One of the dirty not-so-secrets of the law school business model is the conditional scholarship game. Every year, "desirable" applicants (relative to the law school they are applying to, for example, a student with a 160 is desirable enough for a lower-tier school to shell out serious bucks, while such a student would be looked at as a federal loan trophy at a different school) are given incentives to attend a certain law school.
Students with above median LSAT/GPA for the law school are often given conditional "scholarships" in return for their attendance (as opposed to "guaranteed" or scholarships requiring only good standing), that is to say that if they maintain a certain GPA or class rank percentage (which are essentially the same thing, depending on where the school sets their curve), they get to keep their scholarship. For example, as a naive 0L, two schools offered me scholarships: one said I had to retain a 3.0, one said that I had to be in the top-third of my class. I thought it would be easier to maintain a 3.0, so that factored into my decision to attend that law school, even though only about a third of students at that law school are given 3.0's or above.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Capitalism to the Rescue?
"Student Loans Are Broken: This Company Just Raised $100 Million to Fix Them," by J. J. Colao (Forbes)
Money Quote: "'The federal government is pricing loans as a one-size-fits-all-solution,' explains [David] Klein, 33. 'They're not pricing loans appropriately for the most creditworthy.' This means that an MBA student at Harvard often pays the same rate as a student at a much less selective program, even though their earning potential and employment prospects differ dramatically."
The article discusses CommonBond, a student lending company that just raised $100M. It plans on offering student loans below what the federal government is charging by cherry-picking good students from great degree programs which presumably have a lower default rate. What do you think? Should the government get out of student lending and/or guaranteeing entirely? Would the market do a better job of not creating education bubbles? Will this just leave the bad risks on government's shoulders? Would this create social problems? Is this the future?
*****
Friday, September 6, 2013
Indiana Tech Law Prof. Adam Lamparello writes snotty poor-little-me memoir about his disillusionment with practicing law, hookers, cocaine, his church, his frat, his girlfriends, and his alleged eating disorder.
I hesitated before writing a post about Indiana Tech Law Professor Adam Lamparello's confessional memoir, Ten Mile Morning: My Journey Through Anorexia Nervosa. In the book, Lamparello describes the serious eating disorder he developed in his early 30s, a few years after his beautiful married lover, "Amy," told him that he needed to lose weight, a blow to his ego that he recalled in anger. ("Maybe she was acting out of concern. Maybe I was way too sensitive. It doesn’t matter. It was wrong. Let me take care of myself. I’m not going to criticize you for fucking around on your husband, so let’s leave our little weaknesses out of the conversation" [1]).
I like criticizing arrogant big-shots. I do not like criticizing people who are vulnerable, or who at least perceive themselves that way. I appreciate that Prof. Lamparello has struggled with low self-esteem, and it is refreshing that there are law professors out there who are not vying for mayor of Ego City. But I am afraid that overall I found his memoir to be an exercise in self-indulgence, as well as an admission to some remarkably disgraceful and callous behavior. He rationalizes this behavior with psychobabble about having failed to assert his "authentic self," as opposed to his inauthentic people-pleasing persona, and frequently references his low self-esteem. In fact, some passages make me wonder whether he truly does have low self-esteem--or whether, perhaps, he is an exhibitionist and a manipulator.
I like criticizing arrogant big-shots. I do not like criticizing people who are vulnerable, or who at least perceive themselves that way. I appreciate that Prof. Lamparello has struggled with low self-esteem, and it is refreshing that there are law professors out there who are not vying for mayor of Ego City. But I am afraid that overall I found his memoir to be an exercise in self-indulgence, as well as an admission to some remarkably disgraceful and callous behavior. He rationalizes this behavior with psychobabble about having failed to assert his "authentic self," as opposed to his inauthentic people-pleasing persona, and frequently references his low self-esteem. In fact, some passages make me wonder whether he truly does have low self-esteem--or whether, perhaps, he is an exhibitionist and a manipulator.
Consider the following passages, all describing his life during the period after he graduated from law school at Ohio State-- when he was either working in Big Law or, later, going to school at NYU for his LLM.
