With some of the truly horrible stuff going on in law these days — law students allegedly trying to kill each other, managing partners having affairs with their subordinates’ wives — it’s almost reassuring to know that people can still afford to get crazily worked up about good old-fashioned nothing.
Some behaviors are the equivalent of anger comfort food. Crappy parking jobs, really annoying commercials, and school lunch theft.
One of the top law schools in California is embroiled in a lunch thievery epidemic. The situation has gotten so out of hand that the Student Bar Association has sent an email to the entire school about the problem.
Any guesses as to which university needs to bump up its cafeteria security?
Continue reading “There Is a Law School Lunch Thief Running Wild in Our Midst”
The picturesque Richard H. Chambers Courthouse in Pasadena, home of the Ninth Circuit.
California has released some macro-level results from the July 2011 administration of the bar exam. The California bar is notoriously difficult, and every year we like to take a look at which schools prepared their students well for the exam, and which schools did not.
Last year, the overall pass rates were 68.3% for all takers and 75.2% for graduates of the twenty ABA-approved law schools in California. This year, overall pass rates clocked in at 67.7%, while students who went to ABA-accredited law schools passed at a 76.2% clip.
But you might be surprised at which California law school had the best passage rate on the California bar. Hint: it’s not Stanford, or Boalt Hall, or UCLA….
Continue reading “California Bar Passage Rate Holds Steady; Shame For Underperforming Schools Deepens”
Poor little white boy.
According to a new study by UCLA law professor Richard Sander, discussed in an article in the Denver University Law Review, “the vast majority of American law students come from relatively elite backgrounds; this is especially true at the most prestigious law schools, where only five percent of all students come from families whose SES [socioeconomic status] is in the bottom half of the national distribution.”
In other breaking news, studies show that the vast majority of people who get into water emerge wet.
It’s beyond obvious that American law schools favor the elite. Talent will take you far, but having a financially sound family will take you farther. Professor Sander — whose prior research on law school prestige generated lots of buzz last year — argues that schools should use socioeconomic factors as a partial substitute for racial preferences.
Well, that’s a false choice if I ever heard one. Why can’t we have both socioeconomic and race-based affirmative action? Look, you can accuse me of playing the “race card” if you want to, but I’m just trying to figure out a way to help white people get into law school….
Continue reading “Start Socioeconomic Affirmative Action Now”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily think that it’s wrong to brag about receiving an offer in front of your friends, family, and total strangers. I personally subscribe to the Major League theory that you don’t want to be dancing in front of somebody who just died, but I understand that most of the kids these days have never even seen the movie I just referenced.
For the millennials, bragging comes so naturally they don’t even realize when they’re doing it. It’s like their biological imperatives are to survive, reproduce, and post evidence of it on Facebook.
Which is fine. I mean, just because somebody is bragging doesn’t mean you have to care. For instance, today we’ve got a kid bragging about getting an offer from a particular Biglaw firm. Some people will be envious; other people are going to make jokes about coat hangers. To each his own….
Continue reading “Best Way to Brag About an Offer: Just Lay It Out And Bask In Your Own Glory”
Lowell Milken: Would you accept $10 million from this man?
Ah, California. Your weather is amazing, but I don’t think I could deal with your earthquakes. The tremor we just experienced here on the East Coast has turned me into a nervous wreck.
Over at UCLA Law School, they’re experiencing some earth-shaking controversy of their own. An ultra-wealthy alumnus made it rain, with a $10 million gift to the school — but now some professors want to rain on his parade, and their objections have hit the national news media. (Apologies for the mixed precipitation metaphors.)
As we mentioned last week, UCLA law alumnus Lowell Milken made a $10 million gift to his alma mater — the largest single donation in the law school’s history. The money will be used to establish the Lowell Milken Institute for Business and Law.
Milken, Milken — that last name sounds familiar….
Continue reading “Should UCLA Law School Accept Milken’s Millions?”
