Saturday, April 13, 2013

California Western School of Law is going to the dogs.



Can you mock something and approve of it at the same time? This photo depicts Neils Schaumann, President and Dean of the California Western School of Law, petting a dog. The photo appears on the "events calendar" of the California Western School of Law site and is meant to promote the school's Student and Diversity Services' "Law Dogs on Campus" event on April 15th. The California Western site urges law students to "[t]ake a finals study break and spend some quality time with trained therapy dogs."
 
I think this is a good idea. Therapy dogs have proven their value in providing comfort to persons suffering from anxiety or post-traumatic stress. The dogs selected to be trained as therapy dogs have particularly patient and affectionate dispositions, as the picture illustrates. Though, given that the animal depicted on the left is a fourth-tier law school dean, it is to be hoped that the animal on the right has recently gorged on beef liver and suffers from a temporarily inflamed bowel.
 
I expect that the California Western law students will get stress relief from petting these dogs, just as promised. So congratulations, without irony, to California Western Law School Student and Diversity Services for hosting a worthwhile event. 
 
The dogs don't care that California Western School of Law is a bottom-of-the-barrel law school, one of the 57 out of 201 ABA accredited schools that US News & World Report did not bother to rank.
 
The dogs don't care that the average graduate of the California Western School of Law is carrying  an incredible law school related debt of  $167,867, which is the second highest debt level among the 201 ABA accredited schools-- a debt level calculation, incidentally, that excludes undergraduate educational debt, and interest accrued thereon. [1]
 
The dogs don't care that the employment prospects of California Western law grads are dismal. Only 40.3% of the graduating class of 2012 obtained bar-required, full-time, long-term, non-solo jobs within nine months of graduation, and only 36.5% obtained such jobs in 2011. For both years, California Western's placement record was among the 40 worst of the 201 accredited law schools. [2]

The dogs don't care that California has had a severe and recurring budget crisis for several years,  so that the chances of a recent law grad obtaining a state public sector job remain worse there than elsewhere, which is saying a lot. Indeed, out of the 568 total members of California Western's graduating classes of 2011 and 2012, a mere 33 obtained a full-time judicial clerkship (at any level)  or a full-time government job within nine months of graduation. [3]

The dogs don't care that California has an unusually difficult bar exam.
 
The dogs don't care, but these points combined are likely to have a catastrophic impact on a graduating California Western law student's prospects in the human world. 
______________________________________________________
notes and links.
 
1. Edged out only by Thomas Jefferson School of Law, whose students graduate to a law school debt load of $168,800, and even worse job prospects than California Western's. Oh, San Diego, where is thy shame!
 
 





17 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Infinity posted a new youtube video:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/MrInfinityWTLS?feature=c4-feed-u

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nobody cares. Talk about it on your own blog, CrapRoach.

      Delete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If the therapy dog bit that dean, I guess it would prove that even THEY have their limits.

    Don't get too carried away "approving" of this initiative. I think we all know where the money for the dogs' handlers is going to come from.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zML4O5oPlfU&feature=youtu.be

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like the airplane flying games!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear World:

    There is something very important going on:

    http://freedream.biz/link/12101

    ReplyDelete
  8. To my knowlege, California has the most difficult Bar exam in the nation, followed by New York. The CA exam is 3 days, etc. Beyond that, it is 'comprehensive' (purposefully difficult).

    It seems that the "98%+ employed 9 mos. after graduation" figure - a lie - is finally being busted.

    The legal market is shit and has been for years. Only now is the Scam, finally, coming to light.

    California, as New York, is flooded with law schools, law students, and lawyers. Do we really need more Indentured Servants out there?

    How many more lives have to be ruined to feed the Law School Complex before real change occurs?

    These blogs do a service.

    Take heed, Lemmings. We are speaking to your future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL Paintroach! The whole problem is that YOU don't want to work!

      And YOU live with your parents!

      Umm, just what kind of service do these blogs do for YOU anyway? Do THEY ALLOW YOU to suck blood from the taxpayers?

      I told you over and over. Get a very easy to find and get US Government job and your loan debt will be discharged in ten years.

      LOL!!! I am collecting Buffalo Gold Nickels!

      Delete
    2. Painter is his own troll. That is the self-loathing at work.

      Delete
    3. @106,

      YOU'RE the idiot here - Roachie obviously wrote the 1236 note to himself.

      And @1236, You got me, I am collecting gold buffalo coins. (These "nickels" (?) have a face value of $50, and a market value of ~ $1525.) I hope the price goes down even further so I can buy a higher number of them next time.

      You keep saying that you are "too good" for this blog. So why do you keep posting on it, then?

      Delete
  9. Am I? I've got no debts and a fair amount in a bank account that would kind of indicate otherwise.

    And LOL, if you think they are a bad investment, you should definitely avoid them like the plague - or an honest day's work.

    I'll just go right on accumulating them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They should start bringing the dogs by at the point in time, usually about a year or two after graduation but sometimes sooner, when the alums realize they have made a very poor investment and have been seriously taken advantage of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The students would not be together in once place at that point though. How would the dogs get to them?

      Spoken like a true CWSL grad...

      Delete
  11. It would be a marvelous idea if they'd just give each student a free pound-puppy for signing up in school. That way, you won't graduate empty-handed (as long as the dog comes with a 3-year replacement warranty in case something goes wrong).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Southwestern Law School is busy trying to keep bad statistics and bad press coveredup. They knowingly admit students get their tuition and fees, and don't seem to care that they'll probably never pass the bar exam or get a job, and be shackled with huge law school tuition debt for much of their future.

    ReplyDelete