Widener Law School

  • Morning Docket: 08.18.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.18.16

    * A Brazilian judge ordered that Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen surrender their passports and remain in Rio until investigators can determine whether they filed a false police report of being robbed at gunpoint. There’s one problem: Lochte is back in America. Jeah! [USA Today]

    * As we mentioned yesterday, according to NALP, law school graduates in the class of 2015 landed fewer jobs in private practice than any other class in the past 20 years. There is a bright side, though: Biglaw firms are hiring in droves and the median starting salary for new lawyers has risen to $100,000, which is 5 percent higher than it was for the class of 2014. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Graduates who sued Widener Law in 2012 over the school’s allegedly deceptive employment statistics lost a federal appeal to overturn a denial of class certification. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit — one which included Donald Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry — rejected a class-wide theory of damages. [Law.com]

    * Legal ethics professor Ronald Rotunda of Chapman Law wrote an op-ed striking out against the ABA’s adoption of a new professional misconduct rule which seeks to combat discrimination and bias in the law. He refers to the new rule as a misguided “foray into political correctness,” and thinks the ABA overstepped its bounds. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * “At best he was doing something profundity stupid with the hopes of meeting someone he will never get to meet in his lifetime.” A lawyer for Stephen Rogata, the teen who scaled Trump Tower, says her client should receive psychiatric treatment instead of jail time. He’s being held on $10,000 bail bond or $5,000 cash. [New York Daily News]

  • Morning Docket: 04.22.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.22.16

    * Prince will forever be remembered as a pioneering musician who mastered multiple genres, including rock, soul, pop, and funk, but members of the legal profession will always remember him as a ferocious defender of his music’s copyright protections. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Per a recent study that’s being referred to as the Glass Ceiling report, Wall Street Biglaw firms rarely promote women to partner. In fact, out of the 8,549 attorneys practicing at the 300 large law firms surveyed, only 3.9 percent are female partners. [Law360 (sub. req.) via ABA Journal]

    * Hunton & Williams recently launched a new practice group dedicated to dealing with legal issues related to 3D printing. The innovative team will work on legal questions involving everything from intellectual property and product liability to insurance and tax. The firm now joins Reed Smith in this unique practice area. [3DPrint.com]

    * Anna Alaburda’s case against Thomas Jefferson Law over its allegedly deceptive employment statistics may have ended in defeat, but there’s still one more law school lawsuit fighting its way through the courts. A case that was filed against Widener Law was appealed to the Third Circuit, and a decision is expected soon. [News Journal]

    * Thanks to a ruling issued by Judge John A. Ross of the Eastern District of Missouri, the 42 lead plaintiffs in the Ashley Madison privacy hack case will not be allowed to proceed anonymously. It may be embarrassing, but as class representatives, they’ve got special roles. They must identify themselves, or proceed as mere class members. [Reuters]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 07.07.15

    * Vikram Amar, the incoming dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, says that he demanded a pay cut before taking the job to help make legal education more affordable for students. The piddling amount of money he’ll be sacrificing will absolutely infuriate you. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * When law firms break up and partners attack, it can sometimes be pretty entertaining (and a little sad, all at the same time). In this case, former partners have accused each other of being mentally unstable and going online shopping for hours instead of practicing law. [Daily Business Review]

    * In case you don’t remember the law school lawsuits about deceptive employment stats, some of them are still alive and kicking. One of the last surviving suits against Widener Law was recently denied class certification. [New Jersey Law Journal via ABA Journal]

    * Per Altman Weil MergerLine, 2015 is on pace to be a record year for law firm mergers. Statements like this have been made since the recession, but this time, it’s the highest number of mergers recorded in the company’s history. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]

    * According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector lost 800 jobs in June. That’s not exactly a comforting thought for those of you who are studying for the bar exam and don’t have a job lined up yet. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

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  • Cocaine / Crack, Crime, Drugs, LSAT, Non-Sequiturs, Racism, Rudeness, Trials, Violence

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.11.12

    * Stab your lawyer with a pencil once, shame on you. Stab him a second time, shame on me. Stab him a third time, they will strap you to your chair with a “stun cuff” so it doesn’t happen a fourth time. [Legal Blog Watch] * (Crack) cocaine is a hell of a drug. [Legal Juice] * A first-person account of why you don’t ever, ever want to end up in central booking. [The Crown] * Telling opposing counsel you hope she “sleep[s] with the fishes” is mean and inappropriate. But on top of that, what the heck do you even stand to gain from saying that sort of thing? [Minneapolis StarTribune] * If you want to complain about racial profiling at airports, there’s an app for that! [Prawfsblawg] * To catch (an alleged) law school predator. Icky. [Delaware Online] * Seriously? This “Is it Kanye or the LSAT?” quiz is surprisingly tricky. [LSAT Blog]
  • Bar Exams, Law Schools, LSAT, Rankings

    Best Law Schools For Helping Poor LSAT Performers Pass The Bar

    National Jurist came out with a very interesting ranking of law schools. The publication looked at schools that helped people pass the bar despite their low LSAT scores. While poor performance on the LSAT doesn't necessarily mean the student is dumb, it almost certainly means the students is bad at taking standardized tests. If schools have students who go from being bad at taking a relatively easy standardized test (the LSAT) to passing one of the hardest and most stressful standardized tests out there (the bar exam), it sounds a lot like they are educating people. But, should the law school get the credit for the success?
  • Food, Job Searches, Law Schools

    Once You Pop, You Can't Stop: New Law School Job Post Borders on Absurd

    Here at Above the Law, we write all the time about crappy law job postings. We recently received word about a law school career services job posting that was so horrendous, so ridiculous, that we could not help ourselves but to write about it. After all, writing about crappy law jobs is like opening a can of Pringles: once you pop, you can't stop. And this job -- well, let's just say that it takes the cake, or the potato chip, as the case may be....
  • Biglaw, Constitutional Law, Election 2012, Ho-Love, Hogan & Hartson, Musical Chairs, Neal Katyal, Non-Sequiturs, Politics, Tax Law, Trademarks

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.24.11

    * “Dominique Strauss-Kahn Gets Off, As Did Everyone Else Who Stayed In His Room At The Sofitel.” Or: what you don’t want to know about your high-end hotel room. [Dealbreaker] * F**k yeah — trademark law! Or: some reflections on the “immoral or scandalous” bar to trademark registration, by fashion lawyer Chuck Colman. [Law of […]