PreLaw Law School Magazine
The Voice of Legal Education

Critical Issues in Legal Education

Why some grads are worse off, while others doing great

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 9:18am -- Jack

Are law grads really better off than 10 years ago? It depends on the law grad.

We just published a story that shows that, on average, recent law graduates have a better standard of living than they did in 1998 — by 74 percent for those who enter private practice and by 45 percent for those who enter public service.

But while the average has improved, one has to take a close look at the data to understand what really happened to the legal profession over the past ten years.

A 45% employment rate? How law school employment numbers are inflated

Wed, 06/15/2011 - 12:06pm -- Jack

By Jack Crittenden:

Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado, grabbed some attention in late April with a commentary piece in The New Republic that identified the true permanent employment rate for recent graduates at 45% — at best.

There has been a lot written in the past year about law school employment rates and the general consensus is that NALP’s 88.2 percent figure is misleading.

How legal education is changing, albeit slowly

Thu, 01/12/2012 - 12:00am -- admin

By Jack Crittenden

At this year’s annual gathering of law professors and law school administrators, known as the AALS Conference, the subject of change hung over the event as perhaps never before. All of the bad publicity about legal education over the past few years has not gone unnoticed by the leaders in legal education.

 

Indeed, there was more talk of change than ever before. And even more importantly, behind that talk, there is action.

What to do about misleading data

Fri, 10/14/2011 - 1:29pm -- admin

In the world of logic, we know that if both Villanova University and University of Illinois reported inflated LSAT and GPA numbers to U.S. News & World Report, then there are other schools who have also played fast and loose with their data.

Its all part of the rankings race that we wrote about last March. And many in legal education suspect that there are other culprits, just by looking at their data.

The Good News about the Dismal Salary Report

Wed, 07/13/2011 - 4:47pm -- Jack

The latest salary data shows a steep decline in median private starting salaries — down from $125,000 in 2008 to $104,000 for the Class of 2010. But while some firms are paying less, the real reason for the drop is that the large law firms are hiring fewer associates.

Salaries for new attorneys in public interest, government, academics and judicial clerkships are relatively flat.

Law firms with 251 to 500 attorneys dropped the most, from $160,000 to $145,000. Law firms with 51 to 100 attorneys dropped from $95,000 to $85,500, the greatest percentage change.

Did profanity bring Lawrence Connell down?

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 4:04pm -- Jack

by Jack Crittenden: The odd story of Lawrence Connell seems to pit academic freedom against discrimination and harassment. The tenured professor at Widener is accused of making racist and sexist remarks — most notably through a hypothetical in his criminal law class.

In that hypo, Connell described how he was upset with Linda Ammons, Widener’s dean, who is black. He went to shoot her, but instead shot an “ingeniously painted pumpkin” that looked like the dean. Connell then used the hypo to discuss attempted crimes.

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