MacCrate’s Missed Opportunity: The MacCrate Report’s Failure to Advance Professional Values

Abstract

The MacCrate Report, perhaps “the most ambitious effort to reform legal education in the past generation,” missed a unique opportunity to promote lawyers’ commitment to “justice, fairness, and morality.” While stating a commitment to promoting these values, the Report fails to follow through. First, when placed in the context of the Report’s concrete proposals, these values receive a low priority. Second, the Report assumes – contrary to fact – that the legal profession is “united around [these] core values.” An effective strategy for communicating and encouraging lawyers’ commitment to “justice, fairness, and morality,” must begin with a recognition that lawyers have a range of views regarding the importance of these values and whether they should be integrated into lawyers’ everyday work.

Keywords: MacCrate Report, legal education, professionalism, legal ethics, professional values, ethics education, justice