Law today encompasses a vast amount of doctrine generated by constitutions, treaties, statutes, rules, court decisions, admininstrative regulations, and other legal sources. No lawyer knows all of the law! Yet lawyers receive a general license, enabling them to practice in any area, and many new lawyers practice in areas they have not previously studied. How is that possible? What type of knowledge is necessary to establish minimum competence to practice law?
Some studies, like the NCBE Practice Analysis or California Practice Analysis, suggest that doctrinal knowledge in certain foundational subjects is essential. These subjects parallel the subjects typically studied during the first year of law school (civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, real property, and torts) as well as some courses typically taken during the upper level (administrative law, business associations, and evidence). The studies, however, do not agree entirely on which subjects are foundational--and they do not identify which principles within each subject are essential for entry-level practice. Bar examiners use committees of subject matter experts to pinpoint the latter subjects. These approaches run the risk of maintaining outdated content while shortchanging contemporary doctrine.
The Building a Better Bar study took a different approach to identifying the knowledge that new lawyers need to practice competently. After analyzing the transcripts of 50 focus groups, the researchers concluded that lawyers need three types of knowledge to practice competently: knowledge of the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowledge of legal processes and sources of law, and knowledge of threshold concepts in a wide variety of doctrinal fields. This knowledge, combined with the skills needed for minimum competence, allows lawyers to learn and practice in any area. See these pages to read more about each knowledge domain: