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Law School News
Jan
11
With high law school debt and low attorney employment we are left to ponder whether the decrease in African American enrollment is indeed a bad thing. According to The American Lawyer, a study by Columbia Law School’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic noted the following:
Over the relevant 15-year period, the study — conducted in conjunction with the Society of American Law Teachers, found that the total number of African-Americans and Mexican-Americans entering law school dropped from 4,142 in 1993 to 4,060 in 2008. Combined with the increase in overall law school capacity (from 43,520 to 46,500), that translated into a 7.5 percent and 11.7 percent decrease of African-American and Mexican-American first-year law students, respectively.
“It’s like imagining Carnegie Hall, which seats almost 3,000 people, filled to capacity but no Mexican-Americans or African-Americans allowed in,” says Conrad Johnson, the Columbia professor who oversees the clinic, regarding the additional spots created over the past 15 years. “For many African-American and Mexican-American students, law school is an elusive goal.”
How elusive? Between 2003 and 2008, 61 percent of African-American and 46 Mexican-American applicants were rejected by every law school to which they applied, according to Law School Admissions Council data reviewed by the clinic’s researchers. The “shut-out” rate for white applicants was 34 percent.
Nov
5
Legal Practice Seminars For Law Students, Recent Grads
Filed Under Law School News, The Profession • Leave a Comment
Law students are no doubt discovering that it’s going to take more than an appointment with Career Services to secure a legal job in this economy. It’s going to take some hustle, moxie and probably a bit of entrepreneurial spirit. To help you along, Bizunesh Scott, Esq. has founded Advice & Counsel PLLC. From the company’s press release:
Advice & Counsel PLLC is excited to present the 2009 Diversity Roundtable Legal Practice Seminar Series, a program that gives back to the legal community by investing in our most precious resource, young lawyers and law students. The seminar series, the company’s first, aims to partner experienced practitioners with extensive knowledge in specific areas of the law with young lawyers and law students interested in those areas. The series is intended to fill the experience, practice area specific training, and mentoring void left between law school and legal practice due to current market conditions. Beginning on Friday, November, 6, 2009, the firm will host a series of weekly seminars addressing the state of certain practice areas, basic skill development and advice on immediate training opportunities, and job search strategies specific to certain practice areas. The practice areas that will be featured include tax/ERISA, corporate and securities, lobbying, labor & employment, litigation, and antitrust.
The series is only $10 a session. If you’re interested, register here. If you’re not yet convinced of the benefit, continue reading:
Ms. Scott is currently serving as Interim General Counsel of Golfsmith International Holdings, Inc. under a representation agreement with Advice & Counsel PLLC. Advice & Counsel PLLC’s consulting services include serving as interim in-house counsel, auditing legal departments, performing independent investigations, and managing short-term and special projects, such as firm convergence programs, diversity programs, and law firm transitions.
Mar
16
Congratulations to Arnette Dorsey, winner of On Being A Black Lawyer’s NBLSA essay writing contest. Arnette is a 2L at the University of Baltimore Law School where she is a Production Editor on Law Review and Director of Community Service for BLSA. Arnette is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a graduate of Syracuse University. OBABL is proud to sponsor Arnette at this year’s NBLSA convention in Irvine, CA.
Jan
24
No Golden Egg After Law School
Filed Under Law School News • Leave a Comment
Tax Law Professor and TaxProf blogger, Paul Caron has compiled recent articles and conference lectures that question the judgement of students who spend $120,000 for an education that provides them with only a 10% chance of getting a return on their investment. Some are now starting to judge the institutions that deceitfully recruit students to do so.
Some highlights:
Forbes: The Great College Hoax
By the time they graduated [from law school] in 1995, the couple was $194,000 in debt. They eventually married and each landed a six-figure job. Yet even with Kellum moonlighting, they had to scrounge to come up with $145,000 in loan payments. With interest accruing at up to 12% a year, that whittled away only $21,000 in principal. Their remaining bill: $173,000 and counting.
