Predicting Lawyer Effectiveness: Broadening the Basis for Law School Admission Decisions
Shultz and Zedeck (Law and Social Inquiry 2011)
The abstract is:
Law school admission decisions are heavily influenced by a student's undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) and Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score. These measures, although predictive of first-year law school grades, make no effort to predict professional competence and, for the most part, they do not. These measures also create adverse impact on applicants from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This article describes the rationale for and process by which we explored new tests to predict lawyer effectiveness rather than law school grades and reports results of a multiyear empirical study involving over 3,000 graduates from Berkeley Law School and Hastings College of the Law. Tests measuring personality constructs, interests, values, and judgment predicted lawyering competency but had little or no adverse impact on underrepresented minority applicants. Combined with the LSAT and UGPA, these broader tests could assess law applicants on the basis both of projected professional effectiveness and academic indicators.
まぁ何というか，ここで問題になっているのは，ロースクール卒業生の相当部分が司法試験に受かることを前提とした上で，その先，弁護士としてのキャリアを成功させる（→その方が，卒業生からの寄付が多くなるので，ロースクールとしてもそういう人材を入学させるインセンティヴを持つ）ためにはどういう基準出選抜したらいいか？ってことなので，それは試験の成績だけじゃなくて，コミュ力とか人間性とかも大きな影響を持つのは当たり前だよね，って話。
日本のロースクールは，おそらくそういう発想で入試をしないんだろうなぁ，と想像されるわけです。
