Law Schools

Former Assemblywoman Loses Bid for Barbiedom

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Rebecca cohn loss.jpgRebecca Cohn was a California assemblywoman representing Buena Vista, Burbank, Cambrian Park, Campbell, Fruitdale, and parts of San Jose and Santa Clara. After losing to Jim Beall, she decided to matriculate at UC Davis School of Law (King Hall).

Cohn said that her lifelong dream was to attend law school. But she apparently couldn’t shake the political monkey: she decided to run for 1L representative. Our friends at The Shark pick up the story from there:

No doubt recognizing the tough road ahead of her, Cohn ran her 1L Representative campaign with some enthusiasm that stunned some students. Her ascension to high profile student caused a commotion on campus that involved: a war over her Wikipedia entry, the re-use of signs from her assembly campaign, and several salacious rumors that are too inflammatory and unverified to repeat.

If we receive any “salacious” rumors, we will happily repeat them.

The Shark at least hinted at the tenor of the rumors swirling around Cohn:

Most of these rumors seem to stem from the report that her San Jose magazine cover … prompted two assembly aides to sue her for creating a sexually charged workplace. Cohn, who is single, seems to be avoiding this situation at King Hall: the San Jose Mercury News reported that she has not been asked out on a date by a single King Hall student.

More on Cohn’s campaign craziness, after the jump.

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In Memoriam: Charles Whitebread

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Charles Whitebread.jpgWe’d like to take a moment and acknowledge the great life and career of Professor Charles H. Whitebread. Professor Whitebread passed away Tuesday, in Santa Monica, California.

Professor Whitebread was a legend at the USC Gould School of Law, but most attorneys will remember him for his BAR/BRI Criminal Law lectures. We fondly remember the bow-tied professor for adding a bit of levity at a time when we were stressed beyond belief.

He is survived by his life partner, John Golden, and his devoted friend Michael Kelly.

The USC Gould School of Law will hold a memorial for Professor Whitebread at a date still to be determined. Donations to the Charles H. Whitebread Memorial Scholarship may be sent to the law school.

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Is The Market For Toilets Drying Up?

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waterless urinal of sadness.jpgKids running for office say the craziest things. Even when that office is for student government at the S.J. Quinney School of Law at the University of Utah.

This election isn’t going to come down to which student candidate will do the best job at providing low-cost outline alternatives to disadvantaged 1Ls. Instead, membership on the Student Bar Association will be based on toilets and tacos. According to one “undecided” at the law school:

I don’t want to sound cynical (okay I do), but in my experience concerning any type of “student government” (which experience is unfortunately extensive), “representatives” don’t really amount to much.

If there power could equal the power they think they have, then that would be something. I’ll tell you what counts for me: tuition costs, book costs, and the fact that there aren’t enough bathrooms in this place. Let’s be serious, the SBA will not build new bathrooms or lower costs. My “representative” may wish to pad their resume with another feather in their hat, but unless you can save me money or time, I understand how limited the SBA’s influence truly is and subsequently couldn’t care less. God bless America…

P.S. You get a taco cart up here for lunch and you’ll win.

Let’s address the last thing first: I was unaware that there were any schools out there still without reliable access to a taco cart. This is America! A taco cart is a law school birthright.

After the jump, we delve into the incredible waterless toilet.

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The IRS Is Still Hiring

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irs new jobs no layoffs.jpgWe have to at least entertain the possibility that the tanking economy could fundamentally change the Biglaw lifestyle that we have come to know and bilk. We could see flat salaries, tepid bonuses, and decreased job security over the next few years. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to break out of the “top school-top firm-top shrink” pipeline?

Enter Don Korb, Chief Counsel of the IRS. As Tax Prof Blog mentioned earlier this week, Korb has been trying to recruit law students to the IRS.

