SMU Dedman School of Law

SMU Law Dean Knew About Terrible Job Market in 2008: But Did He Tell Anybody?

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SMU Law Dean John Attanasio

Students at the SMU Dedman School of Law are having a tough time securing jobs. Not shocking, I know. (But please send us your thoughts on how recruiting is going, or text us at 646-820-TIPS.)

The legal job market has been so bad for so long that it hardly even feels like news when we get more information that stinks.

But the terrible legal economy apparently counted as “emergency” news to the students at SMU. At least, that’s how the dean sees it. Students report that Dean John B. Attanasio called an emergency meeting last week to update students about the job market.

UPDATE: SMU sources now report that it wasn’t an “emergency” meeting, but a mandatory graduation meeting.

During the meeting, the dean revealed that he saw the terrible legal economy coming as far back as 2008. Which makes you wonder why he didn’t call such a meeting back in 2008…

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SMU Will Pay You To Hire Their Graduates

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It was only a matter of time.

SMU Dedman School of Law is now officially willing to pay law firms to hire its graduates. The school is calling its new program “Test Drive,” which adds a nice layer of hilarity: Toyota wouldn’t pay me to test drive a Camry.

Even the logo for this program screams sadness:

Let’s look at the blast email from SMU career services…

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Career Alternatives for Attorneys: CEO

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Good news for general counsel who dream of one day sitting in the king’s seat: the ABA Magazine says there is a new trend of corporations tapping lawyers to become top executives:

Nine of the Fortune 50 companies now have a lawyer as chief executive, up from three just a decade ago. In December, Bank of America and Continental Airlines became the two most recent publicly traded corporations to do so. Also in 2009, Citigroup named Richard Parsons, another lawyer, as its chairman, which is separate from the CEO.

Business leaders and corporate headhunters agree that the JD is once again an alternative to the MBA as the degree of choice for CEO candidates, and that the trend is very likely to increase over the next decade.

Woo-hoo. Maybe law school grads will start kicking biz school grads to the curb. Vanderbilt’s management school dean goes so far as to call the J.D. a “renaissance degree.”

According to the ABA Magazine, one law school is particularly successful in sending its grads off to lead a company instead of doing bet-the-company work….

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SMU Law Grad Morphs Into Anti-Abortion Warrior

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Erlyndon Joseph Lo, 27, graduated from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2007. Lo is a devout Catholic and has been using his knowledge of the law to fight abortion.

We must add that his knowledge of the law appears to be shaky.

In March, he sued the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to render abortion illegal. He also asked for $999 trillion in damages and $1,000/hour for attorney’s fees. According to his website:

The “CAUSE STYLE:” is ERLYNDON J. LO V. ROBERTS, ET AL. (This is a class action lawsuit, with me versus the 9 members of the Supreme Court.) This cause of action (lawsuit) will take place in the “UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS”. Ultimately, I will win this case without any doubt.

While that case is pending, Lo decided to take another legal action on Friday: seeking a restraining order against police as he planned to use “deadly force” against an abortion clinic that afternoon…

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