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Key Facts
- National overview: The ABA House of Delegates adopted Resolution 10B on August 9, 2011 during the ABA Annual Meeting.
- National overview: Resolution 10B directed the ABA to take steps to assure that law schools, law firms, law examiners, CLE providers, and others provide the “knowledge, skills, values, habits and traits” of the “successful modern lawyer.”.
- National overview: Resolution 10B urged legal education providers to implement curricular programs intended to develop “practice ready lawyers,” including enhanced capstone and clinical courses with client meetings and court appearances.
- National overview: Resolution 10B also directed ABA constituent bodies to consider the requirements for the success of future lawyers as they carry out their responsibilities.
- National overview: The ABA describes its “adopted policies” as being created through House of Delegates (or Board of Governors) action and maintained in a searchable database including policies adopted from 1997 to today.
- National overview: A Green Bag reproduction of “Ex Ante ABA RESOLUTION 10B, PART 2: THE END OF THE WAR STORY SEMINAR?” includes the operative RESOLVED clause wording used in this archive recovery.
- National overview: An ABA Journal report characterizes the resolution as “PDF-Revised” and describes it as passed as revised by an overwhelming voice vote.
This archive recovery reconstructs a historical ABA House of Delegates item identified as “2011 AM 10B” and reported in 2011 as Resolution 10B. Because this is an archive item, the goal is to preserve the original professional context and language, while helping modern readers understand the difference between organizational policy guidance and binding Federal or State legal requirements.
- What “2011 AM 10B” is (historical frame)
- Why this archived language mattered in its time
- Operative Clause 1 “successful modern lawyer” (quoted RESOLVED wording)
- Operative Clause 2 “practice ready lawyers” and curriculum emphasis
- Operative Clause 3 requirements for the success of future lawyers
- How to interpret ABA “adopted policies” versus binding Federal/State law
- What this archive recovery can and cannot confirm about current status
- Related archive reading on legal education themes
- Sources
What “2011 AM 10B” is (historical frame)
In 2011, the ABA House of Delegates adopted a set of actions at the ABA Annual Meeting; contemporaneous reporting describes “Resolution 10B” as adopted on August 9, 2011. The ABA Journal also describes the resolution as “PDF-Revised” and passed “as revised by an overwhelming voice vote,” which helps explain why the item’s language is often quoted in later discussions of legal education and professional development. (See ABA Journal: “ABA Urges Law Schools to Adopt More Practical Training for Students”.)
Why this archived language mattered in its time
The recurring phrases “successful modern lawyer” and “practice ready lawyers” are best read as professional-development targets expressed in policy form, directed at stakeholders involved in education and training—rather than as statutory definitions. In 2011, these phrases fit into ongoing conversations about clinical legal education, skills training, and preparing graduates for real-world practice settings.
Operative Clause 1 “successful modern lawyer” (quoted RESOLVED wording)
Resolution 10B’s first operative directive focuses on knowledge, skills, values, habits, and traits. The operative “RESOLVED” language appears in a Green Bag reproduction of “Ex Ante ABA RESOLUTION 10B, PART 2: THE END OF THE WAR STORY SEMINAR?” and reads (in relevant part) as follows (cited here from that reproduction):
> “RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association, take steps to assure that law schools, law firms, law examiners, CLE providers and others concerned with continued professional development provide the knowledge, skills, values, habits and traits that make up the successful modern lawyer.”
Operative Clause 2 “practice ready lawyers” and curriculum emphasis
The resolution’s second operative directive then translates the goal into curricular and programmatic expectations. In the same Green Bag reproduction, the “FURTHER RESOLVED” language urges legal education providers to implement curricular programs intended to develop “practice ready lawyers,” and it specifically references “enhanced capstone and clinical courses” that include client meetings and court appearances:
> “FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges legal education providers to implement curricular programs intended to develop practice ready lawyers including, but not limited to enhanced capstone and clinical courses that include client meetings and court appearances.”
Operative Clause 3 requirements for the success of future lawyers
A final operative directive looks forward to the responsibilities of ABA constituent bodies. The Green Bag reproduction includes this additional “FURTHER RESOLVED” clause:
> “FURTHER RESOLVED, That the constituent bodies of the American Bar Association, consider the requirements for the success of future lawyers as they carry out their responsibilities.”
How to interpret ABA “adopted policies” versus binding Federal/State law
A common modern reader concern is whether language like “RESOLVED” functions like a statute or regulation. For this resolution, it helps to start with how the ABA describes its own policy system: the ABA’s “ABA Policy” portal explains that “adopted policies” are created through House of Delegates (or Board of Governors) action and maintained in a searchable database. In other words, the document is best understood as organizational policy guidance—one input into professional norms and educational discussion—not as Federal or State law that automatically imposes legal obligations on courts, agencies, or individuals.
What this archive recovery can and cannot confirm about current status
This reconstruction can confirm (1) the 2011 adoption reporting and vote characterization described by the ABA Journal, and (2) the operative RESOLVED clause wording reproduced in the Green Bag item. What it cannot do, based only on these sources, is establish—without additional database verification by an end user—that the exact resolution remains listed unchanged in the ABA’s current adopted-policies library or whether it has been modified or superseded internally over time. Readers who need current organizational status should use the ABA adopted-policies database referenced by the ABA Policy portal.
Related archive reading on legal education themes
If you want additional historical ABA-adjacent context in the same “Archives” recovery style, see this internal TheFirstFile archive item on legal education recognition themes: ABA legal education award archive.
