Law Students

Some time this week, the result for the March 2008 Multi-state Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) will be released.  You will hear sighs of relief and grumbling in law school.   Most people not in the legal profession have the impression that the MPRE measures personal and professional ethics.  This is somewhat of a misconception. 

At the very basic level, yes, the MPRE measures a law student’s basic understanding of professional ethics and personal morals. For example, it is quite obvious to most law students and layman that stealing, co-mingling, and “borrowing” client’s money is wrong.  But do you know that even if you obtain the client’s consent to lend him/her money, and even if your client begs you for money, you cannot lend the money to that client?  It may seem to be cold and heartless, but that is the professional code for you.

It is important to master the Code of Professional Conduct not for the sake of proving how ethical or moral you are, but for the purpose of learning the standards of the profession.  Studying for the MPRE is not simply about going by your gut instinct, or following common sense — it is about understanding the public policy reasons for following certain rules even if individual outcome may appear to be quite extreme and sometimes even unfair.  You need to know what you must not, what you should not, what you should, and what you must do.  The distinctions among these four categories are enough to send you spinning.