1. "Some of the best times were when I would start partying on a Friday afternoon and go all the way through Sunday — strip clubs, hookers, anything I wanted. See, the thing I liked about the hookers and the strip joints is that, especially with the hookers, I had some type of control over another person." [2]
2. [upon finding out that his married lover Amy was pregnant by her husband]: "Now, this hit me like a bolt of electricity from the electric chair. . . . If I thought my life was out of control and full of disappointment before, this was definitely superior to anything I’d ever experienced . My first feelings were anger, betrayal, and downright disgust. I wanted to scream, jump out of the car, and never see her again. How could this bitch do this to me? I mean, one day she’s on top of me and the next day he’s on top of her." [3]
3. "I never let anyone — especially Amy — know how I was feeling. I was very good at hiding my emotional turmoil and, by all outside appearances, appearing perfectly normal. I was a master of lies and deception. It was very easy for me to convince people that I was "ok" on the outside. However, I could not hide the truth. I could support and love her, but she lied. She betrayed me. She was disloyal. I hated her." [4]
4. "Meaningless pleasures can no longer serve as the band-aid for the pain that we feel when nothingness pays a visit to our life and makes its permanent residence in our hearts. I remember that night. I was drinking a lot of beer, but I couldn’t get drunk. I was snorting a lot of coke, but it didn’t have the same effect and, whatever effect it did have, it made me feel more depressed than ever. And when my hooker came, it wasn’t a pleasurable experience. I felt very scared on that night. I hated my reality with a passion, and my coping mechanisms — the drugs, the alcohol, and the hookers — weren’t taking the pain away anymore. . . . I needed more of something. So I did something I had never done. I wrote a poem." [5]
5. "For me, being a lawyer was such a terrible experience that I was unable to fake it anymore. I got fired from my first job. I got a second job and got fired from that one, too. I went to a third law firm and, after a few months, simply walked away. It was over. I was just as disillusioned with the law as I was with Catholicism." [6]
6. "I also did something else — for myself and own well-being. Since my passion was to someday become a law professor, I decided to send my resume to every law school that was hiring and looking for candidates for the fall of 2007. Well, I got so many rejection letters that I felt academically raped (I say this in a half-joking way)." [7]
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
The Future is Energy Shots. Lots of Energy Shots.
Hello everyone! This is my first post in about two months. Sorry to abandon you. I'll try to get back to regular news updates again now that my kids are back in school. For the past month, I've been making sure my kids were prepared for their fall placement exams in math (which they aced.) My personal belief is that many young people are effectively funneled into law school because way, way back at some point the ball was dropped on math and their career options were cut off as a result. As insightfully stated by Adam B., making a difference with the law school is a long-term game. So, if you know any young people thinking about law as a career, gently point them to a scam blog and offer to help tutor them in math instead. :)
Here's some stories you might have missed:
Online LLMs and the ABA Law Deans' Listserv
Money Quote: "Purdom says that what was once a group of 14 or 15 “misfit schools” and
“weirdos” looking to start or expand online LL.M. programs as part of
the Working Group for Distance Learning two years ago, now has “200
schools on the listserv and coming to the various meetings in one
capacity or another,” including “a lot of mainstream schools.”
The First Rule of Deans' Listserv...
Money Quote: "If law school deans want to have a secret forum to communicate with each other, they have to follow some ground rules, says the American Bar Association."
Fewer Law School Applicants Due To Lack of Jobs, High Tuition
Money Quote: “Today is probably a really good time to go to law school because the class sizes are so much smaller that you’re going to be competing with so many fewer graduates when you do graduate 3 or 4 years from now..."
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
A J.D. is a Tragic Blunder...
(with apologies to Schoolhouse Rock!, "3 is a Magic Number")
...yes it is, it's a tragic blunder.
Somewhere in the past, around 1963
A J.D. was a path to wonders.
But Law Schools, student loans and the CSOs,
Bar exams and student overflow,
CLEs, bar fees and the E&O
Say a J.D. is a tragic blunder.
It takes a J.D. to file a motion
Or to change old laws into new.
It takes a J.D. to code through the ocean
of doc review.
But every client expects your work for free,
Every law firm partner wants PPP,
Nothing for you!
What can you do?
When a J.D., you see,
Is a tragic blunder.
There’s a man, there’s a woman, workin’ on a J.D.,
Yes, they did.
They each had J.D.s in their families,
And that's a tragic blunder.
(count the debt!)
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30k.
(2L year!)
3-6-9, 12-15-18, 21-24-27, 30k.
(add it again!)
Three time ten is 30k, three times nine is 27,
Three times eight is 24, three times seven is 21,
Three times six is 18, three times five is 15,
Three times four is twelve,
And three times three is nine, and three times two is six,
And three times one, for school fees, of course…!
