Later this year, Above the Law will be launching a new, expanded Career Center. The new Career Center will be a resource for students and lawyers at all stages of their careers, and in all areas of legal practice (i.e., not just Biglaw). But we can be sure that news and insight into life at […]
[A] law school could literally burn a huge sum of money and, as long as the flames were meant to teach something to the students — the craziness of the U.S. News algorithm, perhaps? — the school would benefit in the rankings. — New York Times journalist David Segal, responding to a reader’s question in […]
Legal work isn’t slowing down, and the firms that win won’t be the ones working harder — they’ll be the ones working smarter.
You know things are bad when U.S. News, the Holy Grail for students trying to figure out where to go to law school, is writing articles about all of the non-law-related jobs recent graduates are taking just to get by. Everybody who is in law school knows how difficult the job market is. But U.S. News is giving this sobering message about "non-traditional" legal careers to people who have not yet signed up for their own financial doom. And it turns out that even going to a highly-ranked school doesn't save you from having awful job choices....
* Now that DADT has been repealed, the Ninth Circuit has tossed the Log Cabin Republicans case. How does that Paula Abdul song go? Two steps forward, two steps back? [Los Angeles Times] * Is this a new way of protecting taxpayers? In early 2012, Bank of America is going to start charging $5 a […]
* Bob Morse announces that new jobs data may be used to change the methodology for calculating law school employment rates. Because Bob Morse has to do the ABA’s job for them. HIYOOOO! [U.S. News & World Report] * And speaking of employment (or lack thereof), it looks like UDel and SUNY Stony Brook have […]
All right folks, graduation is upon us. If you are a 3L who did not secure a post-graduate legal job, I’m sorry. Your life isn’t over, but law school didn’t work out as well for you as you might have hoped. At least not yet. Not that your law schools want anybody to know that. […]
Law firms and legal departments are writing the future of the profession in separate rooms. What happens when they actually work together?
On Monday, we talked about the big New York Times article over the weekend about the way law schools use merit-based scholarships to rope students in. When discussing the need to give out scholarships, the Times cites some very familiar language about how fixation on the U.S. News rankings guides the decisionmaking processes of many […]
Many people, especially law school administrators, bemoan the U.S. News law school rankings. Sure, they have their pedagogical reasons for hating the rankings, but there are larger issues here. When schools drop in the rankings, heads tend to roll. Of course, law schools deans rarely admit they were ousted because of the U.S. News. But […]
I graduated from Northwestern Law in 2009. It is now 2011, my loans are coming due (real due — not the fake, put ‘em in forebearance, due of yesteryear), and I am currently “employed” doing two things: reviewing documents at an embarrassing hourly wage on projects that start and stop without any sort of consistency, […]
Now is the season when law school applicants, having received their admission and rejection letters, need to make up their minds about where to attend law school (or if they want to go at all). We’ve received a number of inquiries from anxious 0Ls seeking advice about whether to matriculate at School X or School […]
With the addition of Uncover’s technology, the litigation software is delivering rapid innovation.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a seemingly endless stream of law school rankings. For example: the best law schools overall, according to U.S. News & World Report; the best law schools for getting rich (i.e., ranked by graduates’ median compensation); the best law schools according to law firm hiring partners; and the best […]
And now things get interesting. As we continue to run through the U.S. News 2012 law school rankings, we get to a crucial set of schools. The schools in this batch are certainly top tier, but they’re not “top 14”; for the most part, though, they charge like top 14 schools (especially the private ones). […]
* Were you skeptical of all the law schools reporting to U.S. News that the median private-sector starting salary for their graduates is $160,000? Forbes explains why your skepticism is warranted. [Forbes via Constitutional Daily] * On a related note, if you want to be a millionaire, you should definitely go to college. Law school? […]
Welcome Texas! As you are all know, the University of Texas School of Law has moved into the “top 14” in this year’s U.S. News law school rankings. It’s a bit of cheat for U.S. News: Texas is technically tied for 14th, which means that the magazine has actually managed to cram 15 schools into […]
* Gloria Allred is tired of Lindsay Lohan strutting her stuff into the courtroom like a debutante instead of a defendant. Chill out, Gloria. At least it’s actually LiLo’s stuff, unless that silicone was stolen, too. [New York Times] * The ABA is thinking up ways for law schools to more creatively rig their nine-months-after-graduation […]