Law Students

This law school will accept the GRE from applicants; will others follow?

Would-be lawyers applying to the University of Arizona College of Law have an alternative to the Law School Admission Test. The school has announced it will accept either the Graduate Record Examination or the LSAT, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and the…

Feb 24, 2016 6:15 AM CST

The bad business of ignoring the justice gap

Roughly two-thirds of those eligible for legal aid in Massachusetts (read: people in extreme poverty) are turned away because there aren’t enough legal aid attorneys. Approximately 80 percent of all individuals in civil court represent themselves—in matters that will change their lives in drastic ways. Whether our law schools have…

Feb 18, 2016 8:00 AM CST

Northwestern to offer more financial aid to law school students and alumni

A $100 million gift announced last year has helped put Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in a position to offer more financial aid to students and alumni. Along with record-breaking contributions by others, the money will help fund $2 million in annual initiatives including a two-year interest-free period on…

Feb 16, 2016 3:35 PM CST

ABA committee recommends tougher, simpler bar passage accreditation standard

An ABA committee has voted to recommend the adoption of a tougher but simpler bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposed new standard (PDF), approved Friday by the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s Standards Review Committee, a law school would have…

Feb 16, 2016 3:25 PM CST

Tougher, simpler bar-passage requirements for law schools to be considered by ABA committee

An ABA committee on Friday will take up a proposal that would toughen—and greatly simplify—the bar passage requirements of the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposal, a law school would have to demonstrate that 75 percent of its graduates who took a bar exam within two years of their…

Feb 11, 2016 10:45 AM CST

Could Uniform Bar Exam help law grads’ mobility? ABA House asks states to adopt it ‘expeditiously’

Law students seeking a more mobile practice got some encouragement from the ABA’s House of Delegates on Monday afternoon, when it adopted two resolutions concerning the Uniform Bar Examination. Over some opposition, the House adopted Resolution 109, which urges bar admission authorities to “adopt expeditiously” the UBE. The UBE is…

Feb 8, 2016 7:50 PM CST

Driver gets 8 years in wrong-way crash that killed 1 law student and severely injured another

Both a victim’s mother and the defendant were tearful on Thursday as an Illinois judge imposed sentence in a drunken-driving crash that killed one University of Chicago law student on the verge of graduation and severely injured another. Erik Johnson, 25, apologized for the accident, which occurred in the wee…

Feb 4, 2016 5:00 PM CST

These law schools had the highest percentage of employed students not using their degrees

Two law schools in Puerto Rico top a list of schools that produced the largest percentage of graduates who aren’t using their law degrees in their jobs. The schools were ranked based on the percentage of their employed grads who don’t have positions in which passing the bar is required…

Feb 4, 2016 8:35 AM CST

Can once-obscure ‘borrower defense’ help law grads erase student debt?

A once-obscure federal law is being cited by more than 7,500 borrowers who are applying to have their student debt erased because their schools allegedly used illegal recruiting tactics. The law provides for forgiveness of debt borrowed from the federal government’s Direct Loan program when schools violate a state law…

Feb 4, 2016 5:45 AM CST

Moody’s downgrades rating of California Western School of Law

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the bond rating on California Western School of Law in San Diego to reflect “materially worse than previously projected operating deficits.” Moody’s downgraded the stand-alone school’s bonds from Baa3 from Baa1, according to a press release. The Washington Post reports on the negative outlook for…

Feb 2, 2016 9:03 AM CST

Texas Tech adopts SMART brain training for its 1Ls

The first year of law school can be akin to middle school. Anxiety and self-doubt abound: How should I study? What do I need to remember? Why was that lady carrying scales onto a train again?

Feb 1, 2016 3:30 AM CST

UnitedLex partners with law schools to give new grads work experience

The concept of a residency program for law school grads is far from new, but one legal services provider is turning concept into reality. UnitedLex—a legal services outsourcing firm with 22 centers of operation worldwide, including North America, the United Kingdom, Israel and India—is supporting a legal residency program at…

Feb 1, 2016 1:10 AM CST

Proposal to lift ban on academic credit for paid externships draws heavy opposition

A proposed change in the law school accreditation standards that would lift the ban on students receiving academic credit for paid externships has drawn a lot of comment—and much of the comment is in opposition to lifting the ban. Under the current standards, law students are barred from receiving both…

Jan 29, 2016 4:15 PM CST

Job-offer rate for summer associates is at a 10-year high

Law firms are increasingly offering jobs to law students they had as summer associates, with 95 percent of those students getting job offers in 2015—compared to just 69 percent in 2009, when the economy was through the floor, the National Law Journal reports, using hiring data from the National Association…

Jan 28, 2016 5:05 PM CST

Revised outlook for growth in lawyer jobs is glum

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a glum jobs outlook for lawyers that is less optimistic than its forecast in 2014. The Bureau estimates the number of lawyer positions will increase by just 43,800 jobs in the period between 2014 and 2024, the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) reports.…

Jan 28, 2016 8:29 AM CST