Brian Tamanaha recently wrote a great piece criticizing self-styled leftists on law school faculties. He admonished the famous "Crits" for hypocrisy. He also called out SALT (Society of Law Teachers) for vigorously defending law school tenure practices on the basis of "academic freedom," while ignoring the blindingly obvious reality that the costs associated with tenure impose considerable hardship on debt-ridden students.
And I am leftist myself, I guess. I have read lots of Chomsky and Nader and find their critiques of corporate power and imperialism to be persuasive. I would probably even endorse the substance of Tamara Piety’s writing about the corporate personhood doctrine if I could tolerate her style or persona for the span of a single paragraph.
But having good principles and ideals does not excuse callous and immoral behavior, and does not excuse scamming. Does a law professor worry about oppression or bigotry, in the U.S. or abroad? Good. Is the professor’s critique of oppression rendered into pompous sounding jargon for purposes of careerism? Less good. And does the professor, with all those high-minded principles and concerns, ignore or participate in scamming those who should be at or near the center of his or her moral concern– his or her own students? Not good, not good at all.
Take Thomas Jefferson law Professor Kaimipono Wenger, a man who clearly hates injustice. Though male and white, he was the Lead Faculty Organizer of the 2010 Women and Law Conference at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, which focused on "Women of Color and Intersectionality." He has also written law review articles supporting reparations for the descendants of slaves. Wenger’s experience as a practicing lawyer is modest--a one year district court clerkship and just under three years as a litigation associate with Cravath--but he more than compensates for that in nobility of soul.
So how does this injustice-hating man react to the suffering of graduates of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, i.e. the kids who borrowed a fortune and dumped it into the pockets of Wegner and his colleagues in the belief that they would receive a professional education that would allow them to make a living? What does he have to say about a school that graduates kids with the highest debt load of any of the 201 ABA accredited schools-- an incredible $168,800, not counting undergraduate debt? What does he have to say when that same school has one of the lowest placement rates among the law schools, with a mere 23.8% of 2012 grads obtaining full-time bar-required jobs within nine months of graduation? He says this:
"I have my own biases on the matter, of course, but I think there are a lot of reasons someone might want to be part of the TJSL community
Thomas Jefferson Law School has an excellent faculty, including some real stars. Alfred Brophy wrote in the Connecticut Law Review a few years ago that outside observers "might not be familiar with Thomas Jefferson's strong hiring patterns of recent years, which has included such strong scholars as Julie D. Cromer, Deven Desai, Kevin J. Greene, Linda M. Keller, Sandra L. Rierson, and Kaimipono David Wenger.". . . .The school has continued this trend with recent hires like Rodney Smith, a nationally recognized sports law expert and the former Dean at Memphis, the University of Arkansas, and other schools. The most recent report from Roger Williams lists Thomas Jefferson Law School in the category of "Schools 41-80" in terms of faculty productivity. . . .Within the past five years, the faculty has published books with Cambridge (Susan Bisom-Rapp), NYU (Julie Greenberg, Marjorie Cohn), Oxford (Susan Tiefenbrun, Kenneth Vandevelde), and Thompson, Carolina, West, and other publishers (too many authors to list). . . . Not to mention hundreds of law review articles, one of which by Bryan Wildenthal was recently cited multiple times by the U.S. Supreme Court in the McDonald case[.]
Oh, and there's also an annual Women and Law series which brings star scholars to campus every year -- people like Kimberle Crenshaw, Vicki Schultz, and Martha Fineman -- and which has featured Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg twice in the past ten years. . .
On top of that, the school has a nationally ranked externship program; a student body that is among the most racially and ethnically diverse of any law school; a spectacular and award-winning building; and a trail-blazing incubator program (recently highlighted by Time [M]agazine and the New York Times) that supports some of our recent graduates as they build up their practices.
We've certainly got our challenges, like everyone else. But I think we've got the pieces in place to address concerns and move forward, and I look forward to working with Dean Guernsey in this process."http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2013/04/thomas-guernsey-named-dean-of-thomas-jefferson-law.html (comment by Kaimipono Wenger, April 08, 2013 at 06:55 PM).
