University of Florida Levin College of Law

Comparing the Law Schools of the South

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This is the fourth in a series of posts looking at how law schools in specific markets stack up based on the results of our ATL Insider Survey. As we’ve often noted, very few law schools are truly national institutions. Typically, the majority of graduates don’t stray too far from their alma maters, so the strongest network will be local, for local jobs. It’s to your advantage to go to school where you want to practice, sometimes even more so than going to a higher-ranked school.

In recent weeks, we’ve looked at our survey results pertaining to Chicago, Boston, and New York-area law schools. We examined how current law students rate their schools in terms of academics, career counseling, financial aid advising, practical/clinical training, and social life.

Today, we turn to our broadest geographic region yet: the South (the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Louisiana). Read on to see how schools in the region compare….

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Quote of the Day: A (Chicken)Pox on Your Law School!

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Chickenpox does not discriminate.

– Diane Webb, a registered nurse specialist, commenting on the likelihood of student infection after news of a chickenpox outbreak at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

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When It Comes to Hiring SCOTUS Clerks, Clarence Thomas Doesn’t Care About the U.S. News Rankings

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In early 2010, we reported that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told law students at the University of Florida that he was displeased when he found out that his October Term 2008 clerks — who hailed from George Mason, Rutgers, George Washington, and Creighton law schools — were being referred to as “TTT” by the internet’s “self-proclaimed smart bloggers.” (And just as we did in 2010, we’ll again remind our readers that such a label didn’t come from Above the Law editors; we adore SCOTUS clerks, no matter their alma mater.)

On Friday, Justice Thomas again spoke to students at UF Law, and reiterated his prior thoughts on Ivy League bias in the hiring of The Elect. Though Thomas is a graduate of Yale Law School himself, he’s an equal opportunity justice in that he much prefers to choose his clerks from the ranks of the non-Ivies.

Let’s check out some additional thoughts from Justice Thomas on clerkship hiring, how he’d like his epitaph to be worded, and the most important decision the court has made since he was sworn in….

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Florida Law Professor Allegedly Victimized In Hate Crime

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Sometimes bad things happen on campus and the administration tries to cover it up and pretend like everything is swell and ugliness does not exist.

This is not one of those times.

At the University of Florida Levin College of Law, a law professor appears to have been the victim of a hate crime. Upon learning of the issue, the dean of the law school condemned the action in the strongest language possible and asked any student with knowledge of the events to come forward and inform the authorities.

It’s really the only appropriate response for a school to have in a situation like this…

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Icy Details Emerge From Debtor/Murder Suspect Jason Bohn

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Jason Bohn

As we mentioned in Morning Docket, there have been developments, many of them horrifying, in the Jason Bohn investigation.

Bohn was featured in the New York Times for the massive debts he collected from the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. He is now suspected of murdering his girlfriend, Danielle Thomas, in their Queens apartment.

Following a six-day manhunt, Bohn was apprehended late Friday night while having dinner with his mother and his lawyer in White Plains. Police claim that Bohn left some really disturbing notes strewn around his apartment that attest to his alleged crime…

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Debt-Laden Law Grad Featured in NYT Article on Perils of Law School Suspected of Murder

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In 2011, the New York Times ran a series of interesting and widely-read articles written by David Segal about the perils of going to law school, and for the first time, it seemed as if the general public was willing to acknowledge the truths that law bloggers had trumpeted over the internet for years prior.

Segal’s first article in the series profiled several law school graduates living under the burden of soul-crushing student loan debt. Just a year later, one of those debt-ridden law grads has made headlines again, but not in the most favorable way.

Carrying six figures of student loan debt? Check. Condemned to temp work? Check. Being accused of murder? Priceless….

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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 Students of the Day: Two Gators Take a Bite Out of Crime

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Vigilante justice in the Sunshine State isn’t getting a great rap right now. The tragic killing of Trayon Martin by a community watch participant, George Zimmerman, has raised serious questions about Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law (and also caused headaches for Hollywood).

But sometimes — perhaps most of the time? — alert and engaged citizens are a good thing. Today we bring you the happy and heartwarming story of two Florida law students who helped apprehend a fugitive from justice.

How did they do it? Through keen observation and quick thinking….

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Here Comes the Bride: Stunt Woman Turned Lawyer Featured on ‘Say Yes to the Dress’

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If you’re a bride-to-be — and let’s face it, even if you’re not — you’ve probably seen at least a few episodes of TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress. The show features the goings-on at Kleinfeld, one of the premier bridal salons in New York City, where staff members assist brides in their quest to find the perfect wedding dress.

Imagine our surprise when we tuned in to watch the show, and caught a glimpse of a beautiful lawyer searching for a wedding gown. But this was not just any lawyer — this lawyer used to have an action-packed career as a stunt woman. These days, though, she gets all of her action inside of a courtroom.

So who is this stunt woman turned lawyer? Why did she decide to make such a drastic career change? And how did she snag her husband, the general counsel to a Fortune 500 company?

All of this and more, including some glamorous wedding photos, after the jump….

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Because Sometimes You Just Need to Rap About the Law

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It’s the end of October, and you know what that means: law school finals are lurking. As law students begin to hunker down and make sweet, sweet love to their outlines and flashcards, others are busy thinking up more clever ways to study the same materials.

Visual learners think that drawing pictures will help them cram especially boring law into their brains, but those in the auditory learning crowd know better. And that’s why one law student is writing rap songs about the most boring law of all, Sarbanes-Oxley….

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