And why not (if you’re into that sort of thing)? Nobody is planning on downsizing the IRS anytime soon. And you will likely get the kind of experience that law firms will respect once they get around to having paying clients again. Korb lays out what the IRS has done for his life in his recruitment brochure:

I have been both an associate and a partner in a law firm, a partner in a Big Six accounting firm, and an Assistant to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Now I’m back leading the Office where I began my legal career. What has stayed with me throughout this journey has been the wonderful foundation in the tax law that I gained during my first stint in the Office of Chief Counsel, an experience that I believe cannot be found anywhere else.

In fact the IRS just reported a 72% job satisfaction rate. Granted, that number is out of all their employees. But go find four random people walking through your office today and ask yourself if three of them are happy.

The pay isn’t great. But it beats the bag out of what you’d get at the unemployment office.

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel — A Great Place to Start Your Tax Career [TaxProf Blog]

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More Advice for Law Students: Don’t Do This

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Paper Chase law school competition.jpgWe recently offered some helpful hints for new law students, distilled from over 200 reader suggestions. We now have an addendum to our list of tips, based on an ill-advised email that found its way into our inbox. Some background:

Today, all members of last year’s Law Review Editorial Board at [George Washington University Law School] — who have since graduated — received the unsolicited mass email (reproduced below) from a current 1L student whom no one knows or has even met….

Talk about a great example of what not to do as a 1L. What a way to endear yourself to your new classmates, not even a month into the school year! Can you say G-U-N-N-E-R?

Check out the Gunner’s email, after the jump.

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Remember This Guy? I Think He’s Still The President.

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Bush war crimes.JPGBack in June, we reported on Massachusetts School of Law at Andover’s intention to plan the prosecution of President Bush for war crimes, via teleconference.
Ignoring the advice of sane people, the unaccredited law school went ahead with their conference, this weekend. Dean of MSL Lawrence Velvel had this to say about President:

He is a former drunk, was a serial failure in business who had to repeatedly be bailed out by daddy’s friends and wanna-be-friends, was unable to speak articulately despite the finest education(s) that money and influence can buy, has a dislike of reading, so that 100-page memos have to be boiled down to one page for him, is heedless of facts and evidence, and appears not even to know the meaning of truth.

Tell us what you really think, Mr. Velvel. But does anything there rise to the level of war crime?
More on the “conference” after the jump

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Stop Screwin’ Around. You Guys Screw Around Too Much

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bc lsa cruise drinking.jpgTomorrow, the law students association at Boston College Law School will host its annual Boston Harbor boat cruise. Most law schools in the greater Boston area do some version of this. I’ve been on many, though I remember none.
But I guess it’s exactly that kind of drunk boat behavior that the BC cruise team are sick of. A tipster sent along sternly worded email in advance of tomorrow night’s festivities:

Unfortunately, over the past several years, we have had some troubling incidents on the boat cruise that have marred this event. These incidents were all caused by excessive alcohol consumption.

Is there any point to being on a boat in the middle of Boston Harbor unless you intend to consume alcohol excessively? It’s not like you can fish, swim, or gamble. What else are you supposed to do?
The email goes on to list specific incidents that have “marred” the boat cruise in the past:

One year, a law student was detained and arrested by the State Police while trying to board the boat while intoxicated. A few years ago, the boat was forced to return to port shortly after leaving dock because of a seriously intoxicated student on the cruise. Last year, there was a fight between two law students and one sustained a serious, and possibly permanent, injury.

As our tipster aptly put it, “I’m still trying to figure out if this was meant as a warning or an advertisement.”
Tickets are still available!
The full email is reprinted after the jump.

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The UPenn Express: J.D./M.B.A. in Just 3 Years

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penn 3 year jd mba madness.JPGThe University of Pennsylvania Law School announced they will begin offering a J.D./M.B.A. program that can be completed in three years.
In order to make it work, Penn will concede a painfully obvious point: one year of law school is really all anybody needs. According to their press release:

Students in the new program will spend the first year in the Law School and the following summer in four Law and Wharton courses designed specifically for the three-year J.D./M.B.A. The second and third years will include a combination of Law and Wharton courses, including capstone courses in the third year and work experience in law, business, finance, or the public sector in the summer between the second and third years.

