Should 30 law schools close?

Given Above the Law's post about the relative usefulness of some law schools (here), as well as TaxProf Blog's posts (here), I can't resist a tiny bit of "I told you so," based on my 2012 article on the three types of law schools (here).  It's an interesting debate.

Want some great tips on writing?

See here.

Thanks, Above the Law, for mentioning our book!

We were tickled pink to see this mention of our Law School Survival Manual today (check under "Books"). 

For folks who are interested in moving to law school from community colleges, an article that discusses the possible paths.

We're touting our companion book, Law Firm Job Survival Manual, as part of this interview (here).

Don't treat the USNWR rankings as gospel.

Here's a nice point of view, written by someone who got his JD at the same school as my husband.

Before you get all bent out of shape about the rankings, take a look at this chart.

I played around with the info in the USNWR rankings, and barring some transposition of numbers on my part, here's what I found.

The bands had roughly the same number of schools in them, although band 3 (51-72) had a few more schools than the others.  Is there a big difference between the 1-24 group and the 79-100 group?  Of course there is.  There's even a big difference between schools in the 1-24 group and schools in the 26-49 range.  (Please don't yell at me, schools in the 26-29 range--I know that you just missed the cut-off.)  But there's not a big difference between the schools in the 51-72 range and the 79-100 range.  For those of you trying to choose between schools in the third and fourth groups, just remember this Ellen DeGeneres clip.  

And don't get me started on how the various components of the rankings are rated.  I could go on for hours about why I disagree with the way that the methodology works.

The differences in various clusters in USNWR's rankings are about as small as the difference in sitting on a plane with your seat in the upright position and sitting with your seat "reclined."  So pay more attention to the financial package that you're being offered, the job placement and bar passage rates of the schools you're considering, how helpful the alumni of the school are, and where in the country you think that you'd like to live.  Those are the real factors to consider, no matter what any particular year's rankings say.

Punctuation matters. I mean it.

And I loved this timely post.

Bless his heart, but I think he's wrong.

I listened to Lee Pacchia's Bloomberg Law interview of Stephen Sheppard, and I don't doubt Dean Sheppard's sincerity at all, but I disagree with many of the things that he said. 

• I believe that law schools should report their statistics (jobs, bar passage rates) honestly so that potential law students can make rational decisions on whether to attend a given law school. 
• I believe that law schools should do everything humanly possible to help their students and their graduates get jobs.  (That means, in part, that law schools should teach some of the skills that lawyers need and, in part, that law schools should invest heavily in their career development offices.)
• I believe that the criticism of current legal education is good for potential law students.  If the criticism scares away potential law students, that's a good thing, too.  People should enroll in law schools with their eyes wide open.  They should know about the decline in law jobs and the changes in legal practice. 

Sanity about the USNWR rankings.

See here.

Prof. Derek Muller's study--the asterisk.

Here's the email that I sent to Prof. Derek Muller yesterday, in response to his decision to list Boyd Law as a "top 10 'barista' school":

Hi, Derek--I just saw the result of your "top 10" lists as described in the TaxProf Blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/03/the-2014-.html), and I had a couple of thoughts.  My first thought is that, in general, providing information about placement can be very useful to potential applicants, so I applaud the concept of what you're doing.  My qualm about your methodology, though, leads me to write to you today.  I believe that some of your statistics are materially misleading--certainly as they relate to UNLV (Boyd School of Law), and perhaps as they might relate to other schools as well.  Therefore, I'm writing to you today to ask you to please correct the misstatements with respect to Boyd.

Here's why Boyd’s inclusion on the Top 10 list of “Career Baristas” is materially misleading.  The percentage of graduates in non-professional, full-time, long-term positions listed for each of the schools in this “Top 10” is minuscule compared to the graduates employed in other types of jobs.  At Boyd, in a class of 128 graduates, six graduates (4.7%) were employed in non-professional, full-time, long-term positions as of February 15, 2012.  Based on these six graduates, Boyd is listed as the #3 top school in the nation for “Career Baristas.”  Meanwhile, 85 (66.4%) of Boyd’s class of 2011 was employed in full-time, long-term positions for which bar passage is required, and another 6 (4.7%) were employed in full-time, long-term positions where a JD provided an advantage.  A full 75% of the class, 96 students total, was employed in full-time or part-time long term positions that require bar passage or a JD.  Further, none of these positions are funded by the law school. 

The Top 10 list itself creates confusion because it is based on such a small percentage of the overall class.  It is particularly misleading in the case of Boyd because it is based on six graduates, providing an incomplete and distorted view of the employment prospects for Boyd students.

Given that your study is being circulated on at least the TaxProf Blog listserv, and likely others, I would greatly appreciate it if you could correct this mistaken impression about Boyd.  If you think that you're not going to be able to do that by, say, Monday of next week, please let me know.  I'm happy to chat--713-202-1881.
All the best,
N.

Professor Muller, demonstrating that he listens to legitimate criticism, has added an asterisk to the post on TaxProf Blog: 

*Caution is in order for any ordinal ranking, but in a category like this, where the percentages are low, small numbers may appear large. For instance, the University of Akron has just 9 graduates in this category but ranks first; the University of North Dakota, just 5 graduates but ranks second; the University of Nevada—Las Vegas, just 6 graduates, but ranks third.

Thanks, Prof. Muller.

Gotta love this video.

Here.  Hat tip to Scott Bovitz.

Above the Law's "gradenfreude" post....

Is funny as heck and sad at the same time.  Read it here.

For those of you thinking about pursuing careers in BigLaw.

See this interview (here).  Hat tip to The Legal Whiteboard's blog and to Bloomberg Law.

A wonderful article about good writing.

Judge Alan S. Trust's article, Brevity, published in the June 2012 American Bankruptcy Institute's Journal, is a must-read (here).

Your writing matters. Learn the rules of grammar.

Today's article in the Wall Street Journal, "This Embarrasses You and I [sic]" (here), is a perfect illustration of why good writing is so important.  Bad writing (poor grammar, poor spelling, poor analysis, verbosity) makes you look dumb. 

In today's job market, where there are far too many lawyers trying to get (or keep) far too few positions, you need to remember the three things good lawyers do:

1.  They're good at analyzing problems and coming up with viable solutions.
2.  They communicate well.
3.  They're ethical.

That's what you need to be a good--maybe eventually great--lawyer.  Fancy law degrees are great, but they'll only get you in the door.  Your own performance is what keeps you there.

Here's a comparison for you to remember:  I want my surgeon to be able to communicate well with me.  Surgeons cut.  They think about cutting; they cut; they think about the cuts they've done.  Writing isn't a job requirement, per se, but I sure want what my surgeon writes in my medical files to be accurate and understandable.  If my surgeon didn't know the basic rules of grammar, I'd start obsessing about what other gaps he had in his education.  And lawyers actually are supposed to write well, so it's even more important for you to prove that you know the writing rules.

To steal a line (or to do a jazz riff on it--I couldn't find the exact quote) from Oprah:  be your best self.

Many law schools are decreasing the size of their entering classes.

See today's stories in the Wall Street Journal (here and here).

Before you rule out applying to very good state law schools...

Read Dean Susan Poser's letter to the editor in today's New York Times (here).

New York Times makes my comma-loving day.

See here and here.

Wolters Kluwer (Aspen) has a new blog for you.

It's called Becoming a Lawyer.  And here's my first post on it.

Bloomberg Law on the class action lawsuits against law schools.

Another great interview by Lee Pacchia here.