You, Wenger, are a professor at a scam school. Yes, a scam that takes place in a 90 million dollar award-winning building is still a scam. Even if Mr. Alfred Brophy approves of the scam's hiring patterns, it is still a scam. The conferences, the law review articles, the name-dropping, the celebrity cameos, the, uh, "nationally recognized sports law expert"-- how does all that change the fact that almost nobody in the legal profession respects a Thomas Jefferson law degree? Your pride in Thomas Jefferson's racially and ethnically diverse student body is as preposterous as some con-artist boasting that his victims came from many diverse cultures.And, while everybody has their challenges as you say, your moral challenge is recognizing your moral responsibilities towards the kids whose misplaced trust made you rich and cozy.
I have been practicing for nearly 20 years, and I never heard of the people he is referring to. nor have I read any o ftho books or articles written by them. lol. of well.
ReplyDelete"Strong scholar" means a person who has published a handful of unread articles on critical neo-Rawlsian constructions of the intersectionality of law and hip-hop.
DeleteHey ya'll. I know I've mentioned this before, but just to reiterate, try to use scammers' and scam schools' full names. So instead of writing "TJL" write "Thomas Jefferson Law School." It'll help in the SEO. Meaning, when "kids" go to Google to search Thomas Jefferson Law School, hopefully, the second result (first is asking a lot) is a blog edited by disgruntled law students instead of their admissions site, which it is right now.
DeleteIt would also be good to do that with the names of particularly vile scammers. So instead of bringing up their amazing law review article on the 19th century common law and how it intersects with the property rights of the long-billed dowitcher, curious parties would be directed here.
(Please excuse grammar)
Also, these acronyms serve to lend the scam schools an undeserved dignity, as if they were so well-known and important that they could be reasonably called by an acronym. That's fine for a UCLA or an NYU but not for some such godforsaken shithole as Thomas Jefferson Law School.
DeleteSuppose that, during sentencing, Bernie Madoff had boasted about the gracious homes and fancy offices he had bought with the proceeds of his scam. Suppose he had mentioned the broad ethnic representation of his victims. Suppose he had brought up the interesting performers he had hired with his dirty money. Do you suppose a judge might have decided to offer him probation for being such a gracious and sensitive guy?
ReplyDeleteIn that situation, I'm certain the judge adds a few hundred more years to his imprisonment, just for being such a hard-headed jerk.
Great article, dybbuk! Again, these academic thieves only care about themselves. They will do and say anything to keep the gravy train rolling along. The students are a means to an end.
ReplyDeleteIn the final analysis, no one gives a rat's ass if the school has "top scholars" - if it ranked in the third or fourth tier. That doesn't help the students find legal jobs. No employer gives a damn if your school had one of the leading "sports law experts," even if you took courses from said "expert."
The schools keep propping up their garbage image by pointing out - online, in their glossy brochures, and at law school fairs - that they have the 5th best environmental law program in the country or the 2nd best legal writing program of all ABA-accredited commodes. Again, employers don't care about such nonsense.
By the way, the only way in hell you will make money as an "environmental lawyer" is if you represent the major polluters/pigs. Of course, the ads and pamphlets for such programs bill themselves as leftist ways to do good.
Vermont Law School, with its supposedly fine program in "environmental law", appears to be circling the drain. Even if it did have a good program in "environmental law", it would still be a toilet.
DeleteGood blog post. I have been wondering lately - how close are we really to seeing a law school shut down? I imagine there will be a lot that these pigs will try to do before they actually have to shutter their doors. IE - ask local, state and fed govt for bailout money, continue to increase tuition until enrollment drops to 0, beg alumni for money under the premise that if they shut down, their degree is basically worthless, etc. I would love to see VLS, CW, various Cooley franchises and others shut down ASAP, but is it likely to happen within the next few cycles?
DeleteNando,
DeleteSo true about environmental law.
Any current or prospective Toileteer with dreams of working for the Sierra Club, the ACLU, the SPLC or the NRDC, or as a AUSA had better get a grip. The people who run these agencies and organizations are not remotely interested in Toileteers. They want top-notch, T14 grads with years if not decades of experience, and they hire maybe - maybe - one or two attorneys every couple of years.
My particular Toilet touts itself as being 2nd ranked in the country with it's Intellectual Property Certificate program. It is always having circle-jerk seminars with the other TTTs in the city. I made the mistake of going to one.
If the "Recent Developments in Federal Circuit Case Law" seminar is representative, these events are populated by
(1) shabby, desperate looking unemployed Toileteers trying to network;
(2) the occasional successful attorney who is looking for some cheap CLE;
(3) desperate 2L and 3L's trying to network and show everyone how smart they are with their articulate and intelligent questions; and
(4) a few blowhard presenters looking to put a few tidbits on their online profile.
