Law Schools

Should firms start the hiring season for law students later? (video)

Jay Grushkin, hiring partner at New York’s Milbank Tweed, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about how the hiring season has changed since the recession in BigLaw began in 2008. Elite law schools have moved their on-campus recruiting weeks earlier and earlier, in efforts to give their students the best…

Jul 3, 2013 2:45 PM CDT

Clinical law profs solicit ABA legal ed council to require 15 credit hours in practice-based courses

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has been asked to amend the law school accreditation standards to require students to receive at least 15 credit hours of practical skills training. A petition (PDF) to that effect was formally submitted to the…

Jul 2, 2013 8:56 PM CDT

Law prof stumbles upon story of early black Cornell law grad, the topic of his new book

Taking a break from proofreading his new book on civil procedure in 2004 proved fortuitous for a Cornell University law professor. Looking through the school’s digital card catalog, Kevin M. Clermont discovered a law school thesis written in 1890 by a man he had never before heard of, who would…

Jul 2, 2013 3:24 PM CDT

Is law school’s ‘Dude!’ ad the ‘lamest’?

Richmond School of Law is touting its selectivity and employment statistics in an ad that uses a text message format, complete with abbreviations and lingo. TaxProf Blog shows the ad and proclaims it the “clubhouse leader for the lamest law school ad of 2013.” The ad shows a cell phone…

Jul 2, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

Filibustering Texas lawmaker is a Harvard law grad and former teen mom

How did she do it? Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis stood for 11 hours without a bathroom break or sip of water last week to protest abortion limits that would have shut down most of the state’s abortion clinics. Davis, a lawyer and Harvard law grad, has a history of…

Jul 2, 2013 12:04 PM CDT

Want career satisfaction? Don’t chase money and prestige, lawyer survey suggests

Money and prestige aren’t key to career satisfaction, according to findings from a multiyear survey of University of Michigan law grads. Instead, work satisfaction is more closely related to the law grads’ perceptions of the social value of their work and the quality of their relations with co-workers and superiors,…

Jul 1, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Hearsay: July 2013

SURVEY SAYS Lawyers are the most socially responsible professionals, donating an estimated 25 hours a year of their time to pro bono services. Source: Taproot Foundation social responsibility ranking for office professionals, May 2013. $1,126,670 The amount of money spent on television ads in this year’s race for a seat…

Jul 1, 2013 8:50 AM CDT

At Iron Tech, students bring tech answers to legal issues

We can debate the need for law schools to teach the practice of law, but there might be more in store for the profession, with law students changing how it’s done. They’re developing legal technology to either help consumers and their nonlawyer advocates who might need legal services or to…

Jul 1, 2013 7:10 AM CDT

ABA entities pursue separate paths in search of ways to improve legal education

On a Wednesday in late April, the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education convened a daylong “miniconference” in Indianapolis to kick around ideas for some pretty radical changes in the legal education system. Two days later—and 500 miles away—the Standards Review Committee of the ABA Section of…

Jul 1, 2013 6:40 AM CDT

Is it macho for lawyers to put in long hours? ‘Too soon to tell’ about W&L curriculum, prof says

Last week, at the Careerist, Vivia Chen took notes a survey noted by Hastings College of Law professor Joan Williams at Harvard Business Review Blog finding that while 9 percent of mothers work more than 50 hours per week, 29 percent of fathers do. “Why the sizable gap? Williams suggests…

Jun 28, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Law grad, an ex-felon, gets her civil rights restored in hopes of getting a law license

A single mom and law graduate has been unable to take the Florida bar exam because of a 15-year-old felony drug conviction. Since serving a seven-month sentence, Jessica Chiappone of Boca Raton has worked to turn her life around, the Miami Herald reports. She achieved an important milestone on Wednesday…

Jun 27, 2013 3:51 PM CDT

University of Cincinnati law school listens to world’s message: Tuition has gotten too high

The University of Cincinnati law school will cut tuition for out-of-state residents by 30 percent, following the lead of another cost-cutting Ohio law school. Tuition and fees for out-of-state residents will drop from $40,044 to $28,536 at the Cincinnati law school next year, the National Law Journal reports. Ohio residents…

Jun 27, 2013 2:54 PM CDT

Is legal education solely law schools’ responsibility? ABA task force thinks not

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education has spent the past 10 months listening to others tell them what’s wrong with the system of legal education in this country and what should be done to fix it. Now comes the hard part: Coming up with a set…

Jun 26, 2013 8:17 PM CDT

Ex-treasurer of student bar association attributes $33K theft to ‘dark period’ of addiction

A former treasurer of the student bar association at the University of Baltimore law school has pleaded guilty to stealing $33,000 from the group and promised to repay the money. Margaret Oyler, 29, received a suspended sentence of five years in prison and three years of probation with substance abuse…

Jun 21, 2013 2:30 PM CDT

Law firms say they want ‘practice ready’ grads—but who are they actually hiring?

Washington & Lee University Law School’s decision to emphasize practical skills in the 3L year and subsequent enrollment surge was called the “biggest legal education story of 2013” by Indiana University law professor Bill Henderson. And “National Jurist named the school’s faculty as among the twenty-five most influential people in…

Jun 21, 2013 1:30 PM CDT