I have a paying legal position

To my critics who say otherwise, I do have a paying legal position that will exist after law school.  Further, this position has allowed me to take time off to go study for the bar outside of the country. 

For those who do not believe me, that is fine.  I do not acknowledge my critics much more, because I have fully proven that they are incorrect.  I now know that finding a legal job out of law school is not only possible, but it is quite easy if you know where to look.

For example, my current position found me.  At least, I do not remember applying for the position, and after going through the few companies that I did apply for (seven at the most this year), I have felt perplexed how I was chosen.  Either way, I was hired on the spot and have enjoyed my time so far with this firm.  The people are quite nice and helpful.  The law partners are respectful and well known not only across the city, but nationally.

Again, I did not even have to apply for a legal job.  For those who say the legal economy is broken, my experience, and the experience of other students that I have been talking to proves that the naysayers are often wrong.  Of course, it is very hard to prove that over the internet, and I really do not care to.  I have my own life, and I am very happy with it.  I am blessed to have this job, and I do believe that it is a part of my faith, my outlook on life, and my thankfulness to God that has helped me to find this position.  I honestly do believe that those people who are not thankful for what they have will never be happy. 

Furthermore, I do not post the information on having found a legal job to brag.  I hope that all of my readers and law school graduates find success in their endeavors.  I had a strategy in mind for finding a legal job, a strategy that I thought was sound (and no, it's not blindly sending resumes, which I am against).  I will not be able to pursue that strategy right after graduation because I have a job. 

For those of you who thought this blog would be interesting, because I would be spiteful for not finding a job, I am sorry to have disappointed you.  Even if I did not find a job I would not be spiteful.  Instead, I have other options in life.  I would be content teaching English overseas (in fact, I will be taking the TOEFL after the bar) and it is something that I may do in the future.  Furthermore, I would be content going back to school if the legal economy was as bad as some say and getting a higher degree in Economics. 

Life is full of options.  Those who do not see the options in life are those who sell themselves short.  Of course, I try to pound this point home, but it falls on deaf ears.  But that is not my problem.  At the end of the day you have to live with yourself.  For those of you who are reading this behind the comfort of your computer screen, take a look in the mirror, and ask yourself if you are really who you wish you were.

Reveling in failure

To Keith Lee at Associate's Mind when faced with failure, millenial lawyers "revel in it." Instead of going out and finding a job, millenials are content to sit at home and whine about the law school scam on the Internet or take the audacious step of suing their alma maters. Finally, in a call to action, Mr. Lee, 32, asks "If new lawyers cannot solve the problem of their own millenial malaise, how do they ever expect clients to trust them with their problems?"

Mr. Lee is one of the lucky ones who got a law job in short order. But, his article is in rather poor taste. Most young lawyers are not as lucky as Mr. Lee. The BLS statistics show that the average law school graduate is more likely to wait tables than to practice law. So the lucky few like Mr. Lee should try to offer real solutions to graduates. How did you find your job, Mr. Lee? How might your experience help others? Reading through Associate's Mind brings to mind the self-aggrandizing attitudes found in most "blawgers" twice his age. Mr. Lee's attitude seems to be "I'm working so hard, while those without jobs are sitting at home watching Maury Povich." Why not stop rubbing salt in the wounds of those who were left behind in this historically bad job market?

The debt loads carried by today's graduates are rising with no end in sight. I looked at the historical tuition data for Texas Tech, as it is one of the few law schools that publishes comprehensive tuition data. Between 1990 and 2012, tuition and fees for out of state students for an entire school year rose from $5,947 to $31,847.10. Lawyers in earlier generations were able to pay their loans off within a few years, given a steady income. Today, most graduates are facing 30 year repayment plans or IBR payments for 25 years with an income tax time bomb attached at the end. Mr. Lee either doesn't care or doesn't want to understand that having a $1500 per month loan payment severely restricts the career options of most new grads. I graduated in 2004 and in my last semester, my university uncapped tuition rates and instituted a 20% increase in tuition that very semester. When all was said and done, I owed a little more than $54,000 upon graduation. Only 8 years later, students from the same school are carrying at least twice that amount of debt upon graduation. If a grad today does not have a steady income, life stops.