Lemmings, it's a scam. Do not be fooled. Writing onto the "Law of Academic Douchebaggery" at your Toilet will not help you get a job. Getting a "certificate" in IP or Tax or whatever from your toilet will not get you a job.
The only way you're going to get a decent paying job as an attorney is if you (a) attend a top 10 school, (b) have a connected relative or (c) get to the very top at the rest of the schools. (c) as a possibility is so remote that I even hesitate to put it on the list.
My experience shows that (a) and (c) aren't enough. Really, the best way to get a decent job as a lawyer is (b). Those of us who were born to the wrong parents made a fatal mistake at conception.
DeleteI'm anticipating the day when the shabby, desperate, job-seeking crowd is comprised not of former TTT students, but of former TTT professors.
DeleteI can foresee a certain justice, so to speak, in that event.
I'm the poster at 9:26. To the poster at 2:16, .... You and me both buddy!
DeleteBut you have to admit his brother has done a great job at Arsenal.
ReplyDeleteToo many ****ing foreigners.
DeleteSo is Thomas Jefferson going to start a soccer team? Further demonstrating their commitment to diversity?
DeleteI don't know... did you see that ludicrous display last night? Always trying to walk it in...
DeleteWenger is that rarest of rare birds - a left-wing Mormon.
ReplyDeleteFrom an old CV:
"I’ve done a variety of volunteer work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. I served as an unpaid church missionary in Guatemala between 1993 and 1995. I’ve held various ecclesiastical leadership positions since, and have also served as a church organist and pianist."
I guess as long as he tithes, it doesn't matter how dirty his money is.
"I served as an unpaid church missionary": First, they're all unpaid. Second, this just means that he comes from money. He could not have gone flogging magical underwear and mythical golden tablets in Guatemala if he had had an assload of debt from law school.
DeleteThis seems to be generally true across the board. "Interesting opportunities" and "no assload of debt" seem to be highly correlated.
DeleteTrying to say "you can, too!" seems very dishonest, especially as far as law school is concerned. Maybe the faculty and staff of various law schools can attend a special ethics seminar at Indiana Tech and rethink their own brand of evangelism.
He probably would have done his mission before going to law school. Young men from serious Mormon families are pretty much required to go on missions, its like an initiation rite.
DeleteA mission costs a lot of money. Mor(m)ons have to support themselves for two years and pay for their own travel and other expenses. Typically they are not allowed to work where they are posted (they wouldn't even get a work permit), and anyway they're supposed to spend their time spreading the mythology of Joseph Smith and Jesus.
DeleteI'm thinking that andre pondscum is yet another commie-progressive Mormon. Something about Mormons who get tenure-track positions makes them go crazy with pretension and conceit.
DeleteI don't think Mormons are unique in that regard. There's something about anyone who gets a tenure-track position...
DeleteMy father used to do business with a Mormon in Utah who was a real straight shooter. He told my father that you should always go fishing with two Mormons because that way you wouldn't have to worry about your beer.
DeleteJune 24, 2013:
ReplyDelete"TJSL Dean Rudy Hasl is pleased to report that the Board of Trustees, at its June 6 meeting, approved the recommendations of the faculty and the Dean that Professors Alex Kreit and Kaimipono Wenger be granted tenure"
Saved from the faculty cutbacks! (For a while, anyway.)
Of course, the dean and other professors are out of their minds on this one. Tenure destroys bottom-tier Institutions; more tenure destroys them even faster.
DeleteI hope their entire gang enjoys getting canned together. Few of them have any chance of ever working as attorneys again.
TJSL Enrollment from 2010 to 2013:
ReplyDelete2010: 361
2012: 300
2013: 259
= - 28.3%
That's a substantial reduction, though not as drastic as some other West Coast Total Toilet schools:
Western Pacific: -56%
Golden Gate: -53%
McGeorge:-52%
USF: -36%
I suppose the reason they haven't cut back more is that they owe a lot of money (in bonds, I suspect) to pay for that new $90 million building, in addition to paying profs like Kaimipono Wenger for their politically-correct "creative writing".
TJSL was recently in the news for budget cuts:
"San Diego’s Thomas Jefferson School of Law joins Florida Coastal and Hamline as prominent recent admits into legal academia’s ICU:
The Thomas Jefferson School of Law will begin a new semester Monday with 12 fewer employees after the administration cut $4.4 million from its budget because of declining enrollment. Thomas Guernsey, who took over as dean of the school on July 1, said Thursday that some adjunct faculty and other staff members were laid off. Fourteen classes that had low enrollment or were highly specialized were eliminated, he said."
