Stanford Law School

The Law Clerk Hiring Plan, R.I.P.

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Last year, the law clerk application process was chaotic — perhaps even more chaotic than usual. The disarray even made the pages of the New York Times.

One of the driving factors behind the chaos was the growing number of judges who do not follow the Law Clerk Hiring Plan (hereinafter “the Plan”). Of course, the Plan is entirely voluntary, as certain judges like to emphasize. But following it — at least by a critical mass of judges, especially feeder judges on the Second Circuit and the D.C. Circuit — can provide some measure of order to an otherwise shambolic process.

This year, look for the disorder to grow. At least two top law schools are not following the Plan….

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Law School Success Stories: High Risk, High Reward

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Last month, in the inaugural post in our series of Law School Success Stories, we focused on the theme of “the value of thrift.” We outlined a “low risk” approach to law school, profiling happy law school graduates who secured their law degrees without going into excessive debt — under $50K upon graduation, which is the recommendation of Professor Brian Tamanaha, author of a new book (affiliate link) about reforming legal education.

Today we’re going to cover the flip side: the “high risk, high reward” approach to legal education. In some ways this is a dangerous theme. The promise of Biglaw bucks is the siren song that leads many to crash on the rocks of joblessness and crippling debt (as Will Meyerhofer discussed earlier today).

Some law schools clearly exaggerate the ability of a legal education to increase a person’s career prospects and earning potential. But for some subset of law students, however small, law school does turn out to be a golden ticket. Their numbers might be inflated, but they do exist. Law school has allowed these individuals to increase their incomes dramatically. And — shocker! — many of these J.D. holders actually enjoy their lucrative new jobs.

Read about a young woman who went from being a secretary to having a secretary — along with a six-figure paycheck. Meet a young man with a rather unmarketable undergraduate degree who now, thanks to law school, makes bank in New York City.

Here’s another way of describing today’s success stories: “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you….”

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Law Revue Video Contest: Dishonorable Mentions

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We started taking submissions for our fourth annual Law Revue Video Contest at the end of March, and now, just two weeks later, we’re ready to pass judgment upon the funny videos submitted by our wonderful readers.

This year, 23 law schools submitted 31 videos for the contest. Some of them were funny, some of them were “meh,” and some of them made us want to cry.

As usual, we’re going to be starting with the videos that made us want to close our heads inside of our laptops. And because I am one bad-ass bitch, I’ve been selected to critique them. Aww, don’t worry, I’ll try to be gentle.

The commenters, on the other hand… Let’s face it, your submission earned you a spot in the dishonorable mentions category. You kind of brought this upon yourselves, so get out the lube, because this might hurt….

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What Happens When Elite Law School Deans Go Out To Stud

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At Stanford they make stallions.

We reported last night that Larry Kramer will be leaving the deanship of Stanford Law School to assume the presidency of the Hewlett Foundation. We join others in congratulating Dean Kramer for an outstanding tenure at Stanford Law, and we wish him the best of luck in his new endeavor.

An endeavor that will undoubtedly net him a boatload of philanthropic money.

But we can’t leave the Stanford story without pausing to ask: “Why now? And why Hewlett?” Perhaps the afore-speculated boatload of cash has something to do with it. But surely Kramer was going to have a soft landing made entirely of green linen waiting for him whenever he decided to leave.

With Stanford Law just rising to #2 in the U.S. News law school rankings, some in the SLS community thought this would be a time for Kramer to savor his success, not leave the school he has helped build up….

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Larry Kramer Is Stepping Down as Dean of Stanford Law School

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We have just learned that Larry Kramer, Dean of Stanford Law School, will be stepping down from his post at the end of August. Kramer took the top job at Stanford Law in 2004 and helped lead Stanford to overtake Harvard for the #2 spot in the U.S. News law school rankings just a few short weeks ago.

He is leaving his position in order to become president of the Hewlett Foundation, a grant-making organization focused on social and environmental problems. According to his statement to the Stanford Law community, Kramer does plan to continue teaching at the school.

