February 8, 2010

Yale Law School Starts Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum

Yale Law School recently announced its launch of a Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum (MFIA), in which students use impact litigation and policy work to increase government transparency through the use of traditional and emerging avenues of gathering news information. MFIA, which was founded by four Yale Law students and is an initiative of Yale’s Information Society Project and the Knight Law & Media Program, has a twofold mission: to assist thorough investigations for news organizations, many of which currently face crippling economic limitations, as well as to champion the public’s right to access information.

MFIA already has a list of future projects with which students can be involved, including doing policy research on First Amendment Rights online for the Electronic Frontier Foundation; working with a journalist who is being denied court records in a corporate whistleblower case; taking on Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals put in by The New York Times; and taking a supportive role in an appeal to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission. MFIA also plans to pursue federal and state Freedom of Information Act requests in regards to fusion centers, which are state and local intelligence-mining programs funded by the federal government.

In addition to this litigation work, MFIA plans to draft policy papers, coordinate speakers to come to Yale’s campus to discuss important issues, and plan and sponsor a Freedom of Information Boot Camp.

Linda Greenhouse ’78 MSL, the Knight Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale, stated her support for MFIA, saying it follows the pro bono public legal tradition, as Yale students will work against government secrecy, helping creating both an accountable government and a healthier democracy. Yale Law School Dean Robert Post ’77, a First Amendment scholar, agrees, stating that this practicum is also important because it will help traverse the changing economic and technological media communications industry.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in General, Law School News, School: Yale

February 7, 2010

Major Snowstorm Postpones February LSAT for Mid-Atlantic Test-Takers

The severe winter weather that struck the United States’ Mid-Atlantic region this weekend closed numerous LSAT test centers, causing test postponements for a wide swath of prospective law students.

From North Carolina to New York, and as far west as Indiana, a total of 65 test centers across 11 states were closed.  Four test centers were also closed in Washington, D.C. and one was closed in Newfoundland, Canada.

(One Washington, D.C. test center, at Georgetown University, remained open for Saturday’s exam, which rankled some over travel arrangements.)

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) announced the inclement weather closings on its website ahead of the scheduled exam.  LSAC last updated the page early Saturday morning and made no official announcement on the website Sunday.  Further decisions on rescheduled exams and testing centers are expected Monday or Tuesday.

Individual test-takers have been contacted via email regarding rescheduling options.  However, it is also clear that some test centers on Saturday remained unsure of their schedule going forward.  Washington and Lee University School of Law, for instance, on Saturday said that it hopes “to offer the test on Saturday, Feb. 13, or Saturday, Feb.  20.” The law school indicated that the final rescheduling decision would be up to LSAC, and made on Monday or Tuesday.

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# posted by admin @ 3:18 pm in LSAT, Law School News

February 5, 2010

Duke Law Expands Funding For Summer Public Interest Positions

Citing increased interest in public-sector legal positions, Duke University Law School has created two funding options for students who would like to explore careers through summer employment.

Outlined in a recent press release, the Dean’s Summer Service Grant sets aside $3,000 for qualifying 2Ls, while the Horvitz Public Law Fellowship provides funding for 1L and 2Ls.  The press release did not specify the amount of the Horvitz Fellowship.

“Dean Levi recognized that without institutional financial support, many students would not have the opportunity to explore public service career opportunities through summer work,” said Kim Bart, assistant dean of Public Interest and Pro Bono, of Duke Law’s dean, who pushed such financial allocation.

Both the grant and the fellowship have unique qualifications and acceptable positions, though, generally, both are available to students who seek jobs with government or non-profit organizations, or judicial internships.  In the case of the Dean’s Grant, a student must have completed at least ten pro bono hours earlier in the school year and commit to the position full-time for at least ten weeks.

The increased focus on public interest law, in large part due to economic conditions, has certainly been noticed beyond Duke Law.  Last month, we reported on the 2009 Law School Survey of Student Engagement, which indicated a 4 percent rise in respondents expecting to work in public interest positions following graduation.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in Law School News, School: Duke

Fridays From The Frontline

Another seven days have gone by since our last installment of Fridays From the Frontlines and we welcome you back! This week we continued our ongoing surveillance of the ‘blawgosphere’ and found that 1Ls had quite a lot on their minds while 2L and 3L students were a little more reticent.

