Read My Essay on The Am Law Daily; I’m Helping Law Schools Avoid Lawsuits

“Dear Prospective Law Students, Do Not ‘Reasonably Rely’ on Cooley’s ‘Report One’” Also, I’m off to see former Hüsker Dü and Sugar member, Bob Mould, play in Brooklyn. Hüsker Dü was from my home state, Minnesota, so here’s some of his music.

At Least the Strib Didn’t Call It a “Golden Ticket”

“Law school is no longer a sure bet. Would-be students are noticing.” –Jenna Ross, “Slump in law school applicants,” Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) Progress perhaps? *Sigh* The swell of students applying to law school — despite growing debt and contracting job prospects — has slowed. ?? “Despite” growing debt and contracting job prospects? Not “Because [...]

Income Elasticity: Why The ABA is Not an Apolitical Trade Organization

Writing on lawyer oversupply and demand for legal services Andrea Hable concludes: [M]aybe we’re framing the question wrong. Maybe there are too many lawyers for the legal profession as it stands today. But maybe there aren’t too many lawyers for society. If we all practiced more efficiently, and if we could have our ideal jobs [...]

But I Deflated the Economy Right!

Enter the BIDER Via Nicole Battles in JDs Rising, we have Andrea Hable’s, “Law School Debt Survey Results,” in the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Practice Blawg. Ms. Hable conducted an unofficial and admittedly unrepresentative sample of Minnesota lawyers’ debt situations. Minnesota (my home state) as I frequently point out, is one of the most attorney [...]

Postmortem on the 2010 Westlaw Professionalism Panel & Thoughts on Attorney Oversupply

You probably don’t know this, but I sat on a Westlaw Professionalism webcast panel on December 30th.  Towards the end, I laid out what the tuition bubble is and remarked how the ratio of attorneys per capita has dropped from 695:1 in 1951 to 264:1 in 2000, and that one projection sighted it at 100:1 [...]

Dr. Byrds & Mr. Links—Yes, But What Happens if Law School Transparency Succeeds?

The legal web-o-sphere spares me with only four links over the past few weeks. (1) Betsy Z. Russell, “Labrador Still Saddled with Student Debt,” in The Spokesman-Review Idaho’s new representatives (the only one, for I think the other’s an incumbent) still has a mountain of law school debt to pay off.  Good thing a 2-year [...]

Minnesota Taxpayers to Reduce Subsidies to Law School Tuition Bubble

[Update]: Scammed Hard! reports the University of Minnesota’s instructors’ salaries via the Star Tribune. This is how Adam Daniels should’ve titled his Minnesota Daily article instead of “After Cuts, Law School Eyes Future: A 50 percent cut in two years translates to increased tuition.” In two years, the state will cut its payments to the [...]

Dear ABA Committee Chair, No, It’s Not That Complicated. Signed, The Legal Profession

Heather Diersen follows up her JDs Rising piece, “Dear Law School, It’s All Your Fault.  Signed, Recent Grad,” with, “Dear Recent Grads, It’s More Complicated Than That.  Signed, The ABA,” in which she parses an interview she conducted with ABA Accreditation Committee chair, Jay Conison, also dean of Valparaiso University School of Law.  Dean Conison [...]

Links Dances—JDs Rising Gets the Tuition Bubble

Just so you know, I’ve never heard the Who’s Face Dances–a mystery I’m happy to leave unsolved. Kelly Francis, “Law School Debt and the Mortgage Meltdown,” in JDs Rising Mark Cohen, “Law School Debt: It’s Broke, Why Won’t Anyone Fix It?” in MinnLawyer Blog Comparing legal education to the subprime mortgage market, Francis writes a [...]

Reformers, Futile Gesturers, Blamers, and Loss-Cutters: Adventures in Anger, Personal Responsibility, and Positive Thinking

I open with sources; doodles to follow. Heather Diersen, “Dear Law School: It’s All Your Fault. Signed, Recent Grad,” in JDs Rising Mary Beth Marklein, “Grads Taking Law Schools to Task for Poor Job Market,” in USA Today Don Peck, “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America,” in The Atlantic Susan Carter Liebel, “Don’t [...]