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11 Cap. U. L. Rev. 419 (1981-1982)
Trial Lawyer Incompetence: What the Studies Suggest about the Problem, the Causes and the Cures

handle is hein.journals/capulr11 and id is 433 raw text is: TRIAL LAWYER INCOMPETENCE: WHAT THE STUDIES SUGGEST ABOUT THE PROBLEM, THE CAUSES AND THE CURES CHRISTEN R. BLAIR* I. INTRODUCTION The number of unskilful attorneys practicing in county courts being a great grievance to the country in respect to their neglect and mismanagement of their clients' causes and other foul practices.. Although one might. reasonably mistake the above quote as an ex- cerpt from Chief Justice Burger's latest call for a turn to English legal education as the cure for the lack of quality in American trial ad- vocacy, the quote is in fact from the preamble to a 1732 Virginia legislative act. Similar complaints about the quality of American lawyers have been expressed throughout our history.2 We are current- ly in the midst of yet another era of concern over lawyer incompeten- cy, particularly in the area of trial advocacy, the genesis of which. is traced to Chief Justice Burger's Sonnett Memorial Lecture at Fordham Law School on November 26, 1973,' in which the Chief Justice accepted as a working hypothesis that from one-third to one-half of the lawyers who appear in the serious cases are not really qualified to render fully adequate representation.' Just a few weeks after that Sonnett Lecture, Chief Judge Irving R. Kaufman, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sounded a similar theme in an address to the New York County Lawyer's Association.' Chief Judge David C. Bazelon, of the United States Court of Appeals for the * Assistant Professor of Law, University of Tulsa College of Law; J.D. 1976, Ohio State University; L.L.M., 1980, Columbia University. 1. Wolkin, On Improving the Quality of Lawyering, 50 ST. JOHNS L. REV. 523, 523 (1976), quoting A. REED, TRAINING FOR THE PUBLIC PROFESSION OF THE LAW, 97 n.1 (1921) (preamble to 1752 Virginia legislation). 2. See, e.g., J. HURST, THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN LAW 6, 250, 275, 277, 278 (1950); M. BLOOMFIELD, AMERICAN LAWYERS IN A CHANGING SOCIETY, 1776-1876, 32-34, 44, 46, 49-52, 84-85, 136-37 (1976), cited in Frankel, Curing Lawyers' Incompetence; Premium Non Nocere, 10 CREIGHTON L. REV. 613 (1977). 3. Burger, The Special Skills of Advocacy; Are Specialized Training and Certifi- cation of Advocates Essential to Our System of Justice?, 42 FORDHAM L. REV. 227 (1973). 4. Id. at 234. 5. Kaufman, The Court Needs a Friend In Court, 60 A.B.A.J. 175 (1974). 6. Bazelon, The Defective Assistance of Counsel, 42 U. CIN. L. REV. 1, 2 (1973).

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