<p>I go back and forth between two Biblical admonitions:</p>
<p>“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.”</p>
<p>“Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his conceits.”</p>
<p>There are seven states (New York and California are two of the seven) where one can become an attorney without ever matriculating at a law school. <a href=“http://www.ncbex.org/fileadmin/mediafiles/downloads/Comp_Guide/CompGuide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncbex.org/fileadmin/mediafiles/downloads/Comp_Guide/CompGuide.pdf</a></p>
<p>This route involves undertaking a formal and extended course of study with a member of the bar, and then passing the bar exam. There are over 154,000 members of the California Bar; fewer than a hundred gained membership in that fashion. I’ve practiced law in this state for nearly a quarter of a century, and don’t believe that I have ever met one of those lawyers. Most clients prefer lawyers who went to law school, just as most people prefer to eat at restaurants that have been inspected by the health department.</p>
<p>Under ABA rules, law schools must limit their enrollment to people who have completed three years of undergraduate study. Most law schools nevertheless only admit students with bachelor’s degrees. </p>
<p>The US Department of Education has conducted studies that show a strong correlation between the level of literacy achieved, and the level of education completed:
[National</a> Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - Demographics - Education](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_dem_edu.asp]National”>National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - Demographics - Education)</p>
<p>There are no doubt people who would survive law school without having gone to college. I suspect that most law schools would have a tough time identifying who those people were without the benefit of a college transcript. (Before the NBA changed its rules, there were a few people who went straight from high school to NBA stardom. There were a lot of others who washed out because their deficiencies weren’t obvious until they started playing against tougher competition.)</p>
<p>There are a lot of lawyers on this board. None of them have chimed in to say they share your opinion that law school is qualitatively no different than undergraduate work.</p>
<p>Under the rules of evidence in most jurisdictions, only the opinions of experts are admissible. (Apropos one of your earlier dismissive comments, circumstantial evidence is admissible.) </p>
<p>It’s also been held in many jurisdictions that opinions are inherently neither true nor false, and their expression accordingly cannot give rise to an action for defamation.</p>