Seton Hall Law Cuts on Chopping Block?

"A Law School's Possible Purge of its Junior Faculty Ranks,"  by David Latt (Above the Law)

Money Quote: "Last week, we heard reports of one law school basically axing its entire junior faculty. All of the untenured professors received notice that their contracts might not be renewed for the 2014-2015 academic year. Ouch. As is so often the case, though, there's more to this story than meets the eye....The law school in question is Seton Hall University School of Law (#64 in the U.S. News rankings, and #36 in Above the Law rankings). The cuts are possible, not definite, and the school hopes that it won't have to follow through on the notices."

UPDATED (With Hat Tip to Adam B.)"Seton Hall Law School Cuts Faculty by 10%; Gives Notice to All Untenured Faculty of Possible Termination" by Paul Campos (Lawyers Guns & Money)

*****

"Law School Graduates Face Tough Job Market, High Student Loan Debt," by Brian Smith (MLive)

Money Quote: "The caps and gowns have been folded and put away and the celebratory balloons have shriveled. But for law school graduates busy studying for the upcoming bar exam, the balloons aren't the only thing that's deflated: so are their chances of finding a job and paying down six-figure student loan debts, particularly for graduates of the state's two private law schools [Cooley Law School and the University of Detroit Mercy]."

And, later: "Cooley, which has its primary campus in Lansing and satellite campuses in Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Grand Rapids and Tampa Bay, Fla., produced 1,079 graduates in the class of 2012, or more than the other four Michigan schools combined. Of those, 264 have failed to find work for an unemployment rate of 24.46 percent. The school also lacks employment information on an additional 9.5 percent of the class."

Given that Michigan is graduating 6.5 law students for every job opening, the numbers in this article don't look kosher to me and the writer didn't seem to grasp that these jobs included both barista and barrister. Even though the headline is a warning, I can see prospective students thinking 75% of grads found jobs as lawyers.

*****

"Legal Merger Shows Rise in Criminal Defense Status," by Peter Lattman (New York Times Dealbook)

Money Quote: "As firms struggle to increase revenue, they realize that representing business people behaving badly is good for the bottom line."

Big Law holds its nose and merges.

*****

"CUNY is Paying David Petraeus $200,000 to Work Three Hours a Week," by J.K. Trotter (Gawker)

Money Quote: "A first-time adjunct professor teaching a full course load at the City University of New York can expect to pull in around $25,000 per year. If you recently resigned as C.I.A. director over a long-time affair with your biographer, however, you can expect to be paid eight times as much for a fraction of the work."

Turns out CUNY couldn't nail down a donor for $50,000 of this so Petraeus is only going to make $150,000. But still, for three hours a week? Petraeus should have tried for one of those vacation home sweet-heart deals at NYU.

*****

"Higher Default Rates than Grad Rates," by Mary Beth Marklein, Jodi Upton and Sandhya Kambhampati (USA Today)

Money Quote: "More than 260 colleges and universities in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have students who are more likely to default on their loans than full-time freshmen are to graduate, an analysis of federal data shows."

Too bad they don't extend this study to law schools.