Applicants will still need to apply to the two schools separately. So, you’ll have to be able to get into Wharton on the strength of that multi-million dollar business you’ve been running out of your treehouse since you were eight.
Penn is not exactly breaking new ground here; Northwestern has been offering a 3-year J.D./M.B.A program for a few years. But maybe Penn just doesn’t fear the purple:

Penn’s three-year J.D./M.B.A. is the country’s first fully integrated three-year program offered by elite law and business schools.

You hear that Kellogg? Penn is calling you out.
Expect U.S. News & World Report’s highly anticipated “Best 3-Year J.D./M.B.A Programs In the Lower 48 States” issue to be coming out soon to help college graduates make a decision.
Penn Law and Wharton Create 3-Year JD/MBA Degree [University of Pennsylvania Law School]

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Advice Round-up: The law school saga begins

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paper chase law school.jpgLast week, we welcomed a new group of 1Ls to the law school fold. As part of the initiation, we asked for tips from readers on how to best tackle the first year of law school. Readers provided lots and lots of good advice. And bad advice. And healthy debate about which outlines to use. And many exhortations to “quit now,” before major student loan debt is incurred.
For those 1Ls who have dismissed the naysayers, we’d advise reading through the comments, and ignoring all the “run for your life” stuff. In case you’re already immersed in fact patterns and footnotes, here’s a quick round-up of the advice proffered.
The #1 Piece of Advice: “Grades. Grades. Grades. Grades. If you want Biglaw, clerkships, or top-shelf government work, GRADES.” and “Get good grades, especially If you don’t go to a top school. Grades in law school matter, big time.”
Recommended reading:
Con Law – Chemerinsky
Contracts – Chirelstein
CivPro – Glannon
Legal Writing – Volokh
School tips:
-”Don’t join a study group. They are time wasters.”
-”Take practice exams. Talk to your professors about them. Take more. Practice exams. Practice exams.”
-”If you don’t make Law Review, do another journal or moot court as a 2L and be sure to have some ‘other activity’ you enjoy outside of class as a go to answer during OCIs.”
-”Participate in the writing competition for the journals.”
-Take notes by hand, or, if you’re laptop-dependent, disconnect from the Internet while in class.
Lifestyle tips:
-”Never pay for your own lunch. There is always free pizza to be had at lunch time if you look hard enough.”
-”The law is a human endeavor, directed at regulating human conflict and most other human endeavors, so try being a human being and not an a**hole.”
-”Don’t use student loan money to make investments in the securities markets with the thinking that you can get a better rate of return than the interest on the loan that you will one day repay.”
-”Don’t have sex with classmates until your second year.”

That’s not an exhaustive list, but we hope it helps. If you’re still all in, good luck!
Earlier: The law school saga begins (Or, Tips for 1Ls)

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Prof Wars: $600K To Teach Corporations?

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yale poaching profs 600K.jpgI guess the market for law school professors is recession-proof. Stephen Bainbridge has it that Yale offfered a $600,000 poaching fee to secure a Harvard Law School corporate professor. Didn’t Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh read our coverage of Bill Henderson’s empirical evidence proving that Yale will be safe at the top for the rest of the Holocene epoch? Did they really need to spend $600K to prove a point?
And why are law school professors pulling down more than half a million anyway? Sure, communicating high concepts of legal import is a neat party trick, but can they redline a contract against a standard template at 2 a.m. with all the verb tenses in perfect agreement? I don’t think so.
Who do you think is the most overvalued generously compensated law professor in the U.S.? And what does (s)he teach? Guesses are welcome in the comments.
Keep in mind, we are talking about full-time positions. As Paul Caron points out, via David Rifkin, adjunct faculty can easily make more than $600K simply by ordering around an army of associates.
If you want to get in on this gravy train, check out PrawfsBlawg’s hiring thread.
Law Professor Salaries [Business Associations Blog]
$600k for a Tax Prof? [TaxProf Blog]
A law school hiring thread: 2008-09 [PrawfsBlawg]

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