A new proposal to shave off one year from the New York three-year law school requirement and allow students with sixty hours of study at an accredited law school to sit for the bar and practice law would only continue an already broken model and foster a caste system in the practice.
Per the proposal (NYLJ, Jan. 22), early bar-takers would not be awarded the degree of Juris Doctor for failure to complete the ABA-required 83 credit hours. The argument behind the proposal is that lawyers eager to get out to practice would save tuition money for the third year of law school while those wishing to stick around for a third year of learning could do so, and earn their JD.
