Law School Reality Archives - Page 11 of 37

“Best Value” Law Schools

ABA Journal: A 2011 survey of “best value” law schools, as determined by preLaw magazine, has changed significantly from last year:

Almost all the schools on the list’s top 60 slotsare state institutions, the National Jurist reports.

“In 2004 and 2007, there were a decent number of private schools on the honor roll,” said Jack Crittenden, who serves as editor of both preLaw and National Jurist.

Advice For First Year Law Students

Tax Prof Blog:

The Economy is Terrible: “This one seems obvious, but the contretemps of the other day has convinced me that we would be better off starting with the bad news so that law students can make some smart and tough decisions at the outset.”
You Are Enrolled in “Job-Hunting and the Law”: “It’s easy to put the job hunt last after a long list of other duties and to work at it lackadaisically. I recommend instead that you treat the job hunt as one of your principal enrolled courses.”
It’s Your Money and Your Degree: “
[I]f you’re going to spend three years and a good deal of money in law school, it’s up to you to make the most of it.”
Nobody Gets Hurt, Nobody Gets Arrested: “Talking in class, and other ways of throwing yourself into the mix, is a terrific, bad-consequence-free way of actually starting to practice at being a lawyer. Take advantage.

Law Schools Consider Opening Their Own Firms

Law.com: Law schools have been pummeled with criticism for not producing practice-ready attorneys, so two law professors have come up with a novel fix: Law schools should operate their own law firms.

The school-owned firms would provide a training ground for recent graduates, but would function much like a normal firm, Brooklyn Law School Professor Bradley Borden and University of Maryland School of Law Professor Robert Rhee wrote in an article entitled, “The Law School Firm.” The piece will appear in a forthcoming issue of the South Carolina Law Review.

Senator Finds ABA Stance On Law School Transparency Inadequate

The National Law Journal: U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley is not satisfied with the American Bar Association’s response last month to a series of questions he posed about the organization’s oversight of law schools.

Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to the organization on Aug. 8 posing additional questions about what the ABA is doing to ensure that law graduates can pay back their student loans; about the makeup of its accreditation committee; and about how the organization is responding to the declining number of job opportunities for young lawyers.

ABA Wants US Government to Address Student Loan Debt

ABA Journal: In the face of mounting debt among the nation’s students, the ABA House of Delegates voted today to urge the U.S. government to provide for more flexible and competitive terms for federal student loans. The House also passed a resolution that calls for increased transparency in the reporting of employment data, graduate salaries and the “actual” cost of law school.

Resolution 111-A (PDF), which comes at a time when student loan debt outpaces credit card debt, “urges Congress to enact legislation to assist individuals experiencing financial hardship due to excess levels of student loan debt.”

The disconnect between the prospective law students’ perception of their employment prospects at graduation and the reality of the market they will face prompted the proposal of Resolution 111-B (PDF), which “urges all ABA-approved law schools to report employment data that identifies whether graduates have obtained full-time or part-time employment within the legal profession, whether in the private or public sector, or whether in alternative profession, whether in private or public sector, or whether in alternative professions and whether such employment is permanent or temporary.”