0L Lovely MRS received acceptances from the majority of her safety and reach schools, but was leaning towards the lowest ranking school of the bunch. Columbia ‘12 Soleil continued to wage an epic battle against the mice in her apartment, and considered going to the library to avoid her tendency of falling asleep when doing her law reading. Chapman ‘12 Julie bought herself a school sweatshirt and recounted a humorous interaction between a professor and one of her fellow classmates. 1L Legalista shared her first of ten tips any first year should know: sell your books. 1L No Reins Girl applied the lessons of her contract law course to discuss the  change in how she can watch rugby on television. NCCU ‘12 TDOT found that some of his legal reading was making it difficult to like people. 1L Moonshine Pete shocked her boyfriend with her lack of knowledge about the New Deal, and managed to gain access to the library without her ID card. NYU ‘12 IDWSJ covered a lot of topics in a post that hit on job interviews, job fairs, and how his classes are focused less on doctrine this semester. Miami ‘12 Goateed 1L began to consider a future in the Army or Navy Judge Advocate General program. NYU ‘12 Invisible Man learned that at least one reader got to his blog by searching ‘prestigious 1L summer,’ and provided his ideas on what that might mean. 1L Anonymous wondered if she was the only one finding it even more difficult to get their reading done.

2L Reasonable struggled to keep her case together when her witnesses were late and her judge was immune to ‘please.’ Minnesota ‘11 Jansen explained why his was a blog about a law student’s life, not a law student blog. 2L The Exit pointed out a number of myths that many 1Ls might like to know about. 2L Googiebaba updated her blog with a photograph of her new daughter, and admitted that the responsibilities of school and parenthood made it a challenge to remember her own name. 2L Kel was quite frustrated by the issues of quotas she, and other women, faced when it came to gaining places in clinics, competitions and journals.

3L I’m Nobody didn’t have a lot to say due to the exhaustion of law school, but did have plans to get drunk with a friend. Austin ‘10 Paragon2Pieces felt prepared for the MPRE, and gave those with less confidence a few suggestions. 3L Eliza endured another winter but had serious plans for the warmer months. With another six weeks of winter ahead of us (according to Punxsutawney Phil) we hope that all students and applicants, can keep their spirits warm and upbeat, even if their hands freeze.

And that wraps up this ‘episode’ of Fridays From the Frontline. If you are (or know) a law school applicant or student blogger, and would like to be included in our weekly roundup, please let us know by emailing bob@clearadmit.com. Until next time, have a great weekend!

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in Fridays From the Frontline

February 4, 2010

Article Examines Growing Trend Toward Practical Legal Education

From added clinical programs to the messages of incoming deans, a growing trend in legal education - driven in part by economic conditions and the job market - is the call for further development of practical “lawyering” skills.

An article Tuesday in Law 360 examines the trend, indicating the pervasiveness of inquiry into educational reform efforts.

The article first discusses the desire of private law practices to see relatively well-trained hires.  Therefore, according to the University of Miami School of Law’s Laurence Rose, making young lawyers job-ready trickles down to law programs.

Paul Lippe, CEO of Legal OnRamp and a fan of practical legal initiatives, tells Law 360 that while past hiring was largely credentials-based, that is now shifting to more ability-based hiring.

From there, the article offers a number of example top-tier programs that have taken steps to reform their practical education.  Stanford Law School began efforts in 2006 with a clinical rotation and by facilitating multidisciplinary courses.  Northwestern University School of Law launched an accelerated J.D. and has proposed a 3L semester that would be devoted entirely to practical exposure.  Harvard Law School now requires all 1Ls to work through a problem-solving exercise involving a residential dispute.

“It doesn’t mean they’ll be ready to go into practice tomorrow,” said Todd Rakoff, a HLS professor, to Law 360, “but it’s trying to get them to see [what] law looks like from the practicing point of view as opposed to the law school point of view.”

The aforementioned messages from incoming deans support this trend.  For example, in December, the University of California, Hastings College of Law’s new dean, Frank Wu, stressed career-oriented skills in the school’s announcing press release.  Earlier this month, the University of Chicago Law School’s Michael Schill said that students should possess the “skills necessary to hit the ground running.”

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in General, Law School News

NYU School of Law Hosts 33rd Annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair

Today and tomorrow, February 4th and 5th, New York University School of Law will be holding its 33rd annual Public Interest Legal Career Fair, recognized as the nation’s largest public interest legal career fair. The event is hosted by the school’s Public Interest Law Center (PILC).

The fair offers students a valuable opportunity to meet and talk with employers at information tables, and some students even have the chance to interview for internships and permanent jobs. Last year, representatives from 200 organizations and over 2,000 law students attended the event.

The event is held in NYU’s Vanderbilt Hall, and runs from 9:20 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. To learn more about to event and to review a list of participating schools, click here.

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in Events, School: New York University

February 3, 2010

Admissions Tip: Are Your Deadlines Marked On Your Calendar?

The beginning of February brings about the first slew of law school deadlines.  While some have already passed, let’s take a look at the remainder of this month as well as March and April to consider the deadlines spread over the next three months:

February 15: Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Michigan, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Yale
March 1: Boston College, Boston University, Emory, Fordham, Iowa, University of Virginia, Washington and Lee, William and Mary
March 15: Illinois, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt
March 31: George Washington
April 1: Minnesota
April 15: Washington University in St. Louis (recommended deadline is March 1)

While it’s usually best to apply as early as possible, sometimes there is no option but to apply closer to the deadline.  However, because many leading law programs grant admission on a rolling basis, the closer it is to the deadline, the more seats in the incoming class have already been given away.

