Law School Admission Council

It's amazing how far this nonprofit has come. Great work!

Thanks a bunch, COVID-19.

Don’t just tell us what can’t be done. Tell us what can be done and how to do it.

Yikes! How many times can pre-law students take the test now?

The future is here for prospective law students.

2018 may be the year that applicants finally return, and recovery for law schools truly begins.

* What’s behind the Supreme Court’s sluggish pace, and does Justice Gorsuch have anything to do with it? Only 18 rulings have been sloooooowly handed down so far this Term, and the world is still waiting for decisions to be made in some of the high court’s most contentious cases. [Reuters]

* House Republicans are so pissed the DOJ failed to comply with a subpoena deadline to turn over more than a million documents related to investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails, alleged FISA abuses, and Andrew McCabe’s firing that there’s a “growing consensus” Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein could be held in contempt of Congress — or even impeached. [Washington Examiner]

* There may be a law school brain drain when it comes to a lack of applications from students at top undergraduate institutions, but the Law School Admission Council is reporting that the number of applicants with LSAT scores of 160 or higher is up by 21 percent since last year. We’ll have more on this interesting news later. [Law.com]

* In case you missed it, with an average deal size was $3.7 billion and a market share of about 24 percent, Skadden came out on top of Bloomberg’s law firm league table for global M&A deal volume in 2018’s first quarter. Congratulations! [Big Law Business]

* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal services industry added 400 jobs between February and March. The entire profession now ranges from 1.2 to 1.3 million jobs, down from pre-recession highs of 1.8 million jobs. Sorry, but after about a decade, it’s looking like those jobs may be lost forever. [American Lawyer]

* “The chief justice, in particular, doesn’t like the court to be a disruptive force,” but that might change this spring as the Supreme Court considers reversing at least three of its longstanding precedents. Trashing precedents could potentially become much easier now that Justice Gorsuch is here. [USA Today]

* Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave partners are voting on their proposed transatlantic merger, and the results are expected by the end of the month. If the tie-up is approved, BCLP — the combined firm’s new name — will be a billion-dollar firm with 1,500 lawyers and 32 offices in 12 countries. [Law.com]

* Charles Harder, the lawyer who brought down Gawker and now represents Donald Trump and members of his family, is experiencing some growing pains at his firm thanks to his presidential representation. Name partner Douglas Mirell just quit because of his “pledge to protect the First Amendment.” [The Recorder]

* New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a civil rights suit against the Weinstein Company and its founders, alleging that they “repeatedly and persistently treated female employees less well than male-employees through gender-based hostile workplace harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and discrimination.” [Variety]

* In an effort to increase diversity, LSAC will be awarding a total of $1.5 million to five law schools so they can hold Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars programs on their campuses. Akron, Alabama, Duke, Houston, and St. John’s will each receive these grants to convince college students to enroll. [Black Enterprise]

* Congratulations to Charleston Law’s National Tax Moot Court team, which just clinched its seventh championship title in a row. It’s nice to know that students were able to rise above the school’s designation as one of the “least selective law schools in the country” to create a tax law dynasty. [Post and Courier]

* Remember the former Ulta employee who accused the beauty retailer of reselling used products as new? Now a concerned customer has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit over the store’s “widespread and surreptitious practice” of allegedly repackaging and selling returned products. [Chicago Tribune]

Law school is so awesome now!

Pre-law students are still *really* eager to take the LSAT.

Fewer applicants on top of horrible LSAT scores? Uh-oh...

Whoa. This is a fantastic development.

* In the event that the election ends in a deadlock, will the Supreme Court be able to resolve the dispute even though the highest court in the land is currently split 4-4 down ideological lines? No one knows, and that’s “[one] hell of a scary thought.” Not to worry, because there’s a “low probability” that the Supreme Court would have to decide the winner of the 2016 election — “[b]ut if it does happen, it surely won’t be good.” How comforting! [POLITICO]

* The Supreme Court refused to step into a legal battle between the Ohio Democratic Party and the Trump campaign over voter harassment with no dissents, save for a comment from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who noted that because she was “mindful” of existing Ohio law prohibiting voter intimidation, she was denying the request. Thanks to the Notorious RBG for the reminder not to participate in illegal activities. [Slate]

* Martin Shkreli thinks he’s going to be able to clear his name by forcing Katten Muchin to turn over three years’ worth of documents from the time the firm represented him, with his new attorneys claiming he acted in good faith because he “sought and received his lawyers’ advice and he followed it.” The firm isn’t thrilled about the prospect of having to hand over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. [Big Law Business]

* The institution formerly known as the South Texas College of Law has unveiled yet another new name after being enjoined from using the name Houston College of Law. The school will now be known as the South Texas College of Law Houston. Your tuition dollars at work: It seems like the school wasted an incredible amount of money to come up with a name substantially similar to its original name. Congrats? [Houston Chronicle]

* The Law School Admission Council recently published a report on the different methods test-takers used to prepare for the LSAT, and it seems that the biggest ground-breaking takeaway from the data is that those who actually studied scored much better on the exam than those who did not. In addition, those who used official LSAC materials and commercial preparation courses fared better than self-studiers. [U.S. News]