TJSL has nothing to offer its students, except for an apology and refund check.
The school exists for the sole purpose of providing cushy high-paying jobs to the deans and profs. Let's hope that future applicants boycott these pigs, the school defaults on its bonds, and the scam ends. If this sinkhole drops another 50-60 students next year, it will be in real crisis.
Here are some more stats. According to Law School Transparency, the median LSAT score for the 2012 entering class at TJLS was a chuckle inducing 148. Even more laughable, the median GPA for the class was a pathetic 2.93. Those two numbers are all you need to know about this 4th Tier shit pile. TJLS is a conduit which - operating amidst a smoke screen of left-wing bullshit - funnels student loan dollars into the pockets of Prof. Wanker and his cronies.
DeleteYou can find more info on TJSL here:
Deletehttp://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/08/law-school-death-watch
Some interesting points:
- "The school is carrying $133 million (!) in debt, incurred when it paid for a 305,000 square foot eight-story new law building in downtown San Diego, completed two years ago.
- Total full-time faculty and administrators for 2013 are 55, up from 44 in 2010. (You can imagine that the additional administrators have been hired for recruitment and crisis-management.) So - 200 plus students per year have their lives ruined just to benefit 50 well-paid pigs.
- more than half of students pay full-sticker, and those who do get aid (40%) get only small amounts.
- they are pretty much open enrollment. LSAT for 2013 is 148 (37th percentile), 73% of applicants are admitted, attrition is high (58 for 2013, plus 49 transfers out) (meaning that current students are bottom of the barrel and those who are competent want out).
In theory TJSL could hold out for some time. For instance, they could require faculty to each teach another class. (After all, few of their faculty could get jobs elsewhere, or at least in nice cities like San Diego, if the school goes under.) Probably in a few years they will buy out some senior faculty, and within 10 years it's game over for the entire Gang of Forty.
Oh, my. Their median LSAT score is at the 36th percentile.
DeleteThis dive will no doubt be defended for offering an opportunity to intellectual lightweights who can't get in anywhere else. To which I reply that there has to be some limit below which people simply are not cut out to be lawyers.
I'm thinking of opening a law school that caters to non-human vertebrates. We shall pride ourselves on fostering animalian diversity and opposing species-based discrimination.
They've increased staff by 25% while enrolment has fallen 28%. Obviously a shrewd, necessary, and economical move.
DeleteThe statistics say that their students are bottom of the barrel and Wenger boasts of "a student body that is among the most racially and ethnically diverse of any law school . . ." How many times have we seen those two go hand in hand? I personally tend to think that minorities fair poorly in admissions because so many of them come out of nightmare urban school systems where they are trapped by a symbiotic relationship between teacher unions and the DNC, and thus hit college miles behind. But jeez, regardless of the cause what a target for the scammers. We are open and inclusive, we care, we understand, we are committed to opening doors for people like you have been unfairly denied opportunities, we think you'd have gotten into HYS were it not for prejudice, we're right up there with HYS and Cooley, we have the student loan papers all filled out for you - sign right here.
DeleteYes, we're very accommodating, we do the paperwork for you, which you can't do or even read because you never got a proper education. And don't forget, you've got what it takes to be a great attorney.
DeleteThese professors and administrators—usually rich and white—pose as champions of racialized people but actually only USE racialized people for their own selfish ends.
DeleteIt's perfectly true that Black, Latino, and Indigenous people collectively (which is not to say every last one of them individually) are greatly disadvantaged. It's also true that the state should act to correct the nightmare of shoddy urban and rural schools so that these people will have a fighting chance (although they'll continue to be disadvantaged; see, for example, The Meritocracy Myth). Affirmative action in admissions can also be appropriate. Admitting plainly unqualified people of whatever racial category to a dump such as the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, however, is not progressive but predatory.
Well, 1:41, here's the deal. Let's say Blacks are 12% of the population. Let's assume for discussion that if HYS admitted only Blacks who met the same criteria as Whites they would have a 3% Black student body (3% is a made-up number for discussion, but the real number is well below 12%, they just won't discuss it.) If they want 12% what do they do? They grab most of the Blacks who would have gotten into the rest of the T14 on merit. Then the rest of the T14 reaches down into the rest of tier 1 and they in turn reach further down still, and so on, so forth, etc.