Articles like Mr. Lee's are built on false assumptions and a lack of touch with reality. How do you pull up your bootstraps if you can't even get a boot in the first place?

Deans Gone Wild

"Law Faculty Plotted to Oust Dean,"  by Cory Weinberg (The GW Hatchet)

Money Quote: "“I kept thinking of that old proverb, ‘If you go after the king, you better make sure you take the king out,’ ” one full-time law professor said. “We didn’t take the king out, but the king took himself out.”

Inside story of the near coup of former George Washington Law School Dean Paul Schiff Berman.

Hat tip to Not Relevant who recommends a visit to the comment thread in which insiders debate how said former King, err, Dean treated subordinates, err, faculty and lemmings, err, students.

*****

"Law School Dean Regrets 'Censorship' of Chief Justice Robert's Visit," by Robert Barnes (Washington Post)

Lewis & Clark Law School Dean Robert Klonoff manages to turn coup of having sitting U S Supreme Court Justice presiding over moot court competition into public relations disaster by requiring college paper to submit story of big visit to Roberts for approval before publication.

*****

"New dean of SLU law school sets course for future," by Tim Barker (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

SLU Law School welcomes its fourth leader since 2010. What could possibly be the root cause for such discord? "The school’s problems, observers say, are reflected in the school’s most recent evaluation by U.S. News and World Report, which publishes closely watched rankings of colleges and universities every year."

Prospective Pre-Law Students Plan Non-Traditional Careers

No.  No.

No No NO NO NO!

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/forget_law_practice._half_of_surveyed_prelaw_students_plan_to_use_law_degre/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email

Stop it.  Just stop it.  Look at my handle - "dupednontraditional".  I was a (1) non-traditional student who went to law school for a (2) non-traditional, "JD preferred" career.

Let me say it again: my handle is DUPEDNONTRADITIONAL.

Normally, I try to write out a thoughful commentary on these topics.  Not this time.  I'm too mad at the Law School cartel to do it justice.  Just read the comments.  Take them to heart.  Do not do this.

Look at JDUnderground:

http://www.jdunderground.com/all/thread.php?threadId=44730

Read the comments.  Do not do this.

Law School is for being an entreprenurial, gunslinging lawyer, if you can even make it as a lawyer in the first place, assuming you have significant backing.  Period.  Read my posts.  Read this blog.  Read my blog from before I started posting on OTLSS.  You will note a pattern.  The pattern is bad.

ScamDeans and LawProfs will try to tell you that you there are all kinds of things you can do with a "versatile" law degree.  Do not believe them.  Do not do this.

I make no money doing this.  I get no accolades.  I do this to prevent others from making the same mistake.  I have no motiviation to say what I say, other than to try to prevent more well-meaning people from getting chained to an albatross of debt with no prospects.

Do not go to Law School for a non-traditional, so-called-versatile reason.  That is all.

Today's News Round Up

"State bar panel calls for law school reforms," by Chris Dettro (State Journal-Register)

Another article about the Illinois Bar Association Report. It contains many practical suggestions so likely nothing will become of it.

"People are paying way too much to go to mediocre NYC law schools," by Business Insider

Bottom line is that lemmings will pay a premium just to go to a NYC law school.

"Colleges struggling to stay afloat," by Jeffrey L. Salingo (New York Times)

Colleges have been on a spending spree and now their bond ratings are on the decline. A warning to check out a prospective college's financial health before enrolling.

"Northwestern School of Law Dean comes out in support of admitting undocumented immigrants,"  by Cat Zakrzewski (The Daily Northwestern)

Most deans would probably support admitting anyone with a pulse right about now.

"Baltimore shows off its new law school buildings," by Karen Sloan (National Law Journal)

A new $112M law school building!

"WMU's Board of Trustees votes to pursue formal alliance with Cooley Law School," by Yvonne Zipp (MLive)

I think we all knew how this vote would come down. This should be really interesting to watch develop.

"Students foresee promising legal futures,"  by The Knox Student

Yes, those challenging liberal arts degrees foretell promising legal futures.

"Burger King Resignation Letter: How not to announce you're going to law school," by Mitch Kowalski (Financial Post)

Probably should have kept the day job....