That's why a J.D.....is a tragic blunder....
Monday, September 2, 2013
A Labor Day Message
Law professors, where are you? Those working in schools with little in common with Harvard and Yale and who are tired of offering a one-size-fits-all degree that fits nobody except the elite? Those who are listening to hushed conversations in the faculty lounge about declining enrollment, staff cuts, and the struggle to recruit high quality students? Those who feel badly when their students end up unemployed and indebted for decades instead of enjoying the prosperity advertised by the admissions office, and for which you and they have both worked too hard to fail to attain? Those dynamic faculty members who see the simple solutions to the clear problems with legal education today and who wish the old school administration would just listen? Where are the thousands of you who care? Only a mere handful have spoken up.
Practicing lawyers, where are you? Those working in document review mills, wondering what’ll happen when the case settles and the next project might not appear? Those hustling for scraps of business in a shrinking marketplace, where clients are harder to find and the rising cost of malpractice insurance, bar dues and CLE - let alone health insurance and retirement - are becoming harder to justify? Those working hellish hours in large firms, where incivility is hidden behind closed doors and behind a mask of false prestige? Those who realize that that the profession is supersaturated, and who are concerned about the relentless flow of new JDs into a market that cannot support them? Where are the tens of thousands of you who care? A mere fraction have dared speak out.
Current law students, where are you? Those tens of thousands who are paying high tuition at low-ranked schools where you know that you are unlikely to graduate into a successful legal career, not because you’re not capable, but because there are no opportunities? Those who are tired of inefficient teaching from professors who are phoning in their lectures from notes two decades old? Those who are tired of classes in which no practical legal skills are taught? Those who are sick of professors taking expensive foreign sabbaticals, rarely spending more than a few hours each week at the school, and taking advantage of their privileged positions and tenure? Those who are done with the library continuing to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on acquisitions of books that will never be read each year, or law school administrations wasting your money chasing elusive rankings instead of things that matter? Your voices are the quietest, and the most noticeably absent.
You might not think that this is your battle, but it is. By all means, distance yourself from this blog, but don’t distance yourself from the issues. And although this blog might not be the forum for you to express your concerns or propose solutions (although all are welcome), find the avenue that is appropriate for you. Write, speak, discuss debate, investigate, complain, support, and make a change. But whatever it is, do something. There are so many silent voices that if even half chose to do the bare minimum of a few minutes per week, the resulting outcry would be deafening. Blogs like this one and Third Tier Reality are leading the effort only because nobody else has bothered to pick up a pen and take the lead. But we don't own these issues. They're your issues as well as ours.
By making your voices heard, you can dictate the terms of reform and we can all prosper. By staying quiet, you become part of the problem; you’re not distancing yourself from it, but rather drawing yourself closer to the wrong side of history. Your silence implies that more and more new law schools are a good thing, and misguided colleges will continue to waste countless millions on unnecessary new JD programs. Your silence implies that spiraling student debt is good for society and should be allowed to continue unchallenged. Your silence implies that teaching law in a manner unchanged since the days when horses were the means of transportation and when electricity had yet to be commonplace (let alone the Internet!) is a perfectly reasonable way to train legal professionals who work on issues and with tools that simply did not exist back when the curriculum was set in stone. You imply that the problems do not exist, yet you see them every day. Those, and many other problems besides, are allowed to continue because you’re quiet, and will affect you whether you choose to hide in the shadows or not.
You may not like the bluntness of this blog – trust me, I see your point when reading some of the comments. But I have more respect for the voices of support and dissent here than I do for the vast majority who choose to stay silent, pretending that our legal education system is as effective and efficient as it can be or that the profession is as healthy as in days gone by. And I have no respect for those in positions of power who claim that anything but silence is disrespectful or unprofessional, that a student cannot challenge an established professor or practitioner, that anonymity completely discredits valid arguments, or that the debate must be within their rules, using conformity as a means to suppress much-needed reform. I see the growing anger at the status quo as being a direct result of the unwillingness of the current leadership in legal education and the legal profession to even acknowledge that problems exist, let alone discuss and - heaven forbid! - implement reasonable, cheap, and practical solutions. People grow tired of being ignored, and will shout louder and louder and dig deeper and deeper until they are heard – or at least until they wake somebody up from the profession’s collective slumber.