DeleteSo when we finally get to down to the fourth tier toilets like Thomas Jefferson they are reaching down below the normal open admissions standards of their tier. You say "affirmative action in admissions can be appropriate" but even if it is it does not come without a price, a price paid mostly by "disadvantaged minorities.".
If your point is that these lousy institutions such as Thomas Jefferson should not exist, I fully agree. They are doing racialized people no favor, rather the opposite.
DeleteThere needs to be a floor on qualifications. People whose LSAT score is below, say, 160 should be declared inadmissible. The ABA could do this.
As things stand, a person with a 120 (the lowest possible score; 125 is the expected score for random guessing), someone who simply sits through the exam without marking a single question, is admissible in principle.
The ABA won't impose a minimum, of course, because that would force the closure of scores of law schools. Instead, the ABA and the law schools maintain the absurd belief that anyone with the intelligence to pay the LSAC's fee, show up for the test, and write her name on the form has the potential to be a capable lawyer.
But the thing of it is, 7:13, they will say that the minority students would have had 160s but for all the disadvantages they've faced, and that anyone who disagrees is a racist. This, of course, shows us what affirmative action is really all about: Covering up the real issues that cause minority students to lag behind such as bad urban schools
DeleteThe ABA won't do it because they are cowards who are too afraid for the backlash that would come - the accusations that they are trying to exclude minorities from the profession. Hell, in my state when they tried to ban open containers of alcohol in moving cars the "civil rights" lobby went ballistic, claiming it was intended to be used as a pretext for the police to pull over "young men of color."
This perhaps isn't the best place to debate affirmative action. It does indeed have flaws, such as the one that you mention (covering up systemic racial oppression, such as bad color-coded schools) and the unfortunate tendency to elevate the small but growing racialized élite at the expense of the majority of the racialized population (see Robinson's Disintegration: The splintering of Black America). It also has benefits that should not be overlooked.
DeleteLSAT scores are linked to race and class. That's hard to deny.
Interesting, 11:54, that you decry the debate but then engage in it, but whatever. I will just note that I agree with the citizens of California and Michigan that any system that judges people on the basis of race is intrinsically evil.
DeleteBut the debate here is not about affirmative action. It is about the cynical behavior of the people who run toilets like TJSL. Their living depends upon filling seats with people who are willing to borrow themselves into oblivion to get, or attempt to get, a worthless degree. They know full well that the best and the brightest of minority candidates are picked up by better schools than theirs and that they are mostly looking at minority candidates who have no business being in law school. Nevertheless, they wrap themselves in the mantle of being defenders of those who have been unfairly denied opportunity on the basis of race. Whether those oppressed souls make it to graduation, ever pass a bar exam or ever get a job that requires a law degree means nothing to them. The only relevance of affirmative action is that it is what put TJSL in a position where it could show its true colors by stooping that low.
"LSAT scores are linked to race and class. That's hard to deny."
DeleteNo it isn't. LSAT scores have nothing to do with race - to say otherwise is to say that minorities are somehow of inferior intellect. The LSAT does reward native intelligence, but it also rewards those who came from stable families and attended good schools. Since minorities are disproportionately from single-parent families and are for more likely to attend sub-standard schools they average lower on the LSAT. I also suspect that a lot of very bright young African-American men get sucked into a youth culture that glamorizes gangbangers and mocks honor students, and thus never get near the chance to take tests like the LSAT, MCAT, GMAT or GRE.
God, are they leveraged. According to their latest IRS filing, they have $139 million in liabilities ($92 million in tax-exempt bonds). Total revenue is $51 million - so they have debt of more than two and a half times their annual revenue.
ReplyDeleteOfficers get $1.3 million (a half million goes to the dean), other salaries and wages is $13 million, plus a bit over two million in benefits and payroll taxes. Interest expense is $11 million, so the interest payments are only a bit less than the wage costs.
Put another way, their interest expense is about a quarter of their total revenue - since interest has to get paid, if their income takes a hit, they are in trouble.
"So they have debt of more than two and a half times their annual revenue."
DeleteWhere have I hear this one before? Hmm. Some Law Schools seem to get as good as they give, apparently.
That's called Poetic Justice, in my book.
Exactly, duped. Didn't TJLS know it's imprudent to borrow more than your expected annual earnings? Couldn't they have found scholarship funding? How could they not be aware of the deflation in student revenue? Have they tried marketing the versatility of their law school?
