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).
So this is the batch of schools where we usually hear questions like: Should I go to this school at full price, or a much lower-ranked school for free? And our answer is usually, “How much lower-ranked are we talking about?”
The bottom line is that when people get into schools like Duke, or Penn, they are going to end up going to that school. But when people get into some of the schools on this list, they do seriously consider other options. Should I retake the LSAT, score better and apply again? How much financial aid am I getting? What’s the job market like in the [secondary market] this school is located in, just in case I get stuck there? Is it worth it to go into this much debt for a degree from that school?
These factors should come into play no matter which law school you get accepted to, but at this point on the U.S. News list, cost factors take on increased importance…
Might we be seeing a new trend, namely, federal prosecutors moonlighting as novelists?
Last year, as part of Above the Law’s Career Alternatives series, we profiled Allison Leotta, an assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. who wrote a well-received thriller, Law of Attraction. Today we introduce you to Natalie Lee — an assistant U.S. attorney in Savannah, former associate at Alston & Bird, and author of a new novel, Save as Draft. (When looking up the book, please note that Natalie writes under a pen name, “Cavanaugh Lee.”)
Like Law of Attraction, Save as Draft has garnered some nice reviews. A post on Chick Lit Reviews, for example, praises the book as a “fantastic read that all of us technology addicted Chick Lit fans will absolutely fall in love with, a must read!”
The reference to technology addiction relates to the novel’s ingenious premise. I discussed that premise — along with other topics, such as the inspiration for the book’s law firm partner / villainess, a products-liability litigatrix named Rose — in a recent interview with Natalie Lee….
A week and a half ago, we ran a story about a student who was soliciting donations so she could go to UNC Law School without incurring student debt.
She dreamed a dream, but the tigers come at night. The would-be law student, Sarah Allen, was ripped apart in the press, and now wants no part of the law. The ABA Journal reports:
Allen’s video explaining her pursuit of a debt-free life—and a debt-free legal education—is no longer on the Upromise site. Her blog, Going to Law School Debt Free, is no longer live. “I’ve just shut everything down,” Allen tells the ABA Journal.
Allen withdrew from the contest on Monday because stories about her quest drew mean-spirited comments on several blogs. “When I read certain things, it was just so much hate, and coming from nowhere,” she says. “It stunned me.”
In an email to Above the Law, Allen went even further about her reasons for withdrawing her requests for tuition donations…
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.
When I was living in a spider hole on an uninhabitable island, God revealed to me the story of Sarah Allen. The ABA Journal reports:
Would-be law student Sarah Allen believes in a debt-free life, but it’s hard to square that vision with her desire to attend law school at the University of North Carolina, where the three-year education will cost about $105,000.
So Allen has set up a PayPal account and is appealing to the public to make donations there to help pay her tuition, McClatchy Newspapers reports.
This woman is asking people to donate money so that she can go and get an overpriced education? Am I dead? Is this Hell? What in the world is going on when people are so desperate to go to law school that they are asking for donations on the (virtual) street? Will educate myself for money? WTF?
Given the legal economy, prospective students should clearly be shooting for law schools in the top-15. But, not everybody can rock the all powerful LSAT. Going to a law school in this group can still result in Biglaw jobs for graduates who want them — especially if the school is located in the market where you ultimately want to practice.
17. Vanderbilt
18. USC (Gould)
19. Washington University in St. Louis
20. George Washington
21. Illinois
22. Boston University
22. Emory
22. University of Minnesota
22. Notre Dame
26. Iowa
27. Indiana University
28. Boston College
28. William and Mary
28. U.C. – Davis
28. Georgia
28. UNC
28. Wisconsin
Thoughts on these schools? I’ve got some thoughts on this particular group of rankings as a whole…
We mentioned the NYU Law awkward and silent dance parties earlier this month. Kash was very diplomatic in that post. I would have emphasized the extreme dorkiness on display.
I’m not sure the clip below from UNC Law is much better. But it’s certainly louder, and that counts for something.
All three are finding new uses for the “tools of the Internet.” Here are three recent stories that caught our attention but didn’t warrant full posts:
1. The Justice Department now tweets. Last week, the DOJ revamped its website and joined Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter. If you want to stalk Attorney General Eric Holder, you can do that here.
2. UNC law held moot court in the virtual world of Second Life last month. It’s hard not to mock, said one tipster:
You have got to be kidding me. Here’s an idea: do one in real life! Everyone will be sitting at a computer at the same time anyway – why not just have them all sit in the same room, say the UNC mock court room that was built specifically for this purpose, and actually do it in person? I’m not planning on being a litigator, but from all those episodes of Boston Legal I’ve watched I’m pretty sure that speaking is a pretty significant part of the litigation process.
