Neither Fish Nor Fowl: Aspiring Lawyers At the Starting Line

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

—Martin Luther KIng.

We are pleased to announce that our law clerk for the last 1.5 years, Kirby Rousseau, has joined us full-time. Kirby just graduated from George Washington University Law School.  He will be studying for and taking the Maryland Bar Exam in due course. Meanwhile, of course, he is not admitted to practice law. Having crossed one hurdle, he must still face the next, pass the bar, and only then enter into the profession of the law.

The hiring of Kirby heightens for me the impact of the Cornavirus pandemic on young aspiring to be lawyers. The state bars continue to scramble. The summer bar exams are being cancelled due to social distancing concerns. New on-line bar exams will be offered in September in Maryland, for example. But it remains uncertain how they will be regarded by other jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the law school graduates cannot be designated as lawyers or attorneys under the bar rules. And they cannot formally practice law or give legal advice. Their career paths are being elongated. They exist in a limbo-land, neither fish, nor fowl.

So young lawyers, many without job prospects, are yet another potential casualty of the age. Don’t be afraid to step up and lend them a hand. We all started out at the beginning once upon a time.