So today, spend a few moments over a hotdog and a beer and think about whether you’re truly happy about your law school, the legal education system as a whole, or the legal profession. Chances are, you can see room for improvement. And tomorrow, when you’re back in the classroom or office, remember that if you don’t participate in the reform, if you don’t join the movement in your own unique manner and with your own unique voice, then you don’t get to complain when you’re not pleased with the results obtained by those who had the courage to speak up, or worse still, if nothing ever changes.
Practicing lawyers, where are you? Those working in document review mills, wondering what’ll happen when the case settles and the next project might not appear? Those hustling for scraps of business in a shrinking marketplace, where clients are harder to find and the rising cost of malpractice insurance, bar dues and CLE - let alone health insurance and retirement - are becoming harder to justify? Those working hellish hours in large firms, where incivility is hidden behind closed doors and behind a mask of false prestige? Those who realize that that the profession is supersaturated, and who are concerned about the relentless flow of new JDs into a market that cannot support them? Where are the tens of thousands of you who care? A mere fraction have dared speak out.
Current law students, where are you? Those tens of thousands who are paying high tuition at low-ranked schools where you know that you are unlikely to graduate into a successful legal career, not because you’re not capable, but because there are no opportunities? Those who are tired of inefficient teaching from professors who are phoning in their lectures from notes two decades old? Those who are tired of classes in which no practical legal skills are taught? Those who are sick of professors taking expensive foreign sabbaticals, rarely spending more than a few hours each week at the school, and taking advantage of their privileged positions and tenure? Those who are done with the library continuing to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on acquisitions of books that will never be read each year, or law school administrations wasting your money chasing elusive rankings instead of things that matter? Your voices are the quietest, and the most noticeably absent.
You might not think that this is your battle, but it is. By all means, distance yourself from this blog, but don’t distance yourself from the issues. And although this blog might not be the forum for you to express your concerns or propose solutions (although all are welcome), find the avenue that is appropriate for you. Write, speak, discuss debate, investigate, complain, support, and make a change. But whatever it is, do something. There are so many silent voices that if even half chose to do the bare minimum of a few minutes per week, the resulting outcry would be deafening. Blogs like this one and Third Tier Reality are leading the effort only because nobody else has bothered to pick up a pen and take the lead. But we don't own these issues. They're your issues as well as ours.
By making your voices heard, you can dictate the terms of reform and we can all prosper. By staying quiet, you become part of the problem; you’re not distancing yourself from it, but rather drawing yourself closer to the wrong side of history. Your silence implies that more and more new law schools are a good thing, and misguided colleges will continue to waste countless millions on unnecessary new JD programs. Your silence implies that spiraling student debt is good for society and should be allowed to continue unchallenged. Your silence implies that teaching law in a manner unchanged since the days when horses were the means of transportation and when electricity had yet to be commonplace (let alone the Internet!) is a perfectly reasonable way to train legal professionals who work on issues and with tools that simply did not exist back when the curriculum was set in stone. You imply that the problems do not exist, yet you see them every day. Those, and many other problems besides, are allowed to continue because you’re quiet, and will affect you whether you choose to hide in the shadows or not.
You may not like the bluntness of this blog – trust me, I see your point when reading some of the comments. But I have more respect for the voices of support and dissent here than I do for the vast majority who choose to stay silent, pretending that our legal education system is as effective and efficient as it can be or that the profession is as healthy as in days gone by. And I have no respect for those in positions of power who claim that anything but silence is disrespectful or unprofessional, that a student cannot challenge an established professor or practitioner, that anonymity completely discredits valid arguments, or that the debate must be within their rules, using conformity as a means to suppress much-needed reform. I see the growing anger at the status quo as being a direct result of the unwillingness of the current leadership in legal education and the legal profession to even acknowledge that problems exist, let alone discuss and - heaven forbid! - implement reasonable, cheap, and practical solutions. People grow tired of being ignored, and will shout louder and louder and dig deeper and deeper until they are heard – or at least until they wake somebody up from the profession’s collective slumber.
So today, spend a few moments over a hotdog and a beer and think about whether you’re truly happy about your law school, the legal education system as a whole, or the legal profession. Chances are, you can see room for improvement. And tomorrow, when you’re back in the classroom or office, remember that if you don’t participate in the reform, if you don’t join the movement in your own unique manner and with your own unique voice, then you don’t get to complain when you’re not pleased with the results obtained by those who had the courage to speak up, or worse still, if nothing ever changes.
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