How many of us haven’t heard about how Steve Jobs succeeded without having a college degree? Probably most, if not all of you.   But how many “Steve Jobs” do you know? One? Five? A dozen? Maybe more, maybe less. But likely few enough to prove that these are the exceptions that cannot transform all of us into potential leaders of our world.

Notwithstanding Steve Jobs and his incredible life, I would still plead for education even if we are born with more skills than the average person, or if we have a greater capacity to understand or create.

I have always believed that a solid society can only grow healthier and stronger when its roots are well grounded and nourished.  And one of the most important ingredients for this essential growth is a good performing education.  Much can be said about the value of education in any context, but I would like to briefly focus on the specific difference that a legal education can make for the rule of law and a legal system of a country.

Legal and judicial systems often suffer from lack of a robust cadre of educated and competent individuals in key positions. Complaints about a lack of the efficiency of the system, or a lack of ethics and integrity among lawyers, judges or prosecutors, or a lack of basic legal knowledge, can be traced back to school and education and the foundations which were established at an early age. Techniques and principles for analytical and critical thinking are only some of the seeds planted as part of law school education.  Self-education plays an important role, but you need to have your mind, ears and eyes open for that.  The long-term investment return on a law school education is huge, offering you an exciting career be it in private practice, a Government position in your home country, or challenging work in a development organization.  Law school provides you with the fundamental principles and tools that will guide you and help you succeed long after you are graduated.  

Whether we like it or not a law school prepares future high court judges, politicians, prime-ministers, presidents, presidents and judges of constitutional courts, courts of accounts, ministers of justice, ombudsmen, ambassadors - the list is long, and includes astonishing opportunities.  Do we really want that whoever gets that position at some point to be a poorly educated, narrow minded, unethical, incompetent person? Certainly not. But if the uneducated, incompetent, unethical or narrow minded are the only ones we could choose from, than I’m afraid we will run out of options. Thus, let’s change the range of options and have those to be a minority.

In my year as a Fulbright (Ron Brown) grantee, I was exposed to a student body spanning the global spectrum, and heard of progress in legal fora and development in general at various stages, some more efforts more fledgling, some more sophisticated. Being at UConn, I was fortunate to meet students from countries I had only read about previously.  Studying abroad brings perspective, and an important information pipeline that is difficult to tap into if you pursue a law school education in your own country. That global cultural mixing opens doors that one could not have imagined, and enriches you beyond your law school experience.