DeleteThey should network their way out of that problem.
DeleteLegal education has been a growth industry for so long schools have gotten used to imprudent borrowing and spending habits. Look at Illinois Tech. This school shouldn't have been opened at all, but why did they have to build a multi-million brand new building when they could have used an existing one?
DeleteI guess brand-new edifices tend to attract more students. They've become so common that it's hard to compete for the most naive students, those who pay sticker on credit, without them.
DeleteThat garbage from the Great Northeast rakes in half a million?
DeleteWhile indenturing his charges for life? Nice.
Lemmings, remember this: Just because something is "legal" doesn't mean it can't be or isn't a scam. Law schools are a perfect example.
This school is a joke.
The degree has all the legal "prestige" of a leper dying in a colony.
Don't go to law school. Don't feed these pigs. They don't care one bit about what happens to you.
The Dean is living the High Life making 1/2 a million per year while you'll be indentured and broke beyond your retirement date.
Think about it.
A fool and his money are soon parted. And you can't discharge the debt in bankruptcy.
I have no idea who any of those people, but I'm sure the unemployment office will be impressed by their credentials.
ReplyDeleteI Love the new coat of arms/letterhead logo for OLSS.
ReplyDeleteNo jobs, debt and a kick in the vitals, and I kind of get the blind lady peeking, but can you clarify about her a little more?
"Justice isn't blind." For me, at any rate, that panel has to do with the unsuccessful graduate lawsuits against the Law Schools for false advertising and fraudulent statistics. Apparently there are more consumer protections for consumers buying a new television set then there are for graduates of law school. There is a general preference out there for the scammers over the scammed.
DeleteAs in the legal system favors the institutions over the individuals and it sounds like Liberalism and Communism or at least Socialism.
DeleteI know you are justifiably angry, but the uncouth political comments are driving away perspective non-applicants with the false association of the academic-industrial complex and the political movements you mention. You also attacked the ppowerful school teachers in one of your posts, blaming them for the most underserved, destitute students performance on flawed standardized tests.
Delete"Your pride in Thomas Jefferson's racially and ethnically diverse student body is as preposterous as some con-artist boasting that his victims came from many diverse cultures."
ReplyDeleteI love this line.
Adventures at the Bottom:
ReplyDeleteI was taking the video tour of Thomas Jefferson's award-winning campus, and guess what? An ad for Creighton kept popping up and obscuring my view. After due consideration, I think I prefer San Diego to Omaha. And I prefer my own freedom, dignity, and sanity to either one.
I was wondering: when (not if) that redundant institution goes under, how can they repurpose the award-winning campus? I suppose it might make a decent courthouse, after some intensive renovation...
ReplyDeleteHis name in Hawaiian means the seeker (kaimi) of righteousness (pono). I think he needs a new one. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteMaybe something about a roasted pig?
Delete"seeker of unearned status and rewards"
DeleteI'm guessing that doesn't correspond to any existing Hawaiian phrases, though.
Try Lapuwale. It means 'scoundrel'.
DeleteWhen you look at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law webpage, two online degrees are listed:
ReplyDelete"The Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science of Law (J.S.M.) can provide you with the knowledge needed to advance in the International Tax & Financial Services industry. The comprehensive curriculum equips you with the skills needed to compete in today’s global marketplace. The LL.M. is designed for individuals who possess a law degree while the J.S.M. is crafted for business professionals."
By the way, they won't let you download their brochure unless you give your name, phone number, e-mail, etc.
So if Harvard forgot to prepare you for corporate practice, Thomas Jefferson stands ready to teach you what you need to know. Very nice of them.
DeleteGreat post, great comments, great thread. This is the anti-scam movement at its finest.
ReplyDeleteWe'll. . . . as long as the former Dean of Memphis is teaching there. This is hilarious! Even in Tennessee (not exactly the educashun state) Memphis is a joke. The nonsense these people brag about really is beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteOh, but he was a dean! He gave up a 500k job to teach at Thomas Jefferson. That man is dedicated to teaching.
DeleteJeebus, these Limousine Liberal profs are sanctimonious, hypocritical pricks. Today in the newspaper I read that one Stephen Diamond, an associate law professor at Santa Clara, resigned his position at the "Ethics Center" (but not necessarily his job), because Santa Clara (a catholic university) is going to stop providing insurance coverage of elective abortions. It's OK, it's "ethical", for a third-tier toilet like Santa Clara Law to ruin the futures of over 200-250 graduates every year by dumping them into the unemployed pool with 100-150k debt each, but, oh the horror, they won't let employees of that diploma-mill get free abortions.
