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February 26, 2010
Rounding up this week’s news updates to stories we’ve been following, Washington and Lee University School of Law announced that Mark Grunewald has been named interim dean, effective July 1. He has been a faculty member since 1976 and even previously served a stint as interim dean during the 1999-2000 academic year.
Grunewald steps into a relatively high-profile role, as Rodney Smolla left the deanship in mid-December to become president of Furman University, raising far-reaching questions about what would come of Smolla’s proposed 3L curricular reforms. As we reported then, the law school quickly confirmed that it was planning to go ahead . . . → Continue Reading
February 26, 2010
Hi there, and welcome to Fridays From the Frontline! Each week the Clear Admit team delves into the ‘blawgosphere’ to find the latest news, opinions, and experiences of law school applicants and students. This week bloggers were up to a great deal, from learning how to use a new camera to preparing for Moot Court.
0L Ricky Nelson enjoyed his professor’s witty Google Chat banter, but worried about what was being said in the teachers’ lounge. NYU ’12 Invisible Man discussed the pros and cons of the school’s ‘Lawyering’ requirement. Miami ’12 Goateed 1L received a camera as a wedding present and worked to earn enough points for Moot Court. . . . → Continue Reading
February 25, 2010
Late-February is a notoriously stressful time for law school applicants. Although some applicants have begun to hear back from programs regarding their candidacy, February marks the crunch-time for reading applications at law school admissions offices. The anxiety caused by the seemingly endless waiting period has prompted a number of conversations on popular online forums.
Recently, Asha Rangappa, Yale Law School’s Dean of Admissions, took the time to respond to a number of the questions raised by prospective students on the (203) Admissions Blog. For example, one candidate wondered if Yale has a cutoff for applicants in terms of GPAs or LSAT scores. As Asha explained, Yale does not have a cutoff, but a candidate with a notably low GPA or . . . → Continue Reading
February 24, 2010
On its website Monday, Columbia Law School announced that a new fellowship is available to its graduates who want to work on issues of women’s land and property rights in developing countries.
The two-year postgraduate fellowship is offered through the Global Center for Women’s Land Rights, part of the Seattle, Wash.-based Rural Development Institute, an organization with affiliates in more than 45 nations worldwide.
According to the institute, women are often responsible for primary agricultural production in developing countries, but are precluded from land ownership. The organization, in part, works to resolve this issue, thereby enabling women to better feed and educate their children and improve their overall standards of living.
The . . . → Continue Reading
February 24, 2010
Law school applicants range from current college seniors to those who have been out of college and working for several years. Today we’d like to offer some guidance to those applicants who have been in the working world for a substantial amount of time and are now interested in going back to school to become lawyers, as there are several ways these J.D. candidates can stand out from relatively younger applicants in a helpful manner.
1. Use your experience to your advantage. For applicants who have spent some time in the working world, it’s important to demonstrate that their professional experience has been valuable to them. This value includes personal growth and a better understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, which can . . . → Continue Reading
February 23, 2010
A detailed article in The National