I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more about this in the next few days. For the time being, check out Dean Kramer’s statement, after the jump.

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Adderall Abuse At Stanford Law School? Only If You Look Really Close.

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It’s probably the Harvard in me that makes me want to subconsciously disparage the accomplishments of Stanford Law School whenever it bubbles up to number 2 in the U.S. News Law School Rankings.

But maybe we’ve got evidence on just how Stanford was able to jump ahead of HLS this year. A tipster reports that there’s an Adderall epidemic at Stanford Law. He says there might be an “Adderall ring” at the law school.

Maybe. Or maybe one pill fell on the ground…

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How Stanford Law School Could Cut Tuition and Save the World

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There goes my hero…

Law school students are becoming more and more vocal about the myriad unresolved problems with the law school industry. Things are getting so bad that yesterday, a Rutgers student (and former Navy SEAL) got into a shouting match with Governor Chris Christie about the Rutgers merger drama.

Something has got to break soon. Right?

If Above the Law’s 2011 Lawyer of the Year Paul Campos has anything to say about it, the answer is a definite “yes.” And he has a drastic idea for fixing what he would call the “law school scam.” It all starts at Stanford University, where he visited earlier this week to talk about his idea.

What did Professor Campos have to say? Does “30 percent unilateral tuition cut” mean anything to you?

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ATL Survey Update: Great Unmet Expectations

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... to take a survey.

Yesterday, David Lat took a detailed look at the National Law Journal’s newly released list of “go-to” law schools — the ones placing the highest percentage of their 2011 graduates in Biglaw. Of course congratulations are due to Penn and Northwestern and the other schools whose graduates are still landing associate positions. But the real news is how seriously discouraging the NLJ data is. We all know the legal job market is tough, yet Bruce MacEwen’s observation that 85% of law schools give students a worse than 10% chance of getting a job in Biglaw still manages to startle.

Our ongoing ATL School & Firm Insider Survey (take it here!), asks current law students, among other things, “What do you expect to do after you graduate?” A whopping 71% tell us that they expect to work for a firm. (This percentage was consistent across class years.) That this proportion is so high, and so at odds with the NLJ findings, can mean some combination of two things:

  • The ATL student readership skews heavily toward that minority of students who will actually snag Biglaw gigs.
  • Many (if not most) expectations of law firm employment will be dashed against the reality of a contracting job market. In other words, a majority of students think they are in the fortunate minority

After the jump, we’ll look at how wide the gap between student expectation and market reality is, even at the “go-to” schools:

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Administrative Law for All at Yale!

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Yesterday we covered a controversy at Yale Law School over an Administrative Law class with an oversubscription problem. The course, taught by visiting Stanford law professor Daniel Ho, wound up with a waitlist of about 100 students.

Some 3Ls who were denied admission into the class were quite upset, since this represented their last chance to take Admin Law. The situation was described to us as a “near riot.” As a tipster noted, “Only at YLS could students get this bent out of shape about not being let into a black letter law class.”

This morning we bring you an update to this story — which has a happy ending, we’re pleased to report….

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On the Real Differences Between Law Schools

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In a few weeks, we’ll start hearing from prospective law students — i.e., 0Ls — who are already reading Above the Law (smart kids!), and who consult us for advice when choosing between law schools (not such smart kids). Last year, for example, we advised students choosing between such fine law schools as Illinois, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Northwestern, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, and Minnesota (with help from you, our readers; we hosted several reader polls pitting the schools against one another).

When I was a college senior choosing between law schools, I did not employ a very sophisticated approach. I simply picked the law school I got into that was highest in the U.S. News law school rankings.

Even though I have no regrets about my law school pick, my decisionmaking process wasn’t very sound. There are real differences between law schools, in terms of their educational programming, their cost to the student, their location (hai Stanford!), and a whole host of other factors.

Today’s story provides an illustration of the phenomenon. Right now, students at one top law school are in a “near riot” — our tipster’s words, not ours — because they feel they’re being denied the education they’re paying so dearly for….

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