For many years one could become an attorney by reading law and working in a law office.
Here is what I found on Google:
In the United States, there are four states that allow a person to qualify to take the bar exam without attending any law school: California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. Instead, the student studies between three and four years in a law office. Each state has their own rules regarding reading the law, but all require that the student study the black letter law in multiple subjects. A fifth state, New York, allows students to enter into a law office study program after completing one year of law school.
Erle Stanley Gardner dropped out after one semester. He was a law clerk at a Los Angeles practice and passed the bar exam and had a very successful practice. Calvin Coolidge was a practicing lawyer and never attended law school. Lincoln never attended law school. Law school was a 20th Century innovation, prior to that one learned the law by apprenticing.
In fact, a few years ago, graduates of Suffolk (close cover before striking) Law had a higher rate of first time passing the Massachusetts Bar exam than graduates of Haavaad Law. It’s probably still true today. The Haavaad kids had to attend cram school over a deli at night to learn about silly little things like torts and causal estoppel because they were too busy learning critical law theory, which the bar exam inexcusably ignores.
I doubt they look like that guy
I personally don’t have much of a problem if someone becomes a lawyer by taking the Bar exam without going to Law School, but if I were hiring them, I would ask to see their record as a lawyer before I hired them.
That obviously doesn’t apply across the board. If someone demonstrates advanced math skills without having a degree, I could hire them as a teacher. But if someone is a surgeon without Medical School, I would obviously view that differently.
“How about passing the bar exam without law schoo?”
That is how Abe Lincoln became a lawyer.
I miss Mike. 😀