What good could possibly come from this? Learning how to type out pre-prepared questions without being distracted by the naked half raccoon man that inevitably will show up and streak across the courtroom?
We think real-life Playboy bunnies at UNC might prove more distracting.
3. Law school applicants are using social networking sites to cozy up to law school admission officers. According to Kaplan, 48% of law school admission officers surveyed say that they or a fellow admissions officer at their school have received a “friend request” on Facebook or MySpace from applicants. The officers did not reveal whether this helps or hurts applicants’ chances.
And with that, we urge you to keep it real, ATL readers. Justice Dept. on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter [CNET] Students Explore Mock Trial Options in Virtual World [UNC School of Law]
Some of you, especially the straight males, may recall Stephanie Shimek (née Stephanie Haney). She’s the University of North Carolina law student who tried out for Playboy, to wit, the “Girls of the ACC” issue. We wrote about her in a post entitled “Career Alternatives for Law Students: Playboy Bunny.”
Multiple ATL readers — who read Playboy just for the articles, we’re sure — have alerted us to the good news: Stephanie made it into the magazine! WCHL reports:
A UNC student has had her dreams of being featured in Playboy magazine come true in the 2009 October ‘Girls of ACC” issue.
Twenty-four year old Stephanie Christine says ever since she first picked up a copy of the magazine at her aunt’s house, she wanted to be like one of the Bunnies.
That’s one open-minded aunt! (Based on an interview with Stephanie on the WCHL website, however, it seems that the issues belonged to her uncle — no lesbianic aunt here.)
Stephanie is a 3L, and as we’ve discussed, 3L recruiting is a nightmare this year. But don’t worry about Steph; she has backup options. According to WCHL, she aspires to work in entertainment law — but if that doesn’t work out, “[f]uture involvement with Playboy has been extended to her.” In addition, “her parents and family have been really supportive.”
As diligent journalists, we went out to a local newsstand and picked up a copy of Playboy’s “Sex on Campus 2009″ issue. After showing photo ID — we got carded (yesss!!!) — and plunking down $5.99, we took the plastic-wrapped periodical back to the office, where Elie gave us a brief tutorial in female anatomy. (We’ve never seen a woman’s private parts in real life, except this one time we went to a nude beach in France.)
After the jump, we present you with pictures of Stephanie, plus one other young woman who aspires to a legal career. We have carefully redacted the photos — drawing on skills honed during document review years ago, before online doc review became commonplace — so they are safe for work. Enjoy.
On Monday, we warned you that student loan forgiveness programs were under attack. Today, the University of North Carolina School of Law informed students that the school could not afford to make the promised loan repayments to students in low income jobs. Here’s the email from UNC Law Dean Jack Boger:
We are writing to share news about a regrettable delay in our implementation of the new LRAP program at UNC School of Law. Unfortunately, because of the grave economic downturn that has hit the North Carolina state budget, we will not be able to go forward this spring with Loan Repayment Assistance Program funding. As you may know, various statewide freezes and other severe restrictions have been imposed this spring on all state funds, including the UNC law school account that was designated for LRAP purposes. Moreover, the state has made clear that it intends to ‘recapture’ those funds to meet its larger budgetary needs sometime before June 30, the end of this fiscal year. This will leave us without the financial means to make LRAP awards.
While we share your disappointment with this turn of events, we remain committed to the LRAP program – and will keep your application on file. We hope to be able to relaunch this program sometime during the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Thank you for your patience, and for your help in the development of this program. We also thank you for your continued support of Carolina Law.
Sincerely yours,
Jack Boger, Dean, UNC School of Law
UNC Law seems to be developing a pattern of raising people’s hopes, and then dashing them.
A student affected by this decision shares an interesting viewpoint after the jump.
Tired of talking about terrorism, torture, and related topics? You might not be alone. At a Federalist Society discussion we attended on Tuesday night, entitled Do We Have the Legal Tools to Prevent Terrorist Attacks?, even some of the panelists wondered why these subjects still generate so much discussion, over seven years after the 9/11 attacks. (More about the panel later today.)
Similarly, when former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey made the war on terror the focus of his recent commencement address at UNC School of Law, some of the graduates (and their families) were less than pleased. From one attendee:
Michael Mukasey just spoke at UNC commencement and used the entire speech to cover his own ass on torture. It was wildly inappropriate for a graduation….
A lot of people were very upset. The speech hardly mentioned the students graduating, if at all, and was instead a 30-minute legal argument defending torture. He focused on Jose Padilla for most of the speech, basically talking about how bad of a person he was and how much information they got from him. People in the audience were walking out, including all ten members of my family who were present.
