G. Jeffrey MacDonald of The Christian Science Monitor on The self-made lawyer:
Divorced and with two grown sons, a business background, and a fixer-upper house in Hardwick, Vt., Pamela Stonier lives a lifestyle that tells of the possibilities in 21st-century America.
This summer, Ms. Stonier is cramming to push open one more door that, although rarely used today, was commonplace just a century ago. At 59, she hopes to become a licensed lawyer. But to get to this point, she has had to rely on a little-known, seldom-used training method that dates back to the Middle Ages.
Stonier is one of a few hundred students in seven states – including 43 in Vermont – who aim to become lawyers without ever having enrolled in law school. Like many of them, she works side-by-side with a practicing lawyer, learning by day in a real-life laboratory and by night in the solitude afforded by dim lighting and open textbooks on torts and property.
I'd hate to be the one handling letters to the editor at CSM this week. Statists at law schools and bar association monopolists are going to be sending in their righteously indignant denunciations of this practice until the editorial staff is knee-deep in their b.s. I fail to see the downside here. Once Ms. Stonier gets admitted to the bar, she'll get to practice law and keep the money she earns instead of giving a major chunk of her check for the first 10 years to a student loan corporation. Further, she'll have real world law experience from day one of her training, instead of having to re-learn her craft after entering the "real world."
There’s a program like this in Washington state. My mom knows someone who went through it. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than law school and gives a lot more hands-on experience. More power to the people who are doing this!