What Law Must Lawyers Know?

Abstract

What constitutes the body of legal knowledge that every lawyer mustpossess? I used to know, or think I did, but no longer. I suspect no one elseknows either. This difficult question is not just an intriguing theoreticalmatter but also an urgent, practical problem. Licensing regulators assumethat minimal competence in any profession requires certain fundamentalknowledge, skills, and abilities.Bar examiners must determine whatknowledge, skills, and abilities are necessary for minimum competence asan attorney and then design tests and other requirements to attempt to alignlicensure with minimum competence. Today’s tangled attorney licensingpuzzle cannot be solved without better answers to this foundational question:what law must every lawyer know