Prefatory Remark

The Devitt Committee Report recommends that the American Bar Association re-examine its accreditation standards with a view towards requiring each law school to provide trial advocacy training. In my opinion, it is improper to emphasize trial advocacy to the exclusion of other means of solving disputes. The Devitt Report gives not the slightest hint of or reference to negotiated settlements, arbitration or mediation as methods to assist in settling disagreements. The Committee, by apparently accepting without dissent the Report's stated objective, ignored the broader social purposes to be served by requiring law schools to emphasize skills training in general.