Apprentice training was the approved method of learning any trade in Colonial America, and learning the law was no different. To become an attorney in those early days, a student’s parents paid a lawyer a fee to take the student on as an apprentice. “Reading law” was exactly that. The student worked under a lawyer, read that lawyer’s few books on the subject, and assisted him in his practice. In most of the colonies, there was no formal bar admission.

In the early years of the Colonies, ministers, who were better educated, were the acknowledged leaders in the community. In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War,attorneys began to emerge as leaders. As lawyers began to be more educated, the philosophy emerged that law, economics, history, and sociology were all parts of an inseparable whole. Well-educated attorneys became statesmen, and birthed the young democracy.

The close of the Revolutionary War began a new chapter in law education. The celebrated Litchfield Law School opened, which taught nothing but law. Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in establishing the first chair of law at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, VA in 1779. Other colleges followed suit, and within the next two decades law programs were started and curriculum developed which had a sense of mission; a mission to seek out and embrace the underlying themes and principles of democracy, of a system under which the people could live in peace and the knowledge that reason prevailed, and that justice for all was a reality.

During and after the Revolutionary War, there was also great discussion on how to test and qualify those who wished to be attorneys in Colonial America . Lawyers were expected to be men of good repute and professional competency. Legal jurisdictions began to set rules on educational requirements, and set standards for admission to the bar.

 During the early 1800’s with the rise of “Jacksonian democracy”, there was a set-back due to the fact that this political creed had no respect for formal education, and held that any male citizen could practice law. It wasn’t until the 1870’s that law schools established pre-requisites for liberal education before law school attendance. After the turn of the 20th century, a movement began to integrate the law and social studies. After World War II, theory and practical instruction were finally melded into a comprehensive curriculum of legal education.