy of sharks.

This Note will explore whether law schools adequately admit, advise, and prepare students to become ethical lawyers. Specifically, what obligation does a law school have, upon admitting students to law school, to inform students of ethics requirements to sit for and be admitted to the state bar? Additionally, what responsibility do law schools owe to the legal profession to educate and prepare students for the practice of law in light of the general requirements of character and fitness for bar admission? Furthermore, this Note addresses to what extent law schools screen and advise applicants for character and fitness problems, provide rules for student conduct and implement discipline for misconduct, and report conduct to the state bar authorities that may adversely affect a student's character and fitness. Finally, this Note makes suggestions for ways law schools can improve the disclosure of character and fitness information to students, as well as prepare students to competently practice law. Law schools should commit to an active role regarding legal professionalism.

In addition to traditional case law and secondary source research methods, research for this Note included contact with law school Assistant or Associate Deans across the country, and visits to law school websites.3 The purpose of the correspondence was to obtain a sample of law school information from a variety of geographic locations, particularly Missouri. Many schools are currently wrestling with these issues and welcomed correspondence. The correspondence discussed law school application and admission information and the treatment of student misconduct.4 Many law schools indicated a recent heightened awareness of the need for increased ethical teachings, and others are focusing on how to provide adequate information to potential students and increase ethical teachings to prepare students to practice law.5

Generally, before accepting law school applicants, law schools require that they have completed a four-year undergraduate degree or acceptable substitute, taken the Law School Admissions Test ("LSAT") administered by the Law School Admissions Council ("LSAC"), provided letters of recommendation, and paid the requisite application fees.6 Admission to law school is primarily based on an applicant's LSAT score and the applicant's undergraduate grade point average.7 Law schools also consider other factors such as honors and achievements, extracurricular activities, the type of undergraduate courses completed, work experience, and ethnic or cultural factors contributing to diversity at the law school.8

Although many note that the public's perception of lawyers has declined recently, this perception has in fact been "declining" for some time. A 1985 survey indicated that over fifty percent of state and federal judges, as well as corporate executives, considered legal professionalism on the decline.9 In 1999, the District Court for the District of Columbia noted that civility among the legal profession has declined and is a "major topic of concern among lawyers, judges, and legal scholars."10 Most notably, conduct by former President Clinton, at one time the highest lawyer in public office, has been under fire, seriously undermining public confidence in the legal profession.11 Resurrection of professionalism within legal practice is important not only to lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students, but also to the society that they serve.

Many members of the legal profession who adhere to ethical standards deserve respect for the attainment of a Juris Doctorate. Although less than ideal members exist in any profession, the majority of lawyers should not be defined by those errant individuals. "Lawyer" should bring to mind words like responsible, hard-working, truthful, faithful, defender of rights, and problem-solver, not words like shark, vulture, ambulance chaser, slimy, sneaky, and so forth. The word "lawyer" should command respect.