Every attorney needs good evidence

With the first case of the year construing one of the rules of evidence, the Topical Archive now has an Evidence area. I hope everybody reads it.

When I went to law school, neither of Utah's law schools required students to take evidence. That is lame. Every attorney should be familiar with the rules of evidence. Because whatever an attorney is doing, he has to look forward to what will happen if the situation ends up in court.

On the other hand, the schools do require students to take professional responsibility. So students have to learn about the duty competence, but they don't have to learn the rules evidence, which are a foundation of competence.

That's the problem with law schools. They teach you how look and sound and think like an attorney. But they don't teach you how to be an attorney.