A law school in northwestern Louisiana? Hell, no

As if the effort to open a law school in San Jose while nearby Golden Gate rusts away were not appalling enough, now there is another attempt to start one in northwestern Louisiana. One writer says "Hell, No" to a law school at Northwestern Louisiana University: 

The most overlawyered state in the union categorically does not need, and should not tolerate, a directional school starting up a factory for more middling attorneys.

Indeed not. A similar attempt in Shreveport a few years ago failed after a pilot project with a handful of so-called students. The dreary Pelican State has four law schools already for its relatively small population and can ill afford a fifth.

The proposed law school would be publicly funded. Regulators in Tennessee rejected the Trojan horse of Valpo, a law school in Indiana that failed despite a heritage going back to the nineteenth century, on the grounds that it simply wasn't needed and that it would harm the many other law schools in Tennessee. Now it is proposed to waste badly needed money from Louisiana's public coffers on this vanity project when the evidence of recent experience suggests that there is inadequate demand for another law school in that part of the state, or any other. 

People would not flock to that dire corner of Louisiana for the sake of attending this proposed flash in the pan of an über-toilet law school. It would attract perhaps a couple of dozen local students of doubtful quality and potential who for whatever reason were unable to move out of the area for law school. It would be another Indiana Tech—and recall that that poster child of greed and stupidity shut up shop after four humiliating years. At least Indiana Tech blew only its endowment on the ill-fated venture; Northwestern Louisiana University would require funds from the state, and a lot of them. 

It is difficult indeed to make a go of a new law school today. The only success has been the U of Irvine, which benefited from advantages that bullshit upstarts in Louisiana and the like just don't enjoy. Accreditation is by no means assured, and students could easily be left high and dry, as many have been at other hopeless über-toilets. Existing law schools, however shitty themselves, have much more to offer, and prospective applicants know it. Few people will gamble on an unknown law school of no reputation and questionable potential, particularly in a desolate place with little demand for legal services. 

Let us hope that sane heads will prevail and put the kibosh on this would-be flop. 

The law-school scam reaches the Philippines?

Manila, one of the largest cities in the world, is home to an über-toilet law school that has been ordered by the Legal Education Board to close down. Specifically, the University of Manila College of Law can no longer operate because, according to the article, "the college failed to meet prescribed curriculum and academic requirements, performed poorly in the Bar Exams, and lacked adequate facilities and resources".

This law school was ordered to close its doors in June of last year, but it continues to accept new students. Enrolling there is quite unsafe: the LEB has reminded the public that it does not recognize the law school, so presumably a graduate might not be eligible for admission to the bar.

Unlike the pusillanimous, scam-enabling ABA, the LEB seems willing to take on what must be a prominent university. It is well known that numerous law schools in the US exhibit all of the defects listed above and more (something tells me that the U of Manila doesn't offer courses on law & hip-hop or publish self-indulgent crapola about The Open Road), yet hardly ever does the ABA do anything about them. 

Four million readers

OTLSS has now been read more than four million times. The anti-scam movement certainly faces challenges, but we continue to mount a strong resistance to the law-school scam. Thanks to our readers and posters for their support. 

Law school does not teach essential skills

This report from Canada would apply to the US, too: lawyers find that they never learned basic business skills during law school.

Indeed, who would teach such skills? Scam-professors look down their noses at the practice of law. Few of them have any real experience in it. No course on anything practical was offered throughout my time n law school.

Imagine medical school without any practical training: graduates would not know rudimentary first aid. That is reality in the legal realm: people are thrown into the practice of law with no experience, no guidance, nothing. And most of them do not even know very much law.