It is gratifying to see that many of those who oppose DOMA have nonetheless praised Paul Clement’s willingness to defend the law, and his refusal to abandon the representation. From the Washingtonian : Clement, who has now joined the boutique law firm Bancroft, has plenty of support among his peers in the Washington legal community. […]
Archive | Legal Profession
Paul Clement and the New McCarthyism
Here’s my take on the Clement kerfuffle Orin and Eugene blog about below. After the Obama Administration announced it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Congress opted to defend the law on its own. The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group retained the services of King & Spalding’s Paul Clement, […]
Speaking of Wealthy Organizations that Benefit from Unnecessary Rules…
According to the National Law Journal, the ABA is considering dropping its requirement that law school applicants take the LSAT. Loyola Chicago Dean David Yellin, a member of the relevant ABA committee, notes that committee members have also questioned whether the ABA should be making rules that financially benefit the Law School Admission Council—the organization […]
Practicing Lawyers vs. Legal Academics
Bridget Crawford wonders why practicing lawyers don’t much like legal academics. Professor Bainbridge offers an explanation. Rick Garnett responds with some qualifications. UPDATE: More at Legal Ethics Forum.
Is It Rational to Bar Troopers from Practicing Law?
Some New Jersey state troopers got law degrees with the help of a state-sponsored loan repayment program. Then sought to practice law on the side — doing wills, real estate closings, etc. Then the State Ethics Commission for the Department of Law and Public Safety decided that it was unethical for troopers to engage in […]
Lawyers and Institutional Roles, or, Why Lawyers Seem So Obsessed With Technicalities
I was thinking recently, after teaching a first-year law class, that one of the key aspects of “thinking like a lawyer” is understanding institutional roles. The law often breaks down power among different institutions, with each institution getting one part of a broader problem. That means that each institution only has limited power, and the […]
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the 9th Circuit, who has been named chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on International Judicial Relations by Chief Justice Roberts. It is a three-year term, and Judge O’Scannlain is a terrific choice to chair it. The 9th Circuit announcement notes that the Committee was formed in 1993 to […]
Average Billing Rates Charged by Washington DC Lawyers
The BLT reports: A massive study of billing rates shows that law firm partners in Washington charge the second-highest hourly rate in the nation. On average, partners here bill just over $600 an hour, second only to New York City, where partners charge close to $700 an hour, according to the study by CT TyMetrix […]
Is a Stint as an Assistant U.S. Attorney a Pathway to Riches?
Perhaps if you spend that stint in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Over at the Glom, David Zaring reports on his effort to identify what former federal prosecutors in Manhattan are doing these days. Out of 150 former federal prosecutors, he reports, “the large majority . . . are partners in white […]
Larry Ribstein Comments on Lawyerly Competitive Advantage
There are a couple of academic business law blogs I read regularly – particularly The Conglomerate and Truth on the Market. So I was flattered to see that Larry Ribstein, at Truth on the Market, put up a short comment on a short essay of mine that appeared last semester in my school’s short-form essay […]
The Bimodal Distribution of Lawyer Pay
There has been much grousing in the legal profession and blogosphere about the recent National Association of Law Placement report finding that recent law graduates have a “bimodal” pay distribution: while those who get jobs in big firms have starting salaries around $160,000 per year, few others top $75,000. No doubt, this finding will lead […]
Why Better Bar Exams are Not the Answer
In a thoughtful response to my recent post on the bar exam, prominent criminal lawyer Nathaniel Burney agrees with my view that the current bar exam system is flawed, but argues that the best solution is to adopt a new and better exam: We are not fans of the bar exam, either, but we think […]
Richard Epstein and John Yoo on the Bar Exam
Richard Epstein and John Yoo have responded to Elizabeth Wurtzel’s critique of the bar exam, which I previously commented on here. Surprisingly, Epstein comes to the defense of the bar exam: There is a good reason why some Yale Law School graduates fail the bar. They do not learn enough law in law school to […]
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Case for Abolishing the Bar Exam
At the Brennan Center for Justice, Elizabeth Wurtzel makes the case for abolishing the bar exam: In 2005, Kathleen Sullivan, then dean of Stanford Law School, took and failed the California bar exam. After many years in legal academia—Ms. Sullivan literally wrote the book on constitutional law—she was going to practice law and needed a […]
New ABA Accreditation Standards
Via TaxProf, I learn that the ABA Section of Legal Education & Admission to the Bar seeks comments on proposed changes to the law school accreditation standards. I blogged about one of these proposed standards in December, the one that requires law school graduates to have a “knowledge and understanding of … the legal profession’s […]