I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Ohio, where our local paper ran a quite interesting story about the chaos that can ensue for his/her clients when a lawyer dies or is disbarred. If the lawyer is part of a firm, the other lawyers at the firm generally have an obligation to continue the representation; but if […]
Archive | Legal Profession
When a “Ridiculous” Argument Is Correct
This morning’s lesson comes from Judge Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Bennett v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co. Judge Kethledge’s opinion for the court begins: There are good reasons not to call an opponent’s argument “ridiculous,” which is what State Farm calls Barbara Bennett’s principal argument here. The reasons include civility; […]
“Average is Over” and The Future of Lawyers
I’ve just finished reading, and rather enjoyed, Tyler Cowen’s latest book: Average is Over. At a macro level, it is a claim about the dramatic changes we can expect in the economy and our society over the next century. But it has a lot of strange side discussions I wasn’t really expecting. I still can’t […]
SCIL Loses First Amendment Challenge to Bar Passage Disclosure Requirement
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 21, 2013 8:38 pm in Academia, Bar Exam, Freedom of Speech, Law Schools, Legal Profession
As I noted here, the Southern California Institute of Law sought to challenge a requirement that it disclose the bar passage rate of its graduates. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the judge was not too impressed with this argument. SCIL’s attorney says the school may appeal. More from the WSJ Law Blog and ABA Journal.
Law School Applications Continue to Drop
Law school applications are down 18 percent and the number of applicants is down 12 percent. Paul Caron has details here. Relatedly, the LA Times reports on shrinking law school class sizes at California schools. Most schools face a stark choice between shrinking the size of incoming classes and lowering admission standards. In the coming […]
The “New Normal” in the Legal Profession
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 18, 2013 12:11 pm in Academia, Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
UNC’s Bernard Burk has an interesting new paper on changes to the legal profession and legal job market, “What’s New About the New Normal: The Evolving Market for New Lawyers in the 21st Century.” Here’s the abstract: Everyone agrees that job prospects for many new law graduates have been poor for the last several years; […]
California Law School Claims First Amendment Right Not to Report Bar Passage Rates
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 17, 2013 2:29 pm in Academia, Bar Exam, Freedom of Speech, Law Schools, Legal Profession
The WSJ Law Blog reports that the Southern California Institute of Law claims that it cannot be required to disclose the bar passage rate of its graduates as a condition of accreditation. Such a requirement, SCIL claims, runs afoul of the First Amendment. Southern California Institute of Law is suing bar association officials for requiring […]
Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Suit Against Cooley Law
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 30, 2013 9:55 pm in Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
Today, in MacDonald v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the SIxth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a suit by several former students at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Here’s the court’s summary of its opinion. The plaintiffs, twelve graduates of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, sued their […]
Debating the Value of a Law Degree
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 24, 2013 8:16 pm in Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
The new study by Michael Simkovic and Frank McIntyre estimating the value of a law degree has sparked a substantial amount of debate and commentary, as I noted here and here. Most recently, WUSTL’s Brian Tamanaha, author of Failing Law Schools, went after the study on Balkinization arguing it systematically overstates the value of a […]
More on the Value of a Law Degree
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 21, 2013 4:46 pm in Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
Following up on his posts at Concurring Opinions discussing his study (with Frank McIntyre) attempting to measure the value of a law degree, Michael Simkovic rounds up the commentary and critiques of the study on Leiter’s Law School Reports. I noted prior coverage of the study here, and Paul Caron rounds up some additional coverage […]
On the Value of a Law Degree
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 18, 2013 4:40 pm in Academia, Law School Tuition and Loans, Law Schools, Legal Profession
In the NYT‘s Dealbook column, Ohio State’s Steven Davidoff discusses a new study, “The Economic Value of a Law Degree,” by Michael Simkovic and Frank McIntyre. This study purports to show that a law degree remains a good investment for many people. Here is the study’s abstract: Legal academics and journalists have marshaled statistics purporting […]
Advice to Lawyers (Which Seems Surprisingly Necessary): Don’t Use Vulgarities in Court
From In re Foster (N.C. Ct. App. May 21, 2013) (nonprecedential): The State’s evidence tended to show the following facts. On the evening of 5 November 2011, a Saturday, defendant entered the Buncombe County Detention Facility and went to an area designated by sign as a “Magistrate Court.” Defendant told the magistrate on duty that […]
A Cautionary Tale for Young Lawyers
Prof. Dennis Crouch, at the respected and often-cited Patently-O blog, had a post several weeks ago with a heading that was good advice, Don’t Write This Letter to the Patent Office: We all get frustrated. After an examiner rejected his client’s application for a telescoping tripod sprinkler, patent attorney Andrew Schroeder could no longer resist […]
A Cautionary Tale About Driving and Bar Fitness
Law students thinking ahead about not just passing the bar exam, but also the fitness and character requirements might take a lesson from a former student of mine. He contacted me with some alarm a few days ago to tell me that the Virginia bar committee that has to approve fitness and character of applicants […]
Epstein on The Lawyer Bubble
Richard Epstein reviews Steven Harper’s The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis in today’s WSJ. The review begins: Law schools are under siege. Applications have dropped to around 54,000 annually, from around 100,000 in 2004. First-year enrollment has slipped to under 40,000 students, from 50,000 in 2010. Jobs are scarce—especially for students coming from lower-tier […]