Law Schools

Don’t Try This in Your Next Cover Letter

Some legal job applicants are too creative in their cover letters. Here’s an example of a bad cover letter: “Not all people are criminals, but even criminals are people too.” Here’s another: “If assiduousness and passion were candy, then I would leave you with a mouthful of cavities.” And another:…

Mar 5, 2009 5:21 PM CST

Law Students Report Positive Reaction to No-Laptop Policy

A law professor who banned laptops in his first-year criminal law class surveyed his students about their reaction—and found it was generally positive. UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh had the results in a memo to his collegues (PDF) and on his blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. Seventy-one percent of the students…

Mar 5, 2009 1:43 PM CST

The Bluto Blutarsky Option: Arizona State to Offer Seven-Year JD

Students who would like to earn their law degree at a more leisurely pace may want to consider Arizona State’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. The school has announced a new flexible schedule program that gives students seven years to earn a law degree. The program allows students to…

Mar 5, 2009 1:06 PM CST

BigLaw Future: Lateral Model’s Out and Commodity Work’s In?

The elephant in the room got its full conversational due Tuesday at a symposium concerning the practical use of empirical research on the legal profession. That would be the economy. It lumbered into just about every angle of many discussions, knocking down predictability with its trunk and whipping expectations with…

Mar 4, 2009 9:53 PM CST

Law Profs Shocked By DOJ Memos About Bush Presidential Powers

Law professors with differing political perspectives agree on one thing after seeing the recently released U.S. Department of Justice legal memos outlining the scope of presidential power during the Bush administration: They went too far. Written over a several-year period after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the since-countermanded memos…

Mar 4, 2009 9:52 PM CST

As Layoffs Surge, Long-Ago Grads Turn to Law Schools for Help

Traditionally, law school career offices focused on helping students and perhaps a few recent graduates find career-entry jobs as attorneys. But as a growing number of law firms throughout the country lay off seasoned practitioners, the career office mission is expanding. When the University of Chicago Law School offered a…

Mar 4, 2009 9:24 PM CST

John Yoo Says His Memos ‘Were Not for Public Consumption’

The author of several controversial Justice Department memos that endorsed expansive presidential powers and harsh interrogation techniques after the Sept. 11 attacks says he is worried about the impact of their release. John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is on leave to work as a…

Mar 4, 2009 1:29 PM CST

Minn. Lawyer Job Ads Plunge 50%; State Law School Applications Surge 20%

Updated: The tough job market is extending to Minnesota, where job ads in the state bar publication Bench & Bar are down 50 percent. Eric Caugh, the hiring partner at the Minneapolis office of Zelle Hofmann, tells the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the downturn is producing a flurry of resumés…

Mar 2, 2009 1:37 PM CST

Law School Construction Site Is Field of Dreams for Paleontologists

Earlier this month, it was a rare ancient mammoth’s fossilized bones. But it was soon followed by another whale of a find at a construction site for a California law school that was, literally, a whale some 600,000 years ago. The latest discovery Wednesday—at what has become a field of…

Feb 28, 2009 1:10 AM CST

Law Firm Layoffs Make Job Search Harder for Law Students

As laid-off lawyers look for work, they are competing not only against each other but a fresh crop of would-be legal eagles about to graduate from law school within the next year or so. And for those still in the legal education pipeline, the ongoing deluge of bad news about…

Feb 27, 2009 6:50 PM CST

Sex Columnist Speaks at Univ. of Iowa Law School Event

Dan Savage is probably best known to many as the openly gay author of explicit newspaper sex-advice columns (often written, he says, on the desk he purchased from the estate of his esteemed predecessor in the advice-column business, Ann Landers). However, he is taking a higher profile as something of…

Feb 27, 2009 12:58 AM CST

Albany Law School Freezes Tuition

Albany Law School is freezing its tuition next year, keeping the amount at this year’s level of $38,900. Dean Thomas Guernsey told the National Law Journal that the decision was made in recognition of the financial stress that many students are facing. In “these particularly uncertain times, we want to…

Feb 26, 2009 4:50 PM CST

Survey Finds One-Third Drop in Summer Associate Offers

Law students recruited in the fall for 2009 summer associate positions are seeing a one-third drop in job offers, according to a recent survey by the National Association for Law Placement. The median number of offers to current 2Ls for summer associate positions at firms of all sizes fell from…

Feb 25, 2009 3:26 PM CST

Yale Imposes Pay Freeze on Faculty Earning Above $75,000

New austerity measures announced today in an e-mail sent by Yale University’s president to faculty, staff and alumni include a pay freeze for all faculty and managerial and professional staff—presumably including President Richard Levin himself—who earn more than $75,000 annually. The e-mail (PDF) also announces budget cuts and other efforts…

Feb 25, 2009 1:31 AM CST

Law Applications Surge at Some Schools, But National Increase Is Less Than 1%

Applications to Duke University School of Law hit an all-time record high this year, surging by 4 percent, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School saw a 6 percent increase, to the second-highest number of applications on record. The 6,300 or so applications at Duke represent a 4 percent increase…

Feb 24, 2009 8:33 PM CST