Why I'm such a fanatic about exam deadlines and following instructions.

See here.  Hat tip to my buddy Seymour Serebnick for passing along this great object lesson.

Cross-posting: top 5 things that law students should know about jobs.

See here.

More on the job placement issue.

See here.

Dear current generation of law students: here's what we really think about your writing abilities.

Here.

What do you do when you don't like a judge's ruling?

Pick one:

1.  You say:  "Thank you, your honor."  Then you think about filing an appeal, if one's appropriate.
2.  You file a pleading that says, among other things:  "It is sad when a man of your intellectual ability cannot get it right when your own record does not support your half-baked findings."

Yep.  Someone picked #2.  Bad idea (here).  It was also a bad idea when the same person sent a bottle of wine to the judge to try to deal with the aftermath of the legal wrangling.

My guess--and I don't know this lawyer at all--is that the lawyer started to identify too personally with his client's case.  It's not that difficult to make that step from being your client's advocate to feeling as though your client's case is YOUR case and getting too overwrought when things aren't going your way.

There's a fine line between being an impassioned advocate and being someone who's too wrapped up in the case to be able to depersonalize things.  I remember being a baby lawyer and having a much-more-seasoned lawyer scream at me during a phone call.  I don't remember what the issue was, but I remember asking him why he was yelling at me.  As I explained, "This isn't your problem.  It's your client's problem.  So why are you yelling?"  He calmed down, and we worked well together thereafter.

Again:  the proper response when you disagree with a court's ruling?  "Thank you, your honor."

Before this year's USNWR rankings come out.

Read this post (here) on the Legal Profession Blog by Professors Bill Henderson and Andy Morriss, who are two of my favorite thinkers on the topic of legal education and the profession.  They're right:  if we lie about our employment statistics in order to lure more students to our schools, that's a horrible lesson to teach those students once they realize that they've been hoodwinked (or even if they weren't hoodwinked).  Lying to potential law students opens the door for them to justify letting their clients lie to the public later on in life.

Bravo to Washington & Lee's law school for telling the truth about jobs.

See here.

And now, a reminder about Facebook.

See here.

Bragging a bit on the law students at the William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV.

I'm teaching the basic Professional Responsibility course this semester, and as part of the course, students sign up to present the day's material to the rest of the class.  (Ideally, the participation does two things:  (1) helps the presenting students really "own" that day's material, and (2) helps the rest of the class in its participation with the presenting students, on the theory that students won't want to let each other down.)

The students have absolutely knocked their presentations out of the park.  They've interviewed lawyers, found film clips on point, made their own movies, drafted their own negotiation exercises, and come up with memorable ways to teach the material--all without the use of a traditional casebook.  I'm exceptionally proud of the students in this class.

Here's just one example of what the students have used:  today, they used this YouTube clip (here).

Two slices of life about the current law student job situation.

Hat tip to Above the Law for both of these stories (as well as to two buddies of ours who pointed them out to us).

First, Michigan Law is being direct with its students about the upcoming year's market for law students (see here). 

Second, if you're looking for a job, the story of one outrageous law student falls under the "don't try this at home" category (see here).   Not only did this student jeopardize his future career, he's likely going to have some explaining to do to the state bar before he is allowed to sit for the bar.

Question from a blog follower:

In a comment to an earlier post, Anonymous said:

Any thoughts on how to handle unethical and/or unprofessional conduct by attorneys during a summer associate position? I don't feel lucky to have this position -- rather, I feel like I've made a mistake that will follow me around to future firms...

Our answer:  

hanks for your question, Anonymous. First question: do you have enough information to form an understanding about whether the conduct is in fact unethical? If so, does your firm have an ethics committee?

Here's what you might want to do:

1. IF you trust the mentor to whom you were assigned, raise the issue w/that mentor.
2. IF you don't trust that mentor (i.e., the mentor is the one behaving unprofessionally), what about the partner who interviewed you? Can you raise the issue with him or her?
3. If your firm has an ethics committee, you might consider raising it with that committee.
4. If there's no one at the firm whom you trust, then you know that you don't want to work there after graduation. If things are really, really bad and you can resign before the end of the summer--and do anything else to make money--consider doing that.

I'm so sorry that you're experiencing this problem.

BTW, there IS always the chance that you aren't seeing both sides of the matter. If there IS someone at the firm whom you trust, please do try to parse the issue with him or her. GOOD LUCK!