Recognizing that the legal profession had undergone vast, complex and technical changes and that there was therefore a corresponding need for an academically trained and qualified body of competent Liberian lawyers, able to interact and compete with their foreign colleagues, Chief Justice Pierre concluded that the apprenticeship system of training Liberian lawyers, under which he himself was trained was anachronistic, outmoded and had outlived its usefulness. In spite of intense opposition, one of his first acts as Chief Justice was to successfully appeal to the Legislature to abolish the apprenticeship system. Accordingly, in 1972 the Legislature amended the New Judiciary Law by adding thereto Section 17.9 which requires as a qualification for membership in the Liberian Bar that all applicants must have obtained a law degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law or from a recognized foreign law school.