Arizona could soon become the only state in the nation where the person representing you in court on a criminal charge, from traffic infractions right up to homicide, might have just one year of law school.
A proposal being advanced by the top administrator of the Arizona Supreme Court would take what now are programs offered at the state’s two law schools to simply provide advanced legal knowledge to graduate students and enhance and convert them to a one-year course that, in the end, would lead to the ability to actually take on clients.
Dave Byers, director of the administrative office of the courts, said students would need to take a prescribed list of courses specifically related to criminal law, graduate with a B or better average and pass appropriate license exams. They would be granted a degree in Master of Legal Studies.
And they would first have to work under the supervision of an actual licensed attorney for some period — the proposal now suggests nine months — before they could practice on their own.
Byers told Capitol Media Services that, despite what appears to be a glut of lawyers, the fact is that Arizona is a “legal desert,’’ with the state having fewer lawyers per capita than almost anywhere else in the country.
What this training is geared to he said, is training people who can work in understaffed offices of county attorneys and public defenders, particularly in rural areas.
Byers acknowledged, though, that once that period of supervision is over, the holders of the special MLS designation would be free to take on clients in criminal cases anywhere they want. And they’d be able to handle everything short of a crime where the death penalty could be imposed.
That possibility has alarmed Dean Brault, director of public defense services for Pima County.
“Creating a system where any criminal practitioner, be it a prosecutor or public defender, can graduate from undergrad and be practicing in two semesters is reducing that bar, and is literally lowering the bar to say that when a person’s life or liberty is at stake, up to and including the rest of their lives, that suddenly we only require one year worth of schooling,’’ he said. “That is absurd.’’
That sentiment is shared on the prosecution side of the equation. Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said what’s being proposed makes the criminal justice system “some kind of lesser cousin to the rest of the law.’’
Consider, she said, if her grandmother needs legal help writing up a will.
“She’d better sit down with a fully trained, three-year State Bar attorney because money is on the line,’’ Conover said.
“But if my cousin is facing 25 (years) to natural life, then a quite young, lesser trained, lesser educated, under-examined attorney will do just fine,’’ she said. “And that double standard is not something that the criminal justice system should be subjected to.’’
Byers, for his part, said that assumes that someone with an MLS degree would have less academic training than someone with a JD.
In fact, he argued, the reverse might be true.
While it takes three years to get through law school, that includes taking a whole set of classes that have nothing to do with criminal law.
By contrast, he said, everything offered in the MLS program deals with criminal law and practice.
“So, academically, these people will graduate with more academic training than the typical JD,” he said.
Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer told Capitol Media Services she is intrigued by the idea.
She said she recognizes the shortage of lawyers in some parts of the state in some practices.
“I see it as a social issue and a generational issue that a lot of these folks that are coming out of law school, even if they come from a rural area, they’re not interested in going back or, if they’re not from a rural area, they’re not interested in going,’’ Timmer said.
“And so what we hear is a lot of folks like my age, frankly, who live in the rural areas have a nice general practice and they’ve got a client base ready to hand over to a new attorney, there’s nobody there.’’
But Timmer, a graduate of the ASU College of Law, said she also sees the other side.
Put quite simply, she said, is the question of whether it takes something more to be a lawyer — and have a role in determining whether someone goes to prison for years in your hands — than 30 credit hours of training in criminal law.
“It’s an ongoing debate about that,’’ she said. And that comes down to the question of what is the role of law school.
“One point of view certainly is that it’s not that you’re learning the nuts and bolts of criminal law,’’ the chief justice said.
“It’s you’re learning how to think,’’ she continued. “It’s you’re learning how to analyze.’’
“It’s not a trade school,’’ she said. “Whatever you confront out there, you’ve got the tool set to be able to learn how to research it, to think about it, to analyze it, that kind of thing.’’
And there’s a more practical issue.
Consider, Timmer said, what happens when a client accused of “some sophisticated white-collar crime’’ approaches one of these MLS-trained lawyers for representation.
While legally speaking someone with an MLS degree could take that criminal case, she said it would be important for the client’s defense for a legal representative to also understand and have background in business organizations and property law.
Timmer insisted that she has not come to any conclusion about whether the idea has merit. And she said the full court has not made any decisions.
She said the justices have given Byers the go-ahead to research the concept and present it to them.
Brault, however, said he is shocked that the court is even considering the concept of a limited-practice lawyer with limited training.
“If there’s any standard that should be imposed, it should be that when a person’s liberty’s at stake you should have to have the highest standard of practice and education to represent people, rather than protecting people’s financial interest and not caring as much about their liberty,’’ Brault said.
There’s a financial component to all of this.
The proposal that Byers has circulated in the legal community figures the cost of attending law school for three years totals over $177,000.
By contrast, he said gaining the 30 credits for the MLS program could be done in as little as two semesters. And tuition would be about $31,200.
Much — if not all — of this could be done online, allowing students to remain in their home communities. And the fringe benefit of all that, said Byers, is they might choose to remain there when they begin practicing.
Brault sees the finances through a different lens.
“If it only takes a year’s worth of education to become a prosecutor or a defense attorney, all that that’s going to do is lower the wages of people that are practicing as criminal lawyers,’’ he said.
“And it’s going to drag down the reputation and the earnings of all the people that have gone to law school for the full three years and are fully admitted to practice law.’’
He does not doubt that many smaller counties have a dearth of lawyers in criminal practice, both on the prosecution and in public defender offices. But Brault said that’s a simple result of people willing to be paid less if they get to live where they want.
So assuming the Supreme Court goes along, that leaves one practical question: What do you call these MLS grads? More to the point, can they call themselves lawyers?
“That’s to be determined,’’ Byers said.
While the plan would make Arizona the first state to allow someone with an MLS degree to practice, albeit in a limited way, this isn’t the first step the high court has taken to enhance the number of lawyers in the state.
Last year, the court agreed to create an “apprentice’’ program for law school graduates who scored at least 260 on the Uniform Bar Exam but not the 270 needed for full admission.
Under that program, they can work under the supervision of an experienced lawyer for two years, but only if it is in public law. An option to work in a private practice is available only in rural communities.
Byers said all of this is not unusual when looking at other professions.
“We’re building a legal delivery system like the medical system,’’ he said.
At the top are medical doctors, the equivalent of lawyers with JD degrees.
“But you have EMTs, you have nurse practitioners, you have technicians and so on,’’ Byers said. “So we’re building different levels of people who can practice law in Arizona.’’
Brault, however, said he remains convinced that even if the Supreme Court considers something acceptable, that doesn’t make it in a client’s best interest.
“While a paralegal may have some of the practical knowledge, they’re not equipped to practice law,’’ he said.