Law Schools

Law school tech classes may not bring job opportunities, but they do help teach practice skills

Chicago-Kent College of Law students can learn about legal analytics. Students at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta have the opportunity to work in startup groups with MBA students, as well as graduate-level students from the Georgia Institute of Technology. And at the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, students taking a class about representing people who experienced domestic violence hear stories from “virtual victim” avatars to learn about the listening process.

Feb 27, 2020 5:15 PM CST

Want law profs to embrace technology? Show them how it improves their teaching

“In terms of how I decide to use technology, I ask myself if it will make me a better instructor. I never try to use technology just because I want to use technology. There’s got to be a pedagogical reason,” law professor April Gordon Dawson says.

Feb 27, 2020 2:43 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Texas university leader leaves without blame for law school scandal; judge sides with immigrants

Texas Southern University president leaves school with no blame for alleged law school misconduct Texas Southern University is parting ways with its president without any claims of wrongdoing, which is a change from earlier this month, when the school’s board of regents voted to fire him based on allegations that…

Feb 21, 2020 4:50 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: George Zimmerman sues Dems over tweets; Concordia Law finds new parent school

George Zimmerman sues Buttigieg and Warren over tweets The neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted in the murder of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin has filed a defamation suit against Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. The Feb. 18 lawsuit filed for George Zimmerman targets two tweets. One by Buttigieg read:…

Feb 20, 2020 3:56 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Trump agrees he makes AG Barr’s job difficult; fired BigLaw lawyer denies harassment

Trump agrees he makes Barr’s job difficult but keeps tweeting President Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday that his tweets make U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s job more difficult, even as he continued to share opinions on how the Department of Justice should do its job. On Twitter on Wednesday, Trump shared…

Feb 19, 2020 4:28 PM CST

Law schools see an increase in bar passage rates, new ABA data shows

The bar passage rate for first-time test-takers has increased by nearly 5 percentage points, according to data released Monday by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

Feb 18, 2020 2:41 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Donor says law school not honoring wishes; Justice Thomas says judges aren’t ‘mass media icons’

Attorney disputes his University of Michigan Law School gift Lance J. Johnson, a Minnesota lawyer who had donated $150,000 to the University of Michigan Law School and had planned to leave it $2 million more in his estate, now claims that the school is not honoring his wishes. Johnson, who…

Feb 12, 2020 3:17 PM CST

Another law school seeks acquisition, after parent university announces closure plan

Concordia University School of Law, a Boise, Idaho, institution with new ABA accreditation, had a 100% bar passage rate for its class of 2016, but its future as of Monday is unknown, following the announcement that its parent school, the Concordia University campus in Portland, Oregon, is closing.

Feb 11, 2020 3:34 PM CST

Justice Ginsburg calls for renewed effort to pass Equal Rights Amendment

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg celebrated Monday evening the centennial of the 19th Amendment that gives women the right to vote as a “miracle” and a “first step towards equal citizenship stature for women.” But she still holds out hope for another goal of the suffragist movement—the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Feb 11, 2020 10:43 AM CST

Texas university moves to fire its president over law school admissions scandal

The president of Texas Southern University may be out of a job after TSU regents alleged that he failed to promptly report information about an admissions scandal at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Feb 7, 2020 2:43 PM CST

Training for nonlawyers to provide legal advice will start in Arizona in the fall

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has started a two-year pilot project that licenses a small group of nonlawyers to give limited legal advice on civil matters stemming from domestic violence. The individuals will be known as licensed legal advocates.

Feb 6, 2020 3:18 PM CST

No Country for Rural Lawyers: Small-town attorneys still find it hard to thrive

Solving the rural attorney shortage won’t be easy, given that few law graduates appear willing to set up shop in rural America. The situation is only expected to worsen in the near future, given that many lawyers in less-populated counties are approaching retirement age and no younger attorneys have moved in to replace them.

Feb 1, 2020 12:00 AM CST

Boalt name is removed from Berkeley Law’s main building

The last name of John Boalt, a 19th-century mining industry baron who favored prohibiting Chinese immigration and also expressed negative views about blacks and Native Americans, has been removed from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law building.

Jan 31, 2020 11:04 AM CST

Ohio bar applicant with ‘extreme’ school debt runs into potential character and fitness issues

Cynthia Marie Rodgers, a 2019 law school graduate, with her husband has a total of almost $900,000 in school debt. The Ohio Supreme Court’s board of character and fitness thinks that issue—along with her history of filing many lawsuits and nonpayment of old consumer debts—should prevent her from becoming a lawyer, at least for a few years.

Jan 30, 2020 1:51 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Political climate motivates would-be lawyers; Avenatti trial begins

Is the ‘Trump Bump’ still a thing? Politics continue to play a role in law school applicants’ decision-making processes, according to recent surveys from Kaplan Test Prep, but less so than it did last year. Out of 421 people who took the company’s LSAT course, 41% indicated that the country’s…

Jan 29, 2020 3:07 PM CST