What if the Chaff Remains?

I addressed this article from the Connecticut Law Tribute on my own blog, but whereas there I focused on the "unfortunate" side of a decline in law school enrollments, here I would like to address the "good" side of law school enrollment decline:

Is this drop in law school enrollment a good or bad thing? One part is arguably good: many young people applied to law school because they had good grades and board scores and wanted to keep their options open, rather than truly thinking through that a legal career was right for them. Now, in contrast, anyone applying to law school has likely given serious thought to the decision.

We have seen this type of argument repeatedly over the last few years.  "With applications declining, the good thing is that the wheat is being separated from the chaff!" or some such argument coming from the law dean and law school-sympathetic news outlets.  Today's law students are more sure they want to be lawyers, not like yesterday's vagrant liberal artist!

Here's my question:  How the hell do you know this?

Here's another:  Even if you're right, are these really the type of people we want going to law schools?

Here's a third:  Have you considered that you might be wrong?

The After-Scam Market

One of the oft-repeated claims of the Law School Cartel is that if you don't want to be a practicing attorney, you don't have to.

Let that sink in a minute.  You go to a very specialized form of multi-year schooling, that is regulated by state agencies, by spending roughly $200k for the express purpose of becoming licensed by the state of your choice.  But hey!  If you change your mind, you can just scrap it all!  A JD is THAT valuable, you know.

Great.  So what do you do, then, once the silver has tarnished?  Why, you talk to the after-marketeers. The folks that help you transition from the lucrative practice of law to one of the many, many exciting, interesting, and transformative careers where the JD is a springboard to career-gold.

One of my favorite take-downs of the "after-scam" market was done by the immortal L4L, back in late 2009/early 2010, concerning "Solo Practice University."  (The "Practice of Law" School!)  Granted, this was for people who wanted to still be practicing attorneys, but the point gets across.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100124095740/http://bigdebtsmalllaw.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/new-shingle-hangers-get-hung-out-to-dry  

http://solopracticeuniversity.com/bridges/

Whew!  L4L still brings tears of laughter to my eyes to this day.  So I got to thinking....if Solo Practice University wants to "Bridge" the gap between law school and legal practice by partnering with law schools (e.g. New York Law School, Chapman University School of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock) in order to "get 'em early" and peddle false hope in exchange for money in partnership with the Cartel, what do people have to offer those looking to leave the law practice world altogether?

My friends, look no farther than sites similar to "JD Careers Out There":

http://jdcareersoutthere.com/

For the low, low price of approximately $25/month, you can watch video interviews of those who have made the jump to rewarding careers in other areas by leveraging your JD.  You can also get personal coaching, for an additional fee.  You can also get your Myers-Briggs testing done, as if no one has ever thought of that before.

Plus, there are group memberships!  USC and University of Denver currently offer "JD Careers Out There" as a "service" to their current law students!  You will see glowing reviews from JD Candidates, along with the directors of CSOs.  Yessir, a law degree is THAT valuable.  So valuable, in fact, that law school have to indirectly-hire career coaches for their students.

There is also "Lawlternate.com."

We are a job board for lawyers interested in alternative careers and unique opportunities. Our jobs are hand-picked from a variety of sources and feature start-ups, non-profits, and established corporations. 

http://www.lawlternate.com/


Looking at this job board, I see a lot of "senior counsel" jobs, "corporate counsel" jobs, and "general counsel" jobs...at Tiffany & Co., Aon Hewitt, Jaguar Land Rover, A&E TV, and others.  Hmm, not so many "JD Advantage" jobs, as it were.  Yep, recently graduated 3Ls, step right up and apply to these senior positions at major-name corporations.  That JD from Crooklyn is so valuable, you will be snapped up in just one minute!


To be fair, maybe folks like those above are just trying to help while making a buck.  Lawlternate's job board does seem to update often, and maybe watching some video testimony could provide some ideas or inspiration on how to escape one's own prison made of student loan shackles.  At some level, everybody has to make a living, even career-coaches who themselves have left the legal arena.

The issue here, however, is that a lot of people are capitalizing on desperate people.  If the JD was so valuable, there would not be an after-market of those trying to "help" make people's dreams come true.  If an alternative career were that easy to come by, it wouldn't involve being a BigLaw partner from a T13 school first, just so you can land a "corporate counsel" job.  The fact that law schools are partnering with these organizations indicates that the CSOs just aren't able to pull the weight themselves, with more and more graduates banging on the doors with torches and pitchforks.

Friends, caveat emptor.  The fact that the after-scam market exists in the first place is a giant red flag.  Not only is the Law School Cartel trying to romance you to make a bad decision in the first place, but many others (in partnership with the Cartel) are trying to get you to spend more money to keep going in the same direction.  The only winning move here is not to play.

Indiana Tech, Fort Wayne's finest unaccredited law school, offers a Global Law & Leadership Concentration.

