Friday, April 26, 2013

Cheetos and Cheerleaders



Money Quote: "And someone should bring the Cheetos."

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"UB Law School Strategizes for World Wide Impact,"  by Ilene Fleischmann (UB Reporter)

The University of Buffalo Law School has it all: A "newly appointed director of global strategic initiatives," an accelerated JD program for students from outside the United States, and, yes, taking New York law to the world! One would think UB will need to raise money for this new global initiative.

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"[UB] Law School Launches $30 Million Campaign," by Charles Anzalone (UB News Center)

Oh, wait! The University of Buffalo Law School is launching a new fund raising campaign! The campaign's theme is "Our Time is Now." The kick-off is Friday, April 26, so there is still time to attend. Here's a fun down -- I mean run down -- of the festivities: "Festivities included in the ceremonies include: UB cheerleaders doing backflips and other acrobatics at 6:30 p.m.; collective cheers from the crowd spelling out the reason for the law school’s campaign at 6:35 p.m.; unveiling of an illuminated campaign sign showing money already raised for the campaign at 6:45 p.m.; and a firing of confetti cannons and a mass-audience waving of pom poms at the finale at 6:49 p.m." Maybe the collective cheer could be "D-E-B-T-R-E-L-I-E-F!" or "L-A-W-J-O-B-S-N-O-W!"

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"Our Opinion: UND Law School's Renovation Needs Approval," by Tom Dennis (The Grand Forks Herald)

Money Quote: "For the sake of all North Dakotans, who depend on the graduates of their law school to staff courtrooms and serve residents’ legal needs throughout the state, funding for the $12 million project must be assured."

Why must it be assured? "The American Bar Association accredits law schools, and the association has made itself clear: In 2007, the ABA’s site visit report called the law school’s building ‘less than adequate,’ ‘cramped’ and ‘substandard,’” the State Bar Association of North Dakota reports. The team stated that a major addition to and renovation of the law school was ‘crucial to the success and future of the school.’ That’s accreditation-speak for 'Do it, or else.'"

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Published on Apr 25, 2013
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- On today's "Off The Charts," Bloomberg's chief markets correspondent Scarlet Fu examines the soaring costs of legal school tuition, growing nearly 10 percent per year since 1985 as average salaries have recently declined. She reports on Bloomberg Television's "Market Makers."

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"Should you go to law school?" by Rosa Brooks (FP National Security)

Since dream jobs in national security and foreign policy are difficult and difficult to come by, a discussion as to whether law school is a viable option...and Ms. Brooks' (a law professor) answer is "maybe" with caveats.

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"ABA Panel Struggles for Answers on Law School Reform," by Karen Sloan (National Law Journal)

Money Quote: "It turns out that if you ask 30 different law professors, practitioners, judges and bar association leaders how to fix legal education, you'll get about 30 different answers."


11 comments:

  1. When will we see ABA-accredited commodes start Intergalactic Law programs? After all, this is such a prestigious field.

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  2. U of Buffalo's international expansion = sucker in rich&naive LLM students from Asia who are either buying a vacation&credential before returning home OR very naively believe they can use their LLM to work in America.

    Carole Silver has done some research on this. Few LLMs remain. Few can get a job. Alot dream of doing it.

    I've heard from a law professor that right now law schools are trying to compensate for falling JD applications by putting out a dragnet for Asian LLM students. Sad.

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  3. Here's an addition to your news roundup:

    Sallie Mad just cancelled an attempted issuance of 225M in student-loan-backed securities, because of lack of investor demand.

    http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/04/27/shocker-no-one-wants-to-buy-student-loan-backed-securities/

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    1. That's very interesting. Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention.

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    2. I thought so too. One doesn't know which way to feel about this - on the one hand the derivatives market going BOOM would spread the contagion of student loans beyond the student-debtors and the government, forcing some attention to the issue. Compare to, as Ben Shalom Bernanke so eloquently pointed out, federally-guaranteed student loans which present no threat to the broader economy (that Ben cares about) because, well, they're federally-backed; they're sovereign debt! Never mind the slack demand for houses, kids, cars, the would-be demand of having a life! The federal student loan bubble cannot pop except on the backs of the debtors (as long as the sovereign is solvent). It's like the "log-jam" in the system after the housing bubble: banks holding houses on their balance sheets w/pre-2006 valuations they didn't have to mark-to-market. Here, students holding loans on their records that the government doesn't even anticipate will be repaid (hence loan "forgiveness"), but the government refuses to officially write-down or write-off, because it exposes the insolvency. The Fed can't afford a trillion dollar hit, so we'll never get bankruptcy protection back, even while all acknowledge that repayment is a farce.

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  4. http://www.lawjournalbuffalo.com/news/article/current/2013/05/06/104634/law-school-faces-down-enrollment-challenges

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