Kellum and Coultas divorced last year. Each cites their struggle with law school debt as a major source of stress on their marriage. “Two people with this much debt just shouldn’t be together,” Kellum says.
AALS Committee on Research Program (Jan. 9, 2009), Citations, SSRN Downloads, U.S. News, Carnegie, Bar Passage, Careers: Competing Methods of Assessing Law Schools (podcast):
Bill Henderson (Indiana):
- 25:30: “Employment outcomes do not turn on your U.S. News ranking.”
- 25:55: At 50 law schools, 20% of the students are either unemployed, flunked out, or are unknown, yet the ABA and LSAC disavow the use of data to rank law schools.
Richard Matasar (Dean, New York Law School):
- 1:21:20: “We should be ashamed of ourselves. We own our students’ outcomes. We took them. We took their money. We live on their money to pay to come to San Diego. And if they don’t have a good outcome in life, we’re exploiting them.
Meanwhile, Slate offers some advice on how to avoid the Law-School Debt Trap.
Jan
8
NBLSA Essay Contest
Filed Under Law School News • Leave a Comment
On Being A Black Lawyer (OBABL)
First Annual NBLSA Short-Essay Writing Contest
Prize: OBABL will pay the $150 NBLSA registration fee for winner(s)
Essay Topic: In 100 words or less explain how networking can benefit your career.
Rules, Guidelines and Requirements:
- Winner(s) must be a current member of a NBLSA chapter
- Winner(s) must attend the National Black Law Students Association’s annual convention in Irvine, CA March 18-22, 2009
- Essays must be received by Friday, January 30, 2009
- Winner(s) will be notified Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Email your short-essay along with the information requested below to tips@onbeingablacklawyer.com. Put in the subject line: NBLSA Essay Contest
Name
Law School
Year in Law School:
Undergraduate School
Undergraduate Graduation Date
Undergraduate Major
Current Address
Email
Phone
List organizations in which you are a member and/or officer.
Dec
2
Black Law Prof wins National Book Award
Filed Under Law School News • 1 Comment
Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law at New York Law School since 1992, earned a place in history by winning this year’s National Book Award for nonfiction for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.” The book is a sweeping, prodigiously researched biography of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson. Gordon-Reed initially delved into the subject in her first book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (University Press of Virginia, 1997). The New Yorker Magazine has described her work as “brilliant.”
From the NYTimes:
Ms. Gordon-Reed, who celebrated her 50th birthday on the night of the awards, was the first African-American author to win the prize for nonfiction since Orlando Patterson won for “Freedom” in 1991. “I can’t say what a wonderful November this has been,” she said. “It’s sort of wonderful to have the book come out at this time. People ask me if I planned it this way; I didn’t. All of America — we’re on a great journey now and I look forward to the years to come.”
After the jump, read how TJ treated the slaves he spawned. Read more
Nov
17
From the Social Security Office: During the Great Depression preceding the passage of the Social Security Act soup kitchens provided the only meals some unemployed Americans had. This particular soup kitchen was sponsored by the Chicago gangster Al Capone.
Firm layoffs are being reported daily, and while we have no way of knowing whether black associates are being laid off disproportionately, we are worried that this might be the case. We haven’t focused much on the impact this might be having on current law students, but we were recently alerted to this UVA Law School letter to the editor. The authors claim to be three jobless 2L’s (two in the top third of the class and one on Law Review). If folks in the top half of a solid top 10 school are hurting, we’ve got to wonder how tight it is on everyone else:
…many 2Ls, having completed the process, are still struggling to find jobs for the summer, and have to start over at a time when most law firm employers have already filled their summer slots.
After criticizing the newspaper’s one-sided interview coverage, the authors go on to add:
Together, the three authors of this letter had about 60 OGIs, nearly 20 callbacks, and zero offers. Two are in the top third of the class; the other is on Law Review. We are not alone. The purpose of this is not to spread panic or sow fear, but to present a more balanced picture of the OGI process, especially now, in a time of economic downturn and uncertainty.
