Two Worlds, Side by Side: ABA Journal & Letter from Law School

I received a letter from my law school subtly informing me that my name would be placed on “the permanent donor wall located near the entrance” if I gave a gift or commitment of $5,000. The same day, the ABA Journal published Bill Henderson’s article titled, “The Law School Bubble: How Long Will It Last [...]

Am Law Daily Essay ‘ABA Regs Don’t Cause Tuition Increases, Law Schools Do’

I rewrote my post from Monday for the Am Law Daily. It’s much better than the original with thanks to the Center for American Progress’ Julie Margaretta Morgan’s paper, “What Can We Learn from Law School?” Morgan lead me to a 2009 GAO Report on law schools that I hadn’t known about. Here’s a link [...]

Big U’s One Percenters

A while back, the ABA Journal ran a piece titled, “The One Percenters Include More Doctors than Lawyers.” I guess lawyers are supposed to take solace in not taking too much from the American till. The article was based on the New York Times Economix blog post, “The Top 1%: Executives, Doctors and Bankers,” which [...]

Dean Baker Thinks We Need More Unemployable Indebted Law Grads

Center for Economic Policy and Research co-director Dean Baker is probably this blog’s number one inspiration. He’s frequently right about the big issues (spec. the housing bubble) and I recommend people regularly read his blog, Beat the Press, but ironically he is completely utterly clueless when it comes to America’s law schools. I’ve adapted this [...]

It’s the Rent, Not the Regulations

“In 1995 … the Department of Justice in an antitrust suit … charged that A.B.A. standards had artificially inflated faculty salaries. The A.B.A. signed a consent decree, agreeing to a number of strictures intended to pry the process out of the hands of legal academics and end the fixing of salaries. Since then, the cost [...]

Good News! The Legal Sector Grew 2.3 Percent in 2010! The Bad News? Everything Else.

On December 13, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) updated its “GDP-by-Industry” page, which means it released all sorts of useful information on what happened to the legal sector of the U.S. economy in 2010, the sector that employs the vast majority of lawyers. Skipping the soup & salad, we find that in 2010, the [...]

Here’s Hoping Michael Olivas’ Views Are Not Widely Held by the AALS

Not that I care about the AALS, but, ya know, just sayin’. “‘We have never guaranteed that our graduates will have jobs,’[said Association of American Law Schools President Michael Olivas.] “Olivas, a law professor [and dean] at the University of Houston, makes a persuasive case that letting law school students escape their debts is a [...]

Discredited Cooley Arguments Just … Won’t … DIE!

Today’s installment of law school zombie arguments comes from none other than Nelson Miller, dean of Cooley’s branch campus in Grand Rapids, who asked for an editorial slot on The Careerist, operated by Vivia Chen, who writes, “[H]e wanted to present a view that’s ‘data-based.’” Miller then presents data that are wholly irrelevant. Data shows [...]

‘Law School Debt Bubble, Part II: Data Show Feds Will Lend $54.3 Billion to U.S. Law Schools by 2020′

‘Law School Debt Bubble, Part II: Data Show Feds Will Lend $54.3 Billion to U.S. Law Schools by 2020′ My fourth article is up on the Am Law Daily’s Web site. I redid the math and found that I low-balled it by a couple billion dollars. To make up for it, here’s some 60s garage [...]

Student Loan Bailout with a Whimper?

I listened to Cryn Johannsen and Robert Applebaum discuss loan forgiveness and a debtors strike on the Brian Lehrer show. I’m not sure how loan forgiveness would be operationalized, but the easiest way would be for the government to pass legislation authorizing the Fed to buy student loans off the market and then cancel them. [...]