Reading law explained

Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the tutelage or mentoring of an experienced lawyer. The practice largely died out in the early 20th century. A few U.S. states still permit people to become lawyers by reading law instead of attending law school, although the practice is rare.^[1]

In this sense, "reading law" specifically refers to a means of entering the profession, although in England it is still customary to say that a university undergraduate is "reading" a course, which may be law or any other. __TOC__

United States

History

In colonial America, as in Britain in that day, law schools did not exist at all until Litchfield Law School was founded in 1773. Within a few years following the American Revolution, some universities such as the College of William and Mary and the University of Pennsylvania established a "Chair in Law".^[2] However, the holder of this position would be the sole purveyor of legal education for the institution, and would give lectures designed to supplement, rather than replace, an apprenticeship.^[3] Even as a handful of law schools were established, they remained uncommon in the United States until the late nineteenth century. Most people who entered the legal profession did so through an apprenticeship which incorporated a period of study under the supervision of an experienced attorney. This usually encompassed the reading of the works considered at the time to be the most authoritative on the law, such as Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England, William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, and similar texts.^[4]

The scholastic independence of the law student is evident from the following advice of Abraham Lincoln to a young man in 1855:

Historically, country lawyers or county-seat lawyers were more likely to have read law. Reading law to become an attorney would be the norm, until the 1890s, when the American Bar Association, formed in 1878, began pressing states to limit admission to the Bar to those persons who had satisfactorily completed several years of post-graduate institutional instruction.^[5]

On July 8, 1941, James F. Byrnes became the last Justice appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States who had never attended college or law school, and he was the penultimate appointee who had been admitted to practice by reading law. Byrnes was followed by Robert H. Jackson, who was commissioned just three days later, on July 11, 1941, and had also been admitted to the practice of law by reading, although he had attended Albany Law School for less than one year, taking a two-year program in the single year to save money.

Modern practice

In 2013, 60 people qualified to sit for the bar exam by reading law as opposed to 83,926 via law schools, and of those 60, 17 passed on their first attempt.

As of 2024, four US states still permit reading law as the sole means of legal education. In California, Vermont and Washington,^[6] an applicant who has not attended law school may take the bar exam after reading law under a judge or practicing attorney for a period of four years. In the fourth state, Virginia,^[7] the period of reading law is only three years. Other rules vary as well. For example, Virginia does not allow the reader to be gainfully employed by the tutoring lawyer, while Washington requires just that. In California the requirements of the state bar association for reading law are set forth in Rule 4.29, Study in a law office or judge's chambers.^[8]

Two other states allow reading law in combination with some law school. New York allows applicants to read law provided they have already completed at least one year of law school study.^[9] Maine requires applicants to have completed at least two-thirds of a law degree.^[10] A 2023 bill before the Maine Legislature attempted to remove the requirement for two years of law school study, but the bill was indefinitely tabled.^[11]

!State!Required law school!Required time reading law!Bar passage rate

California	None	Four years^[12]
New York	One year	Three years^[13]
Maine	Two years	One year^[14]
Vermont	None	Four years^[15]
Virginia	None	Three years^[16]	20.21%^[17]
Washington	None	Four years^[18]

Notable Americans who became lawyers by reading law

U.S. presidents

• John Adams^[19]
• Thomas Jefferson^[20]
• John Quincy Adams
• Andrew Jackson
• Martin Van Buren
• John Tyler
• Millard Fillmore^[21]
• James Buchanan
• Abraham Lincoln – later said of his legal education that "I studied with nobody."
• James A. Garfield^[22]
• Chester A. Arthur^[23]
• Grover Cleveland^[24]
• Woodrow Wilson,^[25] left University of Virginia School of Law to read law
• Calvin Coolidge^[26]

U.S vice presidents

• Alben W. Barkley^[27]
• Charles Curtis^[28]

U.S. legislators

• Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts
• George Gray,^[29] Senator and Judge United States Court of Appeals
• George S. Houston,^[30] Senator and Governor of Alabama
• John H. Mitchell, U.S. Senator from Oregon in the 1870s

U.S. Supreme Court chief justices

Except for the second chief justice John Rutledge, who had formal legal education at the Middle Temple in London, no chief justice had any university-based legal training until Melville Fuller in 1888, who attended Harvard Law School for six months. In short, 7 of the first 8 U.S. Supreme Court chief justices engaged in their legal education primarily by reading law. All chief justices since the appointment of Edward Douglass White in 1910 have held law degrees.

U.S. Supreme Court justices after 1900

Few early Supreme Court justices attended law school although the practice of attending law school became more common after around 1900. Supreme Court justices who read law after 1900 include:

• James F. Byrnes^[31]
• Pierce Butler^[32]
• John Hessin Clarke^[33]
• Gabriel Duvall
• Joseph Rucker Lamar^[34]
• Robert H. Jackson
• William Henry Moody, left Harvard Law School to read law
• Mahlon Pitney^[35]
• George Sutherland, left University of Michigan Law School to read law^[36]

Other politicians

• Patrick Henry, 1st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia
• Marilla Ricker,^[37] Examiner in Chancery
• Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State
• Thomas R. Marshall,^[38] Vice President and Governor of Indiana
• Thomas Clarke Rye, Governor of Tennessee
• Granville Pearl Aikman, Judge and suffragist^[39]
• Edmund Pendleton, 1st Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Virginia
• William Simon U'Ren, Father of the Oregon System
• Rush Limbaugh Sr., Missouri judge

Non-governmental

• Francis Scott Key
• John Neal,^[40] writer and activist
• Charles D. Drake,^[41] one of Dred Scott's attorneys
• Clarence Darrow^{[42] [43]}

External links

• Search of Federal Judicial Center for 'Read Law'
• California First-Year Law Students' Examination, aka 'The Baby Bar'
• VERMONT SUPREME COURT, LAW OFFICE STUDY PROGRAM
• The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, Law Reader Rules & Regulations

Notes and References

1. Web site: There's A Way To Become An Attorney Without Setting Foot In Law School . . Corey . Adwar . July 30, 2014 .
2. Book: Harno, Albert J. . Legal Education in the United States: A Report Prepared for the Survey of the Legal Profession . 1953 . 23 .
3. .
4. .
5. .
6. Web site: 2002 . Rules and Regulations Governing the Washington Law Clerk Program . March 4, 2007 . Washington State Bar Association.
7. Web site: 2010 . Law Reader Program . January 6, 2010 . Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.
8. Web site: TITLE 4. ADMISSIONS AND EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS Adopted July 2007 DIVISION 1. ADMISSION TO PRACTICE LAW IN CALIFORNIA Chapter 1. General Provisions, Rule 4.29 Study in a law office or judge's chambers .
9. Web site: 2000 . New York Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys . January 20, 2011 . New York State Board of Bar Examiners.
10. Web site: 2009 . Maine Bar Admission Rules . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727055410/http://www.mainebarexaminers.org/PDF/MBAR0109.pdf . July 27, 2011 . January 20, 2011 . Maine Board of Bar Examiners.
11. Web site: 2023-04-06 . Bill aims to drop law school requirement to become licensed to practice in Maine . 2024-06-10 . Lewiston Sun Journal.
12. Web site: The State Bar of California . 2024-06-10 . www.calbar.ca.gov . en-US.
13. Web site: Part 520 - Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys and Counselors at Law . 2024-06-10 . nycourts.gov.
14. Web site: Title 4, §803: Qualifications for taking bar examination . 2024-06-10 . legislature.maine.gov.
15. Web site: The Law Office Study Program Vermont Judiciary . 2024-06-10 . www.vermontjudiciary.org.
16. Web site: VBBE - Law Reader Program - Rules & Regulations . 2024-06-10 . barexam.virginia.gov.
17. Web site: VBBE - Law Reader Program - Memorandum . 2024-06-10 . barexam.virginia.gov.
18. Web site: Washington State Bar Association Law Clerk Program (APR 6) . 2024-06-10 . admissions.wsba.org.
19. Web site: Education John Adams Historical Society. www.john-adams-heritage.com. 29 February 2012 . 2019-12-27.
20. Book: Meacham, Jon. Jon Meacham . Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power . Random House LLC . 2012 . 978-0679645368 . 29, 39.
21. Web site: Millard Fillmore. HISTORY. en. 2019-12-27.
22. James A. Garfield Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
23. Web site: Chester A. Arthur Biography, Presidency, Accomplishments, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. en. 2019-12-31.
24. Web site: Grover Cleveland Biography & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. en. 2020-02-21.
25. Web site: Wilson, Woodrow (1856–1924). www.encyclopediavirginia.org. 2019-12-29.
26. Web site: Calvin Coolidge: Life Before the Presidency. 2016-10-04. Miller Center. en. 2019-12-31.
27. Libbey in "The Making of the 'Paducah Politician'", p. 255.
28. Web site: U.S. Senate: Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President (1929-1933) . 2019-12-27 . www.senate.gov.
29. Web site: George Gray. www.fjc.gov. 2019-12-27.
30. Web site: Alabama Department of Archives and History: Alabama Governors--George Smith Houston. archives.alabama.gov. 2019-12-28.
31. Web site: James Byrnes: South Carolina's Governor, 1951-1955 . 2019-10-11 . www.sciway.net.
32. Web site: Butler, Pierce at Federal Judicial Center . 2019-12-29 . www.fjc.gov.
33. Web site: Clarke, John Hessin at the Federal Judicial Center . 2019-12-29 . www.fjc.gov.
34. Web site: Lamar, Joseph Rucker at the Federal Judicial Center . 2019-12-29 . www.fjc.gov.
35. Web site: Pitney, Mahlon at the Federal Judicial Center . 2019-12-29 . www.fjc.gov.
36. Web site: The Supreme Court . Capitalism and Conflict. Biographies of the Robes. Alexander George Sutherland PBS . 2019-12-29 . www.thirteen.org.
37. Web site: Marilla Ricker, 1840-1920 Library. www.library.unh.edu. 2019-12-29.
38. Web site: U.S. Senate: Thomas R. Marshall, 28th Vice President (1913-1921). www.senate.gov. 2019-12-27.
39. News: Endorsed by Bryanites. staff. November 1, 1900. The Eureka Herald.
40. Book: Neal, John . Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life . Roberts Brothers . Boston, Massachusetts . 1869 . 273–288 . 1056818562 . John Neal (writer).
41. Web site: Drake, Charles Daniel - Federal Judicial Center. www.fjc.gov. 2019-12-31.
42. Web site: Clarence Seward Darrow Facts. biography.yourdictionary.com. 2019-12-30.
43. Web site: Clarence Darrow American lawyer. Encyclopedia Britannica. en. 2019-12-30.