Law Schools

Are the Parties Over for Summer Associates? Firms Expected to Trim Perks

Last year, some summer associates were complaining about too much fattening food and alcohol. “They throw numerous social events that last for eight hours, including heavy drinking, and then expect summers to behave ‘appropriately,’ ” one participant complained. Long social events may not be a concern this year. Law firms…

Apr 10, 2009 1:34 PM CDT

What White House Attorneys Earned in Practice and as Law Profs

Financial disclosure forms filed by the many lawyers newly appointed by President Barack Obama to White House jobs provide a motherlode of information about what they were earning in their former BigLaw, in-house counsel and law professor gigs. Among the financial info provided, according to the Blog of Legal Times:…

Apr 9, 2009 11:17 PM CDT

Univ. of Alabama Accepts its Honors Undergrads Sans LSAT

As a part of a pilot program, the University of Alabama School of Law has admitted seniors from the University of Alabama’s Honors College without LSAT scores, the Tuscaloosa News reported. “The decade-old Law-UA Honors partnership, which is a select but important part of our recruitment effort, is experimenting this…

Apr 8, 2009 4:44 PM CDT

Yale Law Student’s Recession-Proof Game Plan: Professional Poker

At least one student at Yale Law School has a game plan that appears to be recession-proof. A world champion poker player, Vanessa Selbst has brought home some $800,000 in winnings during the four years she has played professionally, reports the Hartford Courant. She hopes to become a public interest…

Apr 8, 2009 4:28 PM CDT

As Apps Spike 20% at UVA, Official Says He Wouldn’t Admit Himself

Applications are up 20 percent this year at the University of Virginia School of Law, due to a surge in out-of-state applicants. A record 7,850 applicants are seeking one of approximately 350 spots in the class that will graduate in 2012, reports WVIR, an NBC affiliate. “This will be without…

Apr 8, 2009 12:15 AM CDT

New Lawyer Advised to Volunteer, Put Passions in Resume

A newly minted lawyer looking for work on Capitol Hill is getting some free advice on how to beef up her resumé, courtesy of a newspaper column. Sarah Cogan told the Washington Post she would like a legislative job on Capitol Hill. Chris Jones, chief executive of the staffing and…

Apr 6, 2009 1:21 PM CDT

NYT: It’s Time to Rethink the Legal Profession

In an opinion piece published today, the New York Times leaves little doubt that there are changes afoot in the legal profession. Massive, paradigm-shifting changes. Amid bursts of unprecedented layoffs and firm closures, young associates are finding themselves with six-figure student loan debt and no source of income. But the…

Apr 2, 2009 11:40 AM CDT

Texas Law Dean Resigns to Raise Emus ... Not Really

It’s an April Fool’s Day joke, of course. But in an e-mail sent to students at the University of Texas School of Law today, Dean Lawrence Sager announces that he plans to resign in order to raise emus. And that’s just part of the joke: Although the e-mail sent to…

Apr 1, 2009 6:14 PM CDT

Wake Forest Law Student Writes Novel While in Class

Some go to law classes to focus on what the professor says. But Rachel Keener was fortunate to have a husband who was also a student at Wake Forest University School of Law. So while he took notes she worked on what would eventually become a published novel, The Killing…

Mar 27, 2009 7:45 PM CDT

UK Company Helps Law Students Write Internship Applications

A company in the United Kingdom is helping law students with internship application forms by providing model answers and editing help. The company, Oxbridge Training Contracts, helps aspiring barristers apply for pupillages, the one-year training period in barristers’ chambers, Legal Week reports. It also employs lawyers who will provide editing…

Mar 25, 2009 1:41 PM CDT

Ousted Duquesne Dean Gets New Job at South Texas

It didn’t take long for the ousted dean of Duquesne University’s law school to find a new job. After claiming he was forced to resign late late year from the Pittsburgh law school because of a personality conflict with the school’s president, Don Guter is now headed to a new…

Mar 24, 2009 8:29 PM CDT

Woman Stabs Attacker Near Law School with Eyebrow Trimmer

A woman walking near the University of Florida’s law school managed to fend off an attacker with an eyebrow trimmer. The woman told police that the man grabbed her after he asked for cash and she refused, the Gainesville Sun reports. During a struggle, the woman stabbed the man on…

Mar 24, 2009 1:23 PM CDT

Yale Law Dean Going to Washington, Will Advise State Department

A national security law expert who is a well-known critic of the Bush administration’s detention policies concerning suspected terrorists has been tapped by President Barack Obama to provide legal advice to the U.S. Department of State. Harold Hongju Koh, who currently is dean of Yale Law School, will be nominated…

Mar 23, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

Columbia Helps Law Prof Buy $2.6M New York Townhouse

New York University received publicity earlier this year with news that it helped finance the purchase of a multimillion-dollar condo for a law professor snagged last June from Columbia University. It turns out that Columbia is also in the mortgage financing game for its professors. The school financed a second…

Mar 23, 2009 1:35 PM CDT

E-Mail Snafu at UNC Leads Law Applicants to Believe They Were Accepted

A software upgrade last weekend at the UNC School of Law didn’t work as hoped. The upgrade resulted in an e-mail snafu that led some applicants to believe they had been accepted, Above the Law reports. The mistaken e-mail invited the applicants to attend Admitted Students Day, but it was…

Mar 20, 2009 2:01 PM CDT