ReplyDeleteYou don't expect Diamond to have the stones to actually resign his job over this, do you? I mean, what else is he going to do?
DeleteStephen Diamond is willing to resign DOING his job over abortion rights, but he'd never in a million years resign getting PAID for his job over such a thing.
DeleteHe is just willing to not do his job and get paid anyway, as a matter of principle. What a hero.
The next career move for Diamond may be a two-year paid sabbatic vacation...
DeleteIf Diamond feels so strongly about abortion, why on earth did he go to work for a Catholic institution in the first place?
DeleteDid he not get the memo or something?
Why was that assclown ever allowed to affiliate with an ethics center?
DeleteReading about Diamond's PhD and subsequent writings, I gather that he's very much concerned with third-tier justice...for the third tier of countries, that is. The third tier of students just doesn't interest him. Just ignore the misery and desperation of those next to you, and you too can pretend to be a decent human being.
DeleteDiamond has posted an explanation on his blog of his heroic stand:
Delete"This should help as well with some of the inaccuracies that have appeared. I did not resign my position as a faculty member, as some have reported, only from my post at the Ethics Center. To leave the University, where I am a tenured member of the School of Law faculty, because of the decision by the President would not be compatible with the view I expressed in the letter that there are two souls, so to speak, within the Santa Clara community. I remain because I am supportive of what I consider the more open, transparent approach to governance of a university including the right of my female colleagues to exercise their individual right to make decisions about their health and well being."
Whew! He's decided to keep his tenured faculty position because he is "supportive of what I consider the more open, transparent approach to governance of a university".
I'm sure it was a close call whether to resign his lifetime employment or not.
I want to say something nice about Wenger, just so he doesn't think we hate him.
ReplyDeleteI wish him the best in practicing the Mormon faith, assuming he stays interested. There's a certain amount of growth and understanding in being serious about your faith, and Mormonism has some fine things to teach him.
In addition, I wish Wenger the best in finding work as an attorney within the next few years. The scam ensnares even its professors to a certain degree. It they had designed the system on their own, it might have been quite different. I hope Wenger finds a way, or perhaps many ways, to use his JD degree to benefit others.
Mormonism is a transparently loony religion that no serious person with any reasonable capacity for, and inclination towards, independent critical thought could sincerely believe to be true. Sorry and all that, but there you have it.
DeleteI don't think abstaining from tobacco is crazy, but 50 or 60 years ago, independent thinkers argued that there just wasn't any scientific evidence about tobacco. Even though Joseph Smith had an overactive imagination, those in his movement have benefitted from his prescience on the tobacco issue, and a few other issues besides.
DeleteI sure hope Wenger doesn't smoke, or I won't have much to say in his defense.
There's an important point here:
ReplyDeleteWenger's not just teaching there; he's not just rushing nonsense into print; he's advocating for a scam institution on the basis of books and essays written by its professors, books and essays that few of its students can read and understand. And they're paying a high monetary price for "prestige" that doesn't benefit them.
Yes. His scam institution wouldn't be worth attending even if his hagiography of the professors there were accurate.
DeleteThis is a little weird to see because I know Kaimi through other contexts. He is a good guy and it makes me sad to see him attacked like this. I think you would like him if you knew him like I do. I also think the anti-Mormon comments here debase this forum, but to each his own. There is nothing about Mormonism that is more preposterous than any other organized religion, it just seems that way because it is exotic and unfamiliar. There are plenty of accomplished, intelligent Mormons in law, the sciences, politics & business that show insanity is not a requisite to be a follower of the faith.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he is a nice person and has lots of good qualities. But the point here is that he is a willing participant in a rotten scheme and gets a cushy job and plenty of money in return for his role. His Columbia J.D. gives TJSL a shred of credibility and helps make it possible to suck in students.
DeleteThe quality of applicants and students at TJSL is terrible compared to all the students at the other law schools. Nearly all do not belong in law school and the "profession" - the terrible hiring rates prove that. Nearly all should be doing something else. TJSL serves no societal function and should go out of business, or else it should be repurposed to train paralegals and teach criminal justice to cops, or something like that.