This is not the first time Mukasey has caused commencement controversy. See here (first paragraph), discussing events at Boston College Law School last year.
Some way harsh reviews of ex-AG Mukasey, after the jump.
After our initial post went up, Maxine Eichner — a professor at UNC School of Law — emailed Above the Law directly to say that Ms. Haney was not a student at the law school. We updated the post and wondered:
Who is Stephanie Haney? Does claiming to be a law student really help you get into Playboy? Perhaps Haney didn’t get the memo after an accidental admission offer? Is she actually a student but using an assumed name? We don’t know the answers, but we’re trying to get them.
We sent out some inquiries and now we have answers for you. Stephanie Haney is enrolled at UNC as Stephanie Shimek. Haney is her maiden name. Here’s a note from UNC Law.
Dear Ms. Hill:
Thank you for checking in. Stephanie Shimek is a 2L at UNC School of Law. We believe that Ms. Shimek did not intend to cause any confusion about her identity; she has personal reasons for a recent change in her last name.
Regards,
KEB
Katie Bowler, MFA
Assistant Dean for Communications
Fair enough.
After the jump, commenters weigh in and Mrs. Shimek/Ms. Haney explains the personal reasons behind her name change.
Despite the rise in applications to law schools, many current law school students might be lamenting their decision to pursue a J.D. There’s more news about Biglaw firms firing than hiring these days. Summer associate programs are shrinking in size, being shortened, or being cut altogether. Start dates for 3Ls are being pushed back to next decade. What’s a law student to do?
Instead of aiming to get her head shot on the website at Boies Schiller, one (alleged) UNC 2L is doing an OCI hoping to get into the pages of Playboy. The men’s magazine is recruiting students from across the country for its college issue and is at UNC looking for models for “Girls of the ACC.” From the Daily Tar Heel:
Second-year law student Stephanie Haney, 24, said that she would be honored if chosen. “The women in Playboy are the most beautiful women in the world,” she said.
Haney said she would only pursue modeling in the short run so she can finish school. But she’s willing to put her degree on hold. “I feel like this is something you have to take if it comes up,” Haney said.
If “it comes up,” it would be a good sign for Haney’s future in pornography, or as she refers to it, “the entertainment and image industry.”
More discussion, plus some UPDATES, after the jump.
There was a snafu over in the admissions department at UNC Law School. A tipster reports the basic details:
UNC Law sent out a number of e-mail invitations to their admitted student weekend today leading to the recipients of the e-mail believing they had been accepted. 15 minutes later they sent out this e-mail to the students who had received the invitations.
Kind of like the ultimate “sike” isn’t it? Here’s the copy of the retraction letter the almost-admitted students received:
Hello [Redacted],
You just recently received an email inviting you to the UNC School of Law admitted students days. That email was sent in error. Please disregard the email. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. If you have any questions regarding this. Please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,
Dean States
Another tipster didn’t hesitate to cross UNC off of his list:
I received an email welcoming me to the University of North Carolina Law School. Thirty minutes later I received a second email telling me to disregard the first. When I called the admissions office to clarify, I was stonewalled by an overly defensive and patently unapologetic Dean of Admissions. Please let me know if you would like me to forward the emails to you guys. North Carolina can “go to hell!”
Coach Roy Williams probably thinks this student should focus more about basketball and spend less time worrying about which law school he’s getting admitted to.
How did this happen? Assistant Dean for Admissions Michael J. States explains after the jump.
Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past five years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com
Happy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.
As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.
Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong
We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).
Please feel free to reach out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.
In 2009, a small group of Harvard Law School students noticed an absurd monopoly in the bar prep space, held by an unchallenged leader with a non-evolving product. In response, these students teamed up with Harvard Law alumni to launch BarMax on January 14, 2010.
The mission: democratize bar prep by embracing new technologies to provide the very best bar exam review courses at a fraction of the cost normally associated with these courses.
Since then, with the encouragement of thousands of students and an unwavering commitment to their success, BarMax has established itself as a comprehensive alternative to the stagnant, over-priced status quo.
As we continue to expand, we do not want to lose sight of the basic premises that led us to create BarMax in the first place. If you are a law student who believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with being forced to take out yet another loan to pay for a $4,000 bar exam prep course, you are not alone.
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). 
Continue reading “Open Thread: 2012 U.S. News Law School Rankings (16 – 30)”
Some of you, especially the straight males, may recall Stephanie Shimek (née 
Tired of talking about terrorism, torture, and related topics? You might not be alone. At a Federalist Society discussion we attended on Tuesday night, entitled 
