Saturday, November 12, 2011

Professional Practicum

I passed the MPRE, passed the bar exam, took the oath, paid the license fee, but I still had to take care of one more piece of business last week. Every attorney licensed in Arkansas is required to attend a Professional Practicum put on by the Arkansas Bar Association. The state supreme court evidently takes the requirement seriously, because I know at least one attorney in town who missed the thing and had her license suspended over it.

The practicum is an all-day seminar that aims to promote professionalism and civility among lawyers. That is to say, it consists mostly of a series of speakers admonishing new attorneys to play nice with one another. Apparently the Arkansas bar has a history of cooperation and collegiality, but as the number of lawyers increases there is a fear that we'll get more attorneys of the type exemplified by this famous YouTube video:

 The practicum is the Arkansas bar's bid to nip that trend in the bud.

To me, it was mostly an opportunity to mingle with old classmates. I like visiting with these people, but I'm getting tired of having to tell them that I'm unemployed. The pool of jobless attorneys for me to commiserate with is shrinking all the time (though I can't help but wonder how many of the people identifying themselves as "solo practitioners" are de facto unemployed). It's only a matter of time before my friends start avoiding eye contact at social events so they don't have to talk to me about it.