OK, he is an easy target because he writes these ridiculous PC articles and teaches courses like Race, Gender and Critical Studies that have nothing to do with the real world of lawyers.
A relative of mine is a professor of third-world literature and writes incomprehensible books larded with postmodernism, Foucault, Lacan, gender and race studies and all the ridiculous jargon that goes with it. But he teaches at a liberal arts college, where the students are basically there to pass the time, enjoy their youth and get a B.A. He doesn't pretend to teach anything practical. He does have graduate students, but the school gives them a free ride. Everybody knows the score. Also, he gets half the salary of a law prof, maybe less.
Law School on the other hand is a "professional" school, meaning that students pay to acquire practical skills so that they can get a job. You don't learn how to file motions, write complaints and run a trial from a class on Race and Gender Theory.
And yes, Wenger is not solely to blame for the TJSL travesty. There are 40-55 profs and administrators. They are all guilty, though especially the deans and tenured profs. If they had any character they would refuse to take money for a service the institution cannot provide -- employment as a lawyer. If they were to charge fair market value just for the time involved, tuition would be $7500-10,000 per year (which is what the unaccredited California law schools charge), not $45-50,000 per year.
(BTW, it is a cheap shot to criticize somebody for being a Mormon. Mormonism is as valid a system of ideas as Freemasonry, Scientology and Phrenology. This is a free country and you can believe anything you like.)
"Mormonism is as valid a system of ideas as Freemasonry, Scientology and Phrenology."
DeleteNot exactly a ringing endorsement, I'm afraid.
In my community whenever some late teens/early twenties miscreant gets taken up for burglarizing houses to fund a drug addiction his or her friends post comments under the news article saying he or she is really a good kid. Of course, they knew the drugs were illegal, used them anyway and got addicted, and I say it's bullshit to even suggest "Kami" doesn't know what an effing scam TJSL is.
DeleteThat went right over your head, didn't it Albert?
DeleteIt's interesting that some aspects of Mormonism are based on Freemasonry, which used to be considered very modern and progressive. But fashions change, and science moves forward, and there's not much prestige in being a Mason these days.
DeleteIt's impossible to debase this forum.
DeleteI agree, nothing can debase this forum. With so many facts outstanding against the scam, any quirks of the writers and commenters fade into insignificance. Nothing can detract from the urgent issues addressed by this forum.
Delete"He is a good guy and it makes me sad to see him attacked like this."
ReplyDeleteI'm sick to death of seeing these types of comments.
Anyone who makes any money - from 1c to 1m - from the Scam is not a "good guy".
It's like Hero Worship.
"Hey, I know Chad. I mean, there's no way he tried to rape that cheerleader. He's the Captain of the football team and he's a good guy.."
STFU.
Agreed. People drew lines in the sand and made their allegiances plain long ago. If a LawProf really "felt bad" about the current state of circumstances, they would move on to something that does not affect their conscience. People actually do this when they feel the need to take the high road, even if the consequences are not good.
DeleteAs it stands...they clearly aren't feeling too bad about the blood money, "nice guys" or not.
I doubt that he really has a degree from Columbia anyway. Made-up Hawaiian background, made-up law degree, made-up religion, all at a made-up law school. Figures.
ReplyDeleteAnd laughing all the way to the bank. How many houses in Beverly Hills does this clown own anyway?
Effing scam.
Not saying that he is worse than Hitler. That would be wrong. No one is worse than Hitler. Not even a $cam profe$$or.
ReplyDeleteBut Himmler? Hmm. Close call.
Himmler was just as bad if not worse than Hitler. Regardless, to compare, even as a joke, law professors to pure evil like Nazi Scum is kind of going a little too far imho.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the Nazis and law professors is that the Nazis sincerely believed that what they were doing was right.
ReplyDeleteI'm just ignoring the Nazi metaphors. That seems a bit much. That's the kind of thing a race crit professor writes every day without thinking, and I've got to think we're better than that around here.
ReplyDeleteAmen brother. We lose our credibility with those types of comparisons.
DeleteHey guys! I've got it! We need to demand reparations from Thomas Jefferson!
ReplyDeleteI think Kaimi Wenger might want to give us some assistance with this project.
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ReplyDeleteI love it when SJWs eat their own. The feeding frenzy is worthy of National Geographic. What becomes immediately clear is that standing in the exact center of every SJW intersectionality is the SJW himself ( or herself, or itself, or ....). Y'all crack me up.
ReplyDelete