Law school leaders are dividing into two camps: stuck v. serious
Money Quote: “This is not a P.R. problem, as the stuck would suggest; it is a reality problem—lawyers have not kept pace with modern demands to improve value, and dynamic young people see more attractive career opportunities in other fields.”
New law school graduate debt figures
Money Quote: “The schools that didn’t report were mostly places that would be shut down instantly if the federal government could bestir itself to apply even the most minimal regulatory controls to the money it shovels into law school coffers”
Law schools don't help the poor get rich — they help the rich stay richMoney Quote: “This is not a P.R. problem, as the stuck would suggest; it is a reality problem—lawyers have not kept pace with modern demands to improve value, and dynamic young people see more attractive career opportunities in other fields.”
New law school graduate debt figures
Money Quote: “The schools that didn’t report were mostly places that would be shut down instantly if the federal government could bestir itself to apply even the most minimal regulatory controls to the money it shovels into law school coffers”
Money Quote: “America’s massively lengthy, expensive, and complex legal licensing regime is bad for most people (both clients and would-be lawyers).”
The law school pigs hate to face reality, because they know that "legal education" is a bad bet for the majority of students. Of course, the cockroaches cannot publically admit this - or their declining pool of applicants would dwindle further. Then again, you have SEVERAL ABA-accredited trash pits that would essentially admit students with 147 LSAT scores and a picture of their girlfriend's feet on their personal statement.
ReplyDeleteWhat the cockroaches fail to admit is that the problem is very simple. They are simply producing way too many law students. They need to cut the number the produce by half.
DeleteInstead they are merely shuffling deckchairs on their sinking ship by fixating on teaching methods. This is a secondary issue. First and foremost, they need to cut the number of places. Which will certainly result in many closed schools and unemployed professors.
But although applications may be down, there are still plenty of lemmings lining up to throw their lives away, unfortunately. And the government is still willing to throw unlimited GradPlus money at anyone with a pulse. If the law schools really are in actual financial trouble it must be because they borrowed and spent recklessly during the good times with no thought for the future - kind of like their students (but at least the schools can declare bankruptcy).
For the record, I resigned my membership in the ABA in 1994.
DeleteNevertheless, I am cognizant that when accrediting law schools they are hamstrung by the USDOJ anti-trust goons who say that glutting markets increases competition, because they ignore the role that student loans play in distorting the market.
I just learned something new the other day. My state licenses people who do home inspections for people buying houses. To get such a license you must do an unpaid internship (in fact, you must pay for the internship) with someone who is already licensed. The guild hall system; the practitioners control the flow of new practitioners coming into the trade. But it is legal because it is mandated by state law.
The first reform that is needed is to cut off the student loan money. The second is to put accreditation into the hands of a government agency that is exempt from the anti-trust laws. The supply of new physicians is effectively controlled because the government largely funds the residencies. There has to be a way to do the same thing with law. Maybe swap out 3L year for a finite number of one year public-interest jobs funded by the feds. Got to be cheaper than all the student loan defaults.
"you have SEVERAL ABA-accredited trash pits that would essentially admit students with 147 LSAT scores"
Delete-147 LSAT? You give the bastards too much credit Nando. The fall 2013 entering class at Valpo (accredited since 1929) had a median LSAT of 143. That's lower than Hoosier State's newest dumpster fire, Indiana Tech, which had a LSAT median of 144.
Florida Coastal this past year took in five "students" with LSAT scores between 130 and 134.
DeleteMy advice to any untenured law professor would be to father or bear a child as soon as possible. It could be that skimming their kid's WIC benefits will be their primary source of income for the next ten years.
DeleteIf an auto company produced twice as many cars as it could sell for 15 years in a row, would it be talking about improving styling, more financing options, and changing advertising agencies? No. It would drastically cut production by shutting down factories and laying off workers.
ReplyDeleteWhen law schools talk about curriculum changes, and two-year programs, increasing “diversity” and all the rest of their mumbo jumbo bullshit, its like talking about a plan to get rid of the crab grass on your lawn while your house is burning down.
They will talk about everything and anything but the central truth at the heart of this catastrophe: From a career standpoint, more than half the people who buried themselves in non-dischargeable debt for a JD degree are in the same or worse position than they were in before they enrolled in law school in the first place. And its been like that for years and years and years.
It isn’t complicated. And it isn’t about two year programs or curriculum changes. Its about shutting down dozens of bottom-feeding law schools and significantly reducing the class sizes at most of those that remain.
Of course, had nature been allowed to take its course, this probably would have occurred already. But as long as those government loan dollars continue to flow, I suspect that the scam will go on, albeit at a slightly slower pace.
Perfectly written 9:06 AM. I believe that the law schools are in denial just like many presently enrolled law school students.
DeleteYes, that was an excellent comment at 9:06. I wish every prospective law student could think and write that clearly.
DeleteWhy no stories about the demands by Washington and Lee minority law students to remove confederate flags from the campus and to stop allowing neoconfederates to march on campus? Talk about a law school refusing to confront reality. It's the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect, W & L is in the South.
DeleteSo, to keep this thread on topic, are you saying that if W+L removed the Confederate flag from its campus, the number of jobs available to its students would increase?
