Oak Book College of Law

Oak Brook College has adopted an approach to legal education that is different both in form and in substance from traditional law schools. This new approach is not motivated by a desire to create something new simply for the sake of change; it is in response to current concerns about the integrity of the legal profession and to the opportunities provided by the new technology that is revolutionizing educational methodology.

In his book The Betrayed Profession, attorney Sol Linowitz highlights, with a few disturbing statistics, the fact that dissatisfaction with attorney professionalism and character is not limited to those outside the profession.

The American Bar Association's Commission on Professionalism reported in 1986 that only 6 percent of corporations rated "all or most" lawyers as deserving to be called "professionals." Only 7 percent thought professionalism was increasing among lawyers, and 68 percent thought it was decreasing. No fewer than 55 percent of the nation's state and federal judges responded to a similar questionnaire with the view that lawyer professionalism was in decline. A 1993 poll by the National Law Journal found that almost a third of Americans thought lawyers were "less honest than most people."¹

Any lasting improvements in the legal profession depend upon the character of the individuals entering the profession. In a recent report adopted by the Conference of Chief Justices, the state Supreme Courts emphasized the fact that good character and professionalism must be developed on an individual basis.