To maximize your chances of a close to deadline acceptance, demonstrating your interest in the school and submitting thoughtful and error-free written materials will be crucial. Just as applying early is generally taken as a sign of interest in a given program, applicants submitting their materials closer to the deadline need to work extra hard to convince the adcom that they are genuinely interested in the school and are not simply applying as an afterthought because interview invitations didn’t come through from other schools. Demonstrating that you would make a valuable contribution to the community and providing evidence that you have taken steps to engage current students and alumni will work to your advantage.

As always, we’d like to recommend the in-depth Clear Admit Law Guides to those applicants who are targeting the later deadlines and just beginning to investigate certain programs, or are preparing for interviews at their target schools.

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in Admissions Tip, Deadlines

February 2, 2010

Public Law School in Massachusetts Clears Final Hurdle

By virtue of a unanimous vote, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education accepted a proposal Tuesday to create the state’s first public law school.

As we reported in this space in December, the plan was previously accepted by the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees.  The proposal outlines a path for Southern New England School of Law - a currently unaccredited institution - to become assimilated into the UMass-Dartmouth campus.

While the plan has undergone intense debate in Massachusetts, UMass’ President Jack Wilson, who previously labeled the acquisition as the school “honoring its educational mission,” was satisfied Tuesday.  He told WBUR that Massachusetts now joins 44 other states in offering public law school.

As expected given the contentious proposal, the law school blogosphere has covered the vote in full, as evident by posts on Above the Law and ABA Journal.

While educational points of view raise other issues, the central issue for the state is financial: critics see Massachusetts giving the institution a fiscal lifeline when the state is experiencing a budget shortfall, while proponents believe the donated school will eventually become a financial boon.

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# posted by admin @ 6:47 pm in General, Law School News

Arizona State Law Retools Innovation Center

At a ceremony last week, Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law officially recast its science and law center, adding to it further programs.

The newly-named Center for Law, Science & Innovation now features a Program in Law and Sustainability, a Public Health Law and Policy Program, and The Prevail Project, a behavioral development research initiative we covered earlier this month.

The renaming ceremony also served as an anniversary of the center’s forerunner, which has been in existence on the law school campus since 1984.  According to a school press release, the center was the country’s first “to address the special legal problems arising from rapid developments in science and technology.”  Last week’s announcement signals a more interdisciplinary approach to the subject matter.

“New advances in genomic-level manipulation allow human beings to alter our own evolutionary path…and so on,” said Dean Paul Schiff Berman.  “Such advances require multidisciplinary approaches, bringing together experts in law and policy, science, technology, ethics, and culture.”

Additional programs centered on post-conviction DNA samples, healthcare entrepreneurship, and the future of science are also proposed.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in Law School News, School: Arizona State

Trivia Tuesday: Large Law Schools and the Structure of the 1L Class at Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School

In this edition of Trivia Tuesday, we are taking a peek into the ways that law schools with big classes structure their first-year classes and help new 1Ls ease into law school in a potentially bewildering atmosphere.  Since Harvard and Columbia enroll some of the largest 1L classes (or the largest, in Harvard’s case), we can examine the practices that these schools have implemented to get a sense of how big law schools navigate the challenges of helping new 1Ls adapt to life in law school.

Harvard, with approximately 550 students in each class, takes a number of steps to create a sense of community and facilitate bonding among students from the moment they arrive on campus for orientation.  To provide a framework that supports close and consistent interactions with classmates, Harvard breaks its first-year class into seven smaller units (“sections”) of approximately 75 students each.  Each section is led by a member of the HLS faculty, usually a professor who teaches one of the 1L courses, who is assigned to guide his or her section through orientation and is available to students for academic and extracurricular guidance throughout the year.  Harvard Law students generally find the 75-student sections create an easily navigable space within the class and are relieved that HLS makes the effort to keep them from feeling overwhelmed.

Columbia Law School, on the other hand, takes a relatively hands-off approach to structuring the 1L class to promote community among new law students.  With approximately 380 students in each class, CLS is smaller than HLS, but is still considered to be one of the largest leading U.S. law schools.  To make the school seem a little less daunting to first-year students, CLS breaks its 1L class into sections of 90 students for the purpose of taking the first-year doctrinal courses, and further divides the class into groups of 12-15 students for the required Legal Practice Workshop.  Apart from these workshop groups, CLS provides few other formal programs to help students meet their classmates.  Instead, students are encouraged to find their own niche through active participation in student organizations.

For more information about the 1L experience at HLS and CLS, be sure to check out the First-Year Curriculum sections of the Clear Admit Law School Guides for Harvard Law School and Columbia Law School!

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# posted by admin @ 8:32 am in School: Columbia, School: Harvard, Trivia Tuesday

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