"Blair Foulkes, a recovering lawyer, is taking a minimalist approach in his quest for contentment," by Daphne Bramham (Vancouver Sun)

Another cautionary tale -- practicing law can make you sick and flee to Canada. How many practicing lawyers have dreamed of doing this?

"The entire legal profession is on the verge of imploding,"  by Steven Harper (Business Insider)

Harper continues to promote his book.

Comments allowed again

Comments are now allowed. Without moderation

Oh my! Bell tolls for Broke Law Schools as Spring melts Special Snowflakes Away‏

The same ruthless calculation that led colleges to milk their law-schools into near fatal mastitis will also tend to lead the same colleges to decide that that it’s time that dried up old milk cow went to McDonalds. —MacK Comment from other Blog

The above is a very apropos comment to LawProf's discussions of the increasing budgetary problems caused by declining enrollment in law school. In particular, the original post discussed the greater probability of entire law schools closing instead of just some internal budgetary reform within a school; it turns out that actually reforming a law school budget is too difficult due to the various (inflexible) financial and social interests involved. There is no repairing the ship in drydock, as it were, but she must be scuttled. For instance, cutting faculty salaries is a socially problematic decision, and laying off high-earning faculty even more difficult because of tenure. But the parent universities can easily shut the whole thing down at once, tenure or nay. Cute, isn't it? Tenure makes them individually unfireable—but jointly helpless. My academic freedom! Oy! Not if they are all fired at once by virtue of their being no school to teach at. I have a feeling that dismissed "Profussers",as enablers of the scam, will not be given much sympathy in certain places. It will be a magical day when the first TTTT law school announces it will close at the end of the academic year, and the postings of joy throughout the "scamblogs" ensue.

This situation cuts right to the moral heart of the matter. The law school administration and faculty are not morally or ethically driven, but pragmatic, at least when it comes to pursuing their own interests. Pragmatic is actually a (from a) Greek word meaning "no principals" or "no predisposition" (i.e., amoral). It simply does whatever works to complete its agenda. The ScamDeans and Flaw Schools have done exactly that. They have had the social leverage to take as much federal-backed student loan money as they can carry, and they done that, jacking up tuition as fast as they could open new law schools. (MOAR superfluous degrees! Ok, career counselors, repeat after me: if they ask about jobs, just say versatile, versatile, versatile. Close enough for horseshoes!) 

But they have painted themselves into a corner. The sk00lz bet everything on unlimited human arrogance and ignorance, in the form of what we now call special snowflakes, but the even the frostiest Special Snowfall eventually clears up. The sunshine of reality is slow to thaw, but it will. Thousands of students are opting out of applying and attending to law school compared to just a few years ago. (See also why). The springtime is here; applications keep declining, and with decreased LSAT scores to prevent schools from "hiding the decline". 

The establishment has nothing to fall back on. It has no good graces outside of totally clueless (and financially successful) boomers who think the profession is the same as it was under the Ford Administration, back when a 'Stang cost $3250 with a SelectShift Cruise-O-Matic. No one likes the schools, and no one will speak in their defense besides shills and profiteers. There will not be thousands of regular graduates of the Seton Halls out there protesting if the parent university closes down their precious J.D.-Alma Mater. Imagine if they tried to close down a real university; there would be protests. But a BLS? A CUA? A WUSTL or however you spell it? No one would mourn, except for the owners (Deans & Professors), since they are the almost only ones (of late) to have benefited from it.

That is the sweet irony; although without leadership, permanent structural reform is still unattainable, at least some minor justice will be done. There simply cannot be an endless expansion of a worthless-degree; eventually retraction begins, as it already has. The ScamDeans know this, and are more concerned than they dare let on. Which TTTT will break first? One will, and then another. The spell will be broken even more so, like a cheap knockoff Harry Potter wand from eBay being manhandled by a hyperactive clumsy kid with poor hand-eye coordination and knobby hands. The Scamdean/"Professors" have turned their back on everybody else, and starting at the worst offending schools, soon everybody else will be turning their back on them.

Remember your meditations: And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee, thou absurdly-tuition-inflated fake-job-placement-numbers worthless-credential granting TTTT "law" school that doesn't even teach "law".

____________________________________________________________
Read my book-length satire/exposé of law school, Smarter Than Socrates: The End of the Law School Era.