Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
If you go back to the early 20th century, people who wanted a career in the law did not have to go to law school at all, much less one meeting the standards of the American Bar Association. Then, starting in the 1920s, the ABA decided that it had to “improve” legal education, and it … Read more
New Mexico State Police Sgt. Toby LaFave, “the face of DWI enforcement,” has been implicated in a corruption scandal that goes back decades and involves “many officers.” “Thank you for helping ENDWI,” says a poster that the New Mexico Department of Transportation produced as part of its long-running campaign against drunk driving. The poster features … Read more
Los Angeles Times, Disbarred in Ohio, He Tricked a California Law Firm Into a $250,000 Job Offer: When he applied for a job at a California law firm last September, he identified himself as Christopher “Rich” Miller-Williams and claimed to be an ex-Marine who attended the University of Michigan School of Law. He said he … Read more
Two years ago, Jenna Marie Duncan walked into a Cold Stone Creamery in Levittown, N.Y., and bought some pistachio ice cream. Some time thereafter — it’s not clear when — she decided to make a stink about the fact that the pistachio ice cream sold by Cold Stone Creamery doesn’t contain actual pistachios. By “make … Read more
“Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.” St. Thomas More Related PostsOrdinary People Today Enjoy Luxuries That Outshine Royalty of the Past The Pope vs. EWTN: too hot to handle? The Meaning of the Four Colors at Mass Revenge 14 Amazing Promises Jesus … Read more
The traditional thinking about the path to the top corporate executive leadership posts, reaching the so-called C-suite, is that it begins with earning an MBA degree. By contrast, the JD degree is thought of as one that prepares graduates for the practice of law, for government service, or for public interest advocacy. Since lawyers have … Read more
For decades, law school was a growth industry. Back in 1970, there were 146 law schools with an enrollment of 78,000 students; by 2013, there were 201 schools, enrolling 139,000 students. Enrollment peaked in 2010 at 147,000. (For the current year, it seems that enrollments will probably remain level with last year.) By 2015, we … Read more
If RBG wanted to be a lawmaker, she should have run for Congress. . . . Ruth Bader Ginsburg did a great many interesting and impressive things in her life, but she never did the one thing she probably really should have done: run for office. Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t an associate justice of the … Read more
The word “shyster” is one of the most objectionable words around to denote a lawyer. There are others, to be sure—as I’ve documented in Garner’s Dictionary of Legal Usage [3d ed. 2011], in an entry titled “Lawyers, Derogatory Names for”—but shyster is exceedingly pejorative. For many years, its derivation has seemed uncertain. Whenever that happens … Read more
Not content with stifling dissent at overwhelmingly leftist law schools, the progressive legal establishment is now threatening to trample conservative judges’ freedom of association. Their proposal should be shot down, and its remains should be buried. The proposal comes from the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States. It … Read more
As Trump reshapes the federal judiciary with staunch conservatives and controversial picks, some Harvard Law School students appear to be thinking twice about applying for clerk jobs with them, and passing up what are generally considered plum positions. … Harvard Law Students Avoid Applying For Clerkships With Trump-Appointed Judges Not sure this is a bad … Read more
I recently blogged about debt-to-income ratios among recent law school graduates from Department of Education data disclosures. … I suggested a “good” ratio would be less than 1.0 (i.e., total debt is less than total entry-level salary), which is a good rule of thumb for college. … I wanted to look at the other end—what … Read more
Law enforcement officials have arrested a Virginia lawyer involved in litigation over the health risks of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer product, with prosecutors accusing him of trying to extort an unnamed company into a $200 million consulting fee with his legal firm. Timothy Litzenburg, 37, was charged with interstate intentions to extort, the U.S. Department … Read more
A number of elite schools are near the top—despite their high debt levels, they translate into high median incomes among their graduates. A number of lower-cost schools also fare well near the top. A good rule of thumb is that “manageable” debt loads are those where debt is about equal to expected income at graduation—i.e., … Read more