(Pondering whether to obtain an Indiana Tech JD with a concentration in Global Law & Leadership)

What did you major in in law school? This question is preposterous to lawyers above a certain age, but maybe not to more recent graduates. Concentrations, specialties, certificate programs-- you know, majors-- are among the well-meaning, but almost certainly useless, reforms that law schools are adopting in response to the crisis in legal education.

Recently-opened Indiana Tech Law School has embraced this reform, consistent with its announced focus on real-world training. Accordingly, the school offers its students their choice of four concentrations: transactional law, international property/technology law, advocacy/dispute resolution, and global law and leadership.

Wait. Global Law and Leadership? 

Yes. If you aspire to world leadership, whether you are a megalomaniac cartoon lab rat or, far less promisingly, a kid with a 143 LSAT score, you definitely should consider obtaining a JD at Indiana Tech in your quest for primacy. As the Indiana Tech Law view book explains, "Enrollment in this concentration will expose you to a wide variety of courses that will prepare you to assume leadership roles in areas such as human rights, international trade, and international litigation."

Here is how to prepare to take your rightful place as a global leader via the innovative training that is only available at Fort Wayne's finest unaccredited law school. 

Widener Law Prof. Ben Barros sounds the alarm: A shortage of law grads is on the horizon, along with a shortage of sand in the Sahara.

Prof. Ben Barros, who teaches at poorly regarded Widener University School of Law (median LSAT score 150), has published several provocative posts at the Faculty Lounge arguing that the job outlook for recently graduated lawyers is not as bad as people believe or as the nine-month-out survey data indicates. In fact, according to his latest post “The Coming Lawyer Shortage,” the slight contraction in overall law school enrollment means that the good times will shortly roll. In this post, Barros asserts that “in a relatively short time, we will have gone from an environment where employers received hundreds of resumes for every open position to one where employers might not receive any resumes at all.”

Barros dismisses the far more pessimistic projection as to anticipated lawyer job openings over the next decade made by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  The BLS is merely composed of unbiased expert statisticians and economists, and so can hardly match the credibility and reliability of a self-interested law professor whose cushy job rides on the decision of young people to borrow many tens of thousands of dollars to attend his bottom-of-the-barros school. 

Strict Scrutiny: Michael I. Krauss Tries To Hustle People Into Attending Law School

It's been a while, my friends. Things have been busy at my non-law job and quite frankly, there wasn't a lot coming across the radar that I was moved to write about or that the other excellent authors on this site hadn't tackled yet. Then, Michael I. Krauss dropped this gem of subtle scammery. As you read this, it appears that Krauss is empathetic and could be an agent of change. But we should all know better. This valiant attempt deserves some Strict Scrutiny. As usual, his words are in italics and mine are normal.

A Case of Scam, starring co-interim law dean Michael Scharf and a cast of international law gurus.

(Case Western Reserve University School of Law co-interim dean Michael Scharf smiles broadly as he contemplates his next lemming buffet). 

Michael Scharf recently became co-interim Dean of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, following the resignation of that outspoken law school shill and, uh, notorious ladies’ man Lawrence "Train Wreck" Mitchell. Scharf is a creditable scholar and practitioner of international law. According to his CV, Scharf worked for the State Department for five years as an attorney-advisor, and he cofounded an NGO that provides pro bono legal advice to states and international institutions on such weighty matters as peace negotiations, constitution drafting, human rights, self-determination, and war crimes prosecutions.

But watch Scharf’s performance in the remarkable seven and a half minute long recruitment video linked below. In the video, Scharf and several faculty colleagues try to persuade an intended audience of prospective law students that a Case Western Reserve JD is the key to the jet-setting job of their dreams. Without being overly harsh, I would say that Scharf looks like an overfed wolf in a burgundy dress shirt, with a huge self-satisfied toothy smile that only he believes is ingratiating, trying to sell straw homes to piglets. And the other faculty come across as similarly sleazy despite their credentials and soft voices. It is another example of how legal academia turns decent people into predators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKTAJ9zNSWk

A.  Selected quotes from the video by Case Western Reserve law faculty advising that Case is the place to embark on a career in international law.

Scharf: "We hope you will come to Case, so we can help you launch your career in international law."

Prof. Jessie Hill: "This year, a national survey of law professors ranked Case Western’s international law program as one of the top in the country. Our program attracts students from around the world to study here and they graduate with international law jobs across the globe."

Scharf: "Case’s international law program has a four million dollar endowment... with this money we provide students summer, semester-long, and post-grad internships grants to help them break into a job in international law."

Cooley's Michigan Campuses going to take a Faculty Haircut

This was the next logical step after Cooley, now known as "Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School," instituted a "Financial Management Plan," was to swing a battleax at Rapunzel's way-too-long hair and lay off large amounts of faculty and staff.