18873 Cornell Laiv School 



ter and ability to read and write, — that is, the old Handicap 

 traditional criteria tor the study of law. Against °/'^'^ 

 this proposition I stoutly protested, urging that '^"^ ^^°° 

 requirements be at least as high as those for ad- 

 mission to the freshman class. But my ideas failed 

 of acceptance, and grammar school standards were 

 adopted. After a few years, however, the original 

 policy was discarded, entrance conditions being then 

 raised to the high level obtaining at i4arvard, and 

 instruction entrusted to professional teachers in 

 place of active practitioners in intermittent service. 

 Nevertheless, it was a matter of years before the 

 Cornell Law School recovered from its first handi- 

 cap. This harked back to the days when — as was 

 said — "one could walk from the street into the 

 legal profession," or to quote another contemporary 

 epigram, "it required the same preparation for the 

 Bar as for the sawbuck." During that period, a 

 young Indiana acquaintance of mine entered on the 

 practice of law with no training beyond his experience 

 in avoiding the payment of a note by pleading 

 minority at the time he signed it. 



n 99 :i 