* “If the LSAC is willing to include GRE scores in the [credential assembly services], then this may be an easy way for the LSAC to continue to certify the accuracy of standardized test scores reported to law schools.” In response to the tantrum LSAC threw over the future certification of LSAT scores, Educational Testing Service, the organization that administers the GRE, has offered to share its exam results with LSAC. [ABA Journal]

* “It is time for the ABA to catch up.” The hotly contested rule proposed by the American Bar Association that would make behavior “[a] lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination” a form of professional misconduct was “resoundingly adopted” by the House of Delegates earlier this week. Well done, ABA. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Sorry, investment advisers, you make think it’s “unfair,” but according to a recent decision from a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial in-house courts are constitutionally sound because the agency’s ALJs don’t make “final” decisions on behalf of the SEC. [Big Law Business]

* Husch Blackwell, which completed a combination with Whyte Hirschboeck in the middle of last month, now not only has bragging rights on finalizing the largest law firm merger of 2016, but it can also claim to have one of the largest real estate practices in the entire country. Congratulations on all of your success! [Midwest Real Estate News]

* Who are eight of the most impressive graduates of Columbia Law School? Would you be surprised to learn that the list includes two former presidents, two Supreme Court justices (one of whom has a law school named after him), a U.S. Attorney General, and various political figures? If you’re interested, check out the list here. [Business Insider]

Another development in the ongoing fight between LSAC and Arizona Law School.

* “None of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone they are not.” The Justice Department and North Carolina have traded dueling pleadings over HB2, the so-called “bathroom bill.” AG Loretta Lynch’s press conference announcing the DOJ countersuit was nothing short of awe-inspiring. [New York Times]

* Just one week after threatening to strip Arizona Law from access to its law school applications and admissions clearinghouse, the Law School Admission Council is backing down, saying it will “maintain the status quo” until the ABA makes a decision on the validity of the GRE over the LSAT as a law school entrance exam. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “On behalf of the Section of Family Law, we pose the following question: WHAT PART OF ‘NO!’ DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?” Lawyers are still deeply opposed to non-lawyer ownership of and investment in law firms, and they’re apparently not afraid to stand up and let the ABA know how they really feel about it. [On the Case / Reuters]

* After only two days of trial, a judge has dismissed the ultra-salacious case filed by Manuela Herzer challenging 92-year-old Sumner Redstone’s mental competence. The media mogul’s lawyers now intend to sue Herzer and another of his former flames to recover $150 million in cash and gifts he gave to them. [Los Angeles Times; Variety]

* “Thank you, Mr. Boies, that was an unadulterated pleasure.” You might have missed the finale of The Good Wife this weekend, but this Biglaw celebrity made time to appear on the show for a cameo role as himself. David Boies of Boies Schiller appeared as an expert witness for about 30 seconds in the first half of the episode. [Big Law Business]

Opening up law school to students who are not motivated to take the LSAT opens up the number of students who may unwittingly sign up for three years of staggering debt against the backdrop of a wilting job market.

Arizona Law might get booted from the LSAC club.

* Arizona Law’s plans to scrap the LSAT in favor of the GRE has angered the Law School Admission Council terribly. In fact, LSAC’s general counsel says the school’s new policy may violate the organization’s bylaws, so it may boot Arizona Law from its membership, thereby cutting the school out of its applications and admissions clearinghouse. We’ll have more on this news later today. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* Tom Brady of the New England Patriots hasn’t filed an appeal of the Second Circuit’s reinstatement of his four-game suspension yet, but you can bet your ass that it’s coming soon, because the quarterback just made the ultimate Hail Mary legal hire by adding Ted Olson to his team of lawyers. Sports fans can look forward to a bid for an en banc Second Circuit hearing, or even a possible flea flicker to the Supreme Court. [NBC Sports]

* “Republicans haven’t been satisfied to simply hobble the court’s ability to function. In recent weeks, they have gone to remarkable lengths to impugn the integrity of the justices and thus the legitimacy of the court.” The New York Times Editorial Board has a piece that essentially begs Republicans to stop their shenanigans, give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing, and “rescue the Supreme Court from limbo.” [New York Times]

* Law firm merger mania is already in full bloom this spring, but which Biglaw firm was one of the first to bite the bullet? It looks like it’s Husch Blackwell, which is merging with Milwaukee-based Whyte Hirschboek Dudek, effective July 1. The combined firm will have more than 700 attorneys, 19 offices, and it will likely be among the country’s 100 top-grossing law firms. We hope redundancy layoffs won’t follow. [Journal-Sentinel]

* “We respect other professors’ point of view, but it’s less than (8 percent) of the academic faculty.” Some professors are outraged over Mason Law being renamed after the late Justice Antonin Scalia, but the university isn’t budging, and plans to stick with its new name since administrators “believe that the Antonin Scalia Law School, once it’s approved, will be one of the top law schools in the country.” [Big Law Business]

* Law students, you make think you know what a gunner is, but you haven’t met this prodigy yet. Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed will be the first student to attend the University of Southern Florida College of Medicine and the Stetson University College of Law at the same time. If you hurry, you may be able to convince this genius to join your study group. You’ll surely be the envy of all of your new friends. [ABC Action News]

You’re a monster, LSAT Grinch! Which would-be law students will be affected by the missing LSAT answer sheets?