DeleteI am happy the law schools refuse to face reality, adapt, admit their sins, and reform. I would be genuinely upset if I thought they could do a death bed conversion and still get into heaven.
ReplyDeleteNo, I want them to drink their own kool-aid, jack tuition 300% in 2 years, and scam as hard they can...because that ensures their deaths.
I don't want quiet reform; I want a loud, unpleasant, abrupt, bitter, back-biting bonanza of bankruptcies and pink slips.
I want the spectacle of a chaotic, panicked, insane Florida Coastal from sea to shining sea.
Go out with a BANG, my dear law school scammers!
The greater the distortions they cause in the marketplace, the more radical the consequences and the reform will have to be, and will be.
Go whole hog, baby! Drive off that cliff Thelma and Louise style!
I wholeheartedly agree with this. They've had their chance to reform and they stuck a middle finger up at it. So fuck them. Keep the scam going for a couple more years, then have an implosion.
DeleteI cannot wait to see law schools close and law professors sitting unemployed and thinking 'damn how I wish I was a professor safely earning $60K per year in a stable non-scam law school, I'm such a fool for thinking the scam could continue until I retired.'
I agree that they will all cling to their sinking ships to the bitter end, but I cannot take pleasure from it knowing that so many more lives will be ruined.
DeleteAgreed!
DeleteAs the Psychos say in Borderlands 2: KA-BOOM BABY!!
The more and the harder they keep scamming, the more severe the consequences will be and the greater the "correction" will be. Note: It's a "correction" unless it's actually you losing your job. Then it matters.
@5:38 AM
DeleteYes, but even "reform" would make the scam simply less severe, it wouldn't eliminate it. If we create enough victims in higher education, there will have to be a political solution.
Right now, law graduates have it the worst of anyone. But there are kids walking out of undergrad 100k-200k in debt. There has to be a political solution.
Any professor who turned down a buyout this year is going to look awfully foolish a couple of years from now.
DeleteIt depends, @11:12. A buyout from an independent law school is only of value until the place folds. A TTT affiliated with a private university is a bit better, as you can sue for breach of contract. The gold standard is a state university. The taxpayers are on the hook for those buyouts forever. That is why Dickinson jumped in bed with Penn State and Franklin Pierce did so with the University of New Hampshire.
Delete#BringBackOurTuitionDollars
ReplyDeleteNewsflash: shITLS is teetering on the brink:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140523/LOCAL04/140529644
Dean Alexander has resigned, leaving andre d. p. cummings as interim dean. No, this is not a joke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcVzevWX4U
DeleteLoved this little gem in the article:
Delete"It said andre douglas pond cummings, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at the law school, has been named interim dean. He spells his name without capital letters."
Even the reporters can't believe this stuff.
I beg to differ. It is a joke, was a joke, has been a joke for at least two years. It just happens to be a real-life joke with real-life consequences.
DeleteI'm overjoyed that Dean Alexander gets to be unemployed before any of his debt-ridden students. Justice does occur occasionally in the universe. Unfortunately, it almost always occurs outside of courtrooms.
Just exactly which "other employment opportunities" is Alexander going to pursue? Admit it: he was asked to leave.
DeletePond Scum's first act as new scam-dean will be to change the skule's name to indiana tech law school. After all, anyone who's anyone uses only the lower case.
I'm wondering whether Alexander still considers himself bound by the Indiana Tech ethics oath. IIRC, it prohibits him from criticizing any law school.
DeleteYeah all it will take now is a fart or a belch to push it off the cliff.
DeleteI think I can safely say that Cummings is now the Lil' Wayne of law school deans. Alexander, having departed, is more like M.C. Hammer.
DeleteFormer scam-dean Alexander also resigned his tenured professorial post:
Deletehttp://www.indianatech.edu/news/law-school-dean-departs-indiana-tech/
What exactly happened? Can anyone give us the inside scoop?
What an exciting story!
DeleteThis sounds exactly like a "resign or we'll fire you" situation, and I'm sure the university is absolutely furious that it was somehow duped into opening this embarrassing money pit.
Applications must be minimal. Enrollment targets are so off the mark that ITLS has become a white elephant of the highest order. And wasn't the dean a big part of how this school was to become accredited? I'm sure I remember him touting his connections with the ABA accrediting committee.
Of course it's a "resign or we'll fire you" situation. Why else would the guy suddenly abandon not only his position as dean but also his tenured position on the faculty, all for the sake of unstated "other employment opportunities"—at the worst time for finding another academic job?
DeleteHe left immediately, without even a day's transition. He must have been asked to leave.
They're still scamming it up. Student David Felts still smiles down from the top of the home page, saying "If the current Circuit Court Judge for Allen County recommends a certain law school, it is definitely a school to consider and attend"—without mentioning that that judge just happens to be Daddy. But the scam isn't working. Indiana Tech Law Skule is a failure. It may well shut down before a single student can graduate.
By the way, I have my doubts about the appropriateness of calling Indiana Tech a "university".
Woo-Hoo!
DeleteHow big is that bastard Alexander's golden parachute? I'd bet that he walked off with a cool quarter of a million.
DeleteBut wait a minute. Didn't Alexander acquire a law-related art collection for Indiana Tech? Isn't that a historic achievement?
DeleteThe apparent failure of Indiana Tech shows we've reached the point of "Peak Lemming".
ReplyDelete