Managing a Law Practice: What You Need to Learn in Law School
![handle is hein.journals/pace30 and id is 1219 raw text is: Managing a Law Practice: What You
Need to Learn in Law School
Gary A. Munneke
I. Introduction
Every lawyer must be an effective manager in order to become and
remain competent. This simple, but fundamental truth has implications
not only for the practice of law, but for the process of legal education as
well. In an era of intense competition, lawyers must demonstrate
competence in order to succeed, but the acquisition of competence is not
always easy to attain. This is because the integral role of practice
management as a key element of competence has not been fully
appreciated by educators or the practicing bar.
In 1991, however, the American Bar Association Task Force on
Law Schools and the Profession: Bridging the Gap (popularly known as
the MacCrate Task Force) articulated a statement of fundamental
lawyering skills and values.' The MacCrate Task Force Report
(MacCrate Report) identified Organization and Management of Legal
Work among those fundamental skills.2 The report also described the
acquisition of professional skills and values as a learning continuum that
begins long before law school and extends throughout a lawyer's
professional life. If we accept these two tenets of the MacCrate Report,
* Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law. Portions of this article are
derived from a presentation entitled, The Success of All Lawyers is Tied to Practice
Management Skills, given at the State Bar of Wisconsin Midwinter Convention, on
January 29, 1999. The author wishes to thank former research assistants Debra Whitson,
Cynthia Kasina. Thomas Sciacca, Stephanie Skelly, Andrea Roberts, Jennifer Ramme,
and Justina Parrello, for their assistance in producing this article. The views expressed in
this article are those of the author alone, and do not represent the policy of the American
Bar Association.
1. See AM. BAR Ass'N, LEGAL EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT-AN
EDUCATIONAL CONTINUUM, REPORT ON THE TASK FORCE ON LAW SCHOOLS AND THE
PROFESSION: NARROWING THE GAP (1992).
2. Id. at 199. [A] lawyer should be familiar with the skills, concepts, and
processes required for efficient management, including appropriate management of time,
effort and resources; timely performance and completion of work; cooperation among co-
workers; and orderly administration of the office. Id.
3. Id. at 8. The Task Force's collective effort has resulted in the recognition that
the task of educating students to assume the full responsibilities of a lawyer is a
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Managing a Law Practice: What You Need to Learn in Law School
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