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or the profession itself has a critical role to play, rather than the law schools." Jutras sees more commonality within the legal profession. "People tend to imagine that these kinds of basic skills only relate to a commercial law prac- tice. That is inaccurate. It is absolutely fundamental to understand organiza- tional behaviour if you're going to work for an NGO or within public service or if you work for any large institution, including a university." Interestingly, U of T's law school will offer a new LLM program this fall that combines business and law, aimed mostly at lawyers who have practised for a few years and want additional business age their money and their life . . . how interest works, how credit cards work. This is not a law course, it is a how-to- live-in-our-society course." Jutras agrees with this point. He strongly believes his students must learn the basic skills of human interac- tion, including how to answer a phone and how to listen to people. "They must learn empathy, how to ask the right questions, how to see the world from [someone else's] eyes, try to identify their aspirations. . . . These are cru- cial and fundamental dimensions to training competent, ethical, responsible professionals, and we are responsible for that. We have to start right from the "I wish I had shares in Kleenex because when you break down a lawyer's wall, one that was built up because of shame and all the rest of it, their tears are pretty important and honest." William Trudell and legal training. However, Moran does not envisage a time when these kinds of business and law courses — or real- life training, such as volunteering at a legal clinic — will be mandatory for law undergraduates. Trudell says law schools have a role to play. "Before people step out of law school, they need to be taught how to run a business. And let's not be afraid to call it a business. Criminal justice is a business. We have a court. We have police officers and judges and secretar- ies and transcripts and buildings. It's a business." However, bankruptcy expert Atlas believes business basics should be taught long before law school. "[These les- sons] should absolutely be taught in late elementary school, maybe high school, where students would learn how to man- beginning." Practising lawyers know that much of their work involves per- sonal interaction and there is no practi- cal course on "humans" in law school. "You have to make students realize very early on in their education that this is an aspect of their education that cannot be avoided," says Jutras. "They need to listen to other people and be responsive to their needs. These things are not found in the Civil Code." While Trudell agrees that law schools could do a better job of teaching students the basics, he also believes law societ- ies should play a bigger role. "Lawyers should be told in law school that they need a mentor. They need to know what a balance sheet looks like. They need to know the reality of earning a living. There's a learning curve and we don't do a good job in this profession of teaching it. I don't think the legal profes- sion does a very good job of treating its lawyers like human beings, with human problems." Part of the reason for this, he says, is because law societies are respon- sible for regulating and disciplining the profession, not guiding and mentoring lawyers. Not surprisingly, Dangerfield dis- agrees on this point. "I am a prosecutor, so I look at the world through a certain lens, but I also recognize the significant amount of work our law society does in helping lawyers maintain competence, continue their professional develop- ment, and obtain specialized training. Our auditors are very capable and pre- pared and willing to assist members when they set up a new practice or at any point in a member's practice." Jutras has a similar point of view. "Local law societies will tell you they are very active in helping those who make the choice to go on their own or work in small groups. They provide them with the tools to do so responsibly and ethi- cally. They provide very effective post- call training." What role do law firms have to play in teaching the basics? "There are some basic practice-management skills that should be taught to students in the bar admission program," says Dangerfield. In Manitoba, "we provide an overview in terms of what is expected of them. It is a fairly comprehensive lecture. And with this foundation, probably the best place for them to learn some of the skills you're describing would be within the firm environment." As one would expect, young people who choose work over university learn business and real-life skills much faster than students do. This would be less of a problem for lawyers if someone, some- where along the way, would assume the responsibility of training them to be solid, knowledgeable business people, instead of future big-firm lawyers. Says Trudell: "The person who dug the ditch and put the bricks onto the building you work in may be the same age as you are, but they are learning life skills that are postponed — and sometimes never learned — by law- yers." www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M A RCH 2011 37