* With a $10 million donation, it looks like UCLA School of Law can afford to stop playing it fast and loose with its employment statistics. [New York Times]
* In light of Facebook’s “smoking gun” evidence of fraud, Paul Ceglia didn’t skip town. He skipped the entire country. [Los Angeles Times]
* You can be a runaway bride, but it’ll cost you a pretty ringgit when you get sued. That, and your 1,200 guests will be pissed. [Daily Mail]
* Would you allegedly kidnap for Shaq over a non-existent sex tape? He must be leading a good life if he can’t even keep track of his video exploits. [New York Daily News]
* People are saying that Felicia Pearson’s heroin distribution charges are a case of life imitating art. Do you know her background? This is more like life imitating life. [Yahoo! News]
If you took the bar exam last month, you might be trying hard to forget the experience, or you might be flying far, far away on an exotic vacation. Maybe you are counting the days until results come out in November, or maybe you’re frantically searching for employment before those organ bill collectors start knocking.
This is the final installment of the Bar Review Diaries. We hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into the lives of three recent law school graduates as they prepared for the bar.
Let’s check in one last time with Mariah, Christopher and Mike, to see where they are headed next.
And if anyone has cool bar trips coming up or strange end-of-summer plans, please share them with us in the comments….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: The End Is The Beginning”
The bar exam has come and gone. Our esteemed Bar Review Diarists have lived to tell the tale, and thank goodness none of them fainted or had a baby during the test.
But as usual, Mike, Mariah and Christopher also had their fair share of adventures. Keep reading to see how a soggy sweater and lines to nowhere are just normal parts of taking the bar…
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Basking in the Afterglow”
Today there’s good news and bad news coming out of Boalt Hall (aka Berkeley Law aka WGWAG School of Law).
Let’s start with the bad news. The bad news is that the Regents, who run the show for the University of California (UC) system, approved an increase in system-wide student fees for the coming year. It’s for a shade over $1,000 — $1,068, to be precise.
The good news: Berkeley Law, at the behest of Dean Christopher Edley Jr., is effectively reversing the fee hike for its students. Boalt Hall is issuing an immediate “scholarship” to each student, in the exact amount of the fee increase.
Let’s take a look at Dean Edley’s email — which explains the situation, and has a cute and clever closing — and explore what might be motivating the administration….
UPDATE (7/22/11): Also note the update at the end of this post regarding UCLA School of Law. (We have added the memo from Dean Rachel Moran.)
Continue reading “Boalt Hall and UCLA Issue Scholarships To Cover Last-Minute Fee Increase”
This is the Final Countdown. Exactly a week from now, many of you will be stuck at desks for upwards of two days, working to finish that little formality they call the Bar Exam. This is the last time we’ll hear from our Bar Review Diarists before they cross the threshold.
They are leaving behind their anxiety, fear and anger about the test. They are starting to accept their fate — whether that means proudly entering laywerhood in the next few weeks… or sometime next February.
Let’s check in on Mike, Mariah and Christopher one last time before they leap out of the nest, hoping to fly on wings of truth and justice…
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: The Final Countdown”
Well, we are just two weeks away. The bar exam looms. Our columnists have given up discussing country life and making fake advice lists. They are putting their noses to their respective grindstones.
This week at the Bar Review Diaries, we hear some crowd-sourced opinions about studying for the bar, we learn the secret to not feeling stressed (hint: spell it backwards), and we even get a little immigration policy lesson.
Let’s check in with our bar-taking correspondents….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Don’t Panic”
We’re closing in on the main event. The holiday weekend may have been your last excuse to slack until the bar exam is over. But here at the Bar Review Diaries, our columnists are at peace. They know they need to buckle down, but they are confident.
After the jump, we learn that Mike has decided to lock himself inside for the next three weeks, the countryside is becoming unnerving to Mariah, and Christopher is coming to terms with all he still wants to learn…
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Confidently Rounding the Home Stretch”
A reader noticed the job placement stats at UCLA Law, the #16 law school in the country, for the class of 2010.
The stats are frankly unbelievable. UCLA is claiming that 97.9% of its class of 2010 was employed within 9 months of graduation, at a median starting salary of $145K. Japanese officials were more straightforward about the Fukushima Daiichi disaster than UCLA is being with these bogus employment figures. But whatever, as I’ve said many times: we’ve gotten so used to educators misleading us that the concept of one of them telling truth seems like we’re asking too much.
At least UCLA added some fine print:
Note: Employment statistics include full-time and part-time jobs. Salary statistics are full-time only for those who reported salary information. Second jobs are not included in these statistics. This report represents NALP categories only.
Translation: If a graduate received money for giving a half-and-half at a truck stop up in Berkeley, that still counts! But the salary numbers only refer to our highest performing graduates. Also, why are you reading this tiny print? Look at the monkey. Look at the monkey. Yes, you’ll probably need a second job. What?
Obviously, this “disclaimer” is woefully ineffective, and a reader has even more reasons why….
Continue reading “UCLA Law’s Job Placement Numbers Strain Credulity, But Did You Read The Fine Print?”
Thus far into the Bar Review Diaries, our intrepid columnists have been strangely in sync with each other. Last week, motivation was the hot topic. Another time, it was simply stress.
But I’m not going to lie, this week Mariah, Mike, and Christopher are all over the map. And that’s OK. They don’t plan this stuff together, and nobody’s telling them what to write. (Not even Themis, contrary to what some commenters might believe.)
Without further ado, keep reading for Mariah’s treacherous rural journey, Mike’s advice on screwing with your law school frenemies, and Christopher’s barroom environmental debate….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: The Bridge Is Out!”
Are we sick of studying yet? Do you just want to get on with your life — make money, change the world, put in the hours at the office — as long as it doesn’t include more video lectures?
Well, sorry. Here at the Bar Review Diaries, we are still about five weeks away from the big test. As our columnist Michael Dulong says, it’s still too far away to start freaking out, but it’s too close to keep slacking off.
Keep reading to see how Mike, Christopher Curran and Mariah Ford are trying to stay motivated…
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Where Is My Motivation?”
I’m not sure how to say this, but I think some of our columnists are starting to get a little unhinged.
This week on the Bar Review Diaries, we’ll start off with some wood-piling hallucinations and imaginary Kiwi exchange students.
Let’s join Mariah in Vermont, a.k.a. the 1860s, after the jump…
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Making Law From Fire Logs”
We have a definite theme for this week’s installment of the Bar Review Diaries: stress!
Big surprise, right? What’s not stressful about a multi-day test that culminates three years of study and kind of determines your entire future?
Our columnists are in the thick of their review, and by the looks of it, anxiety is starting to creep in….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: How Do We Deal With Stress?”
Memorial Day has come and gone. Hopefully those of you studying for the bar exam took a little time out for hamburgers and baseball. It’ll be awhile until you have such a good excuse for slacking relaxing. Graduation festivities are receding into the past, and the specter of the bar exam looms a little larger with every passing day.
For the second installment of The Bar Review Diaries, our esteemed contributors, Michael, Mariah and Christopher, report back as they settle into their surprisingly dissimilar summer routines.
Keep reading to see how meditation, jogging through Chinatown and Vermont peepers all prevent the Summertime Bar Blues….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Discipline, Rural Peepers and Urban Jogging”
June is just around the corner, the sun is shining, and many of our readers are hopefully enjoying their shiny new law degrees. Mazel tov! Unfortunately, the thousands of dollars you spent on three years of law school didn’t quite cover everything you need to pass that pesky bar exam.
The ink on your JD is still drying, but it’s already time to crack open the books again and sign up for bar review classes.
For the next two-odd months, three recent law school alumni will share their experiences with law school graduation, studying for the bar exam, and life in general. Welcome to Above the Law’s newest feature: The Bar Review Diaries.
Our illustrious contributors were chosen by Themis Bar Review. For their efforts, Themis has given them free tuition.
Let’s meet the trio of bar review diarists….
Continue reading “Bar Review Diaries: Of Sunshine and Studying”
Ervin Burell was a man who know how to 'juke the stats.'
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. No, according to your law school, you, unemployed 3L, are an embarrassment. They wish you would just go away. They don’t want to be reminded that you exist. Why? Because your unemployment could hurt your law school’s U.S. News ranking.
Unfortunately for some schools, U.S. News is actually paying more attention these days to schools that simply ignore their unemployed 3Ls for purposes of reporting their employed-upon-graduation statistics. Maybe U.S. News can’t force schools to report only those students employed in legitimate legal jobs, but they can punish schools that refuse to report on all of their recent graduates.
You know what that means: bring on your fake job programs, designed largely for rankings-enhancement purposes.
Let’s try to collect all of the schools that are enacting ridiculous “employment” programs that seem designed primarily to enhance their U.S. News rank. We’ll get you started with a fun one….
Continue reading “Employment Statistics Shenanigans Open Thread: Which Schools Are Juking Their Stats?”
