What does a 54-year-old formerly incarcerated gang member have in common with Abraham Lincoln, John Jay, John Marshall and the “founding father” Patrick Henry? We all studied law, though not in law school. The Law Office Study Program, as it is now known in California, is a legal apprenticeship. It is, in fact, the original way that one became a lawyer. Today, however, only four states have a true Law Office Study Program which allows students to sit for the bar in their respective states after completing four years.
The problem with the current system is that the cost of law school is prohibitive for most Americans. In 2023, it averaged between $30,000 and $55,000 a year, depending on whether the institution was public or private. The cost alone serves as a barrier of entry to all but a select few in American society. There is always the option to take out a school loan, but let’s be real. Few people are able to get a bank loan of that size and the government-backed loans mean you’re walking out of school $150,000 in the hole. There can be no wonder why two-thirds of all active federal judges identify as White. In the State of California, 61.4% of sitting judges are White, while only 9% are Black (four points higher than the national average) and 13% identify as Hispanic. If nearly 60% of all law students are White, it can be no surprise that 60% of the people who referee trials in California are also White.
The legal apprenticeship program that California, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming uses as an alternative to law school, serves to blunt the economic weapon of prohibitively high law school tuition cost. This, in turn, provides opportunities, in increasing numbers, to people other than the privileged Whites who predominate the legal profession.
Since I was a teenage boy, I wanted to be a lawyer. I was in the California Youth Authority and had been given the code of regulations. I studied the book and began to learn how I could advantage myself and advantage others by requiring the staff to adhere to the rules. From that time on, I wanted to be in the practice of law. After receiving an associate’s degree from the University of LaVerne I transferred to UCLA as a psychology major wanting only to one day enter law school. Instead of going to law school I went to the California Department of Corrections. As I served out my sentence I immersed myself in the legal process. I spent countless hours in the prisons’ law libraries and worked as a “jailhouse lawyer’’ helping fellow inmates file actions and litigate against correctional officials. So, when I found out that the non-profit where I worked had a Law Office Study Program that would allow me the possibility to sit for the bar and obtain a law license, I was thrilled. I submitted my application with the California Bar Association and they accepted me. Students are required to work in the law office for a minimum eighteen hours per week under the supervision of a lawyer who is currently active with the California bar and has been active at the bar for the last five years.
Apprenticeships like this were at one time the norm. Indeed, they were the only way one would acquire the skills necessary to do specialized jobs. However, as capitalism matured and class distinction was sharpened, apprenticeships were quickly replaced by static educational institutions in the business of certifying credentials. This allowed for the creation and separation of an “educated class” of lawyers who should be entitled to higher wages and therefore higher social status. We have grown so accustomed to educational institutions telling the populace who is and who is not knowledgeable enough to lead, that we have forgotten that knowledge has always been about practical application of a skill set, not about how well you have memorized a set of facts in a book.
The Law Office Study Program offers a glimpse into what is possible and so very useful for those who are not in a position to attend universities and colleges mostly set aside for the elites. As a community, we should embrace the principles of apprenticeship, and in so doing we truly embrace the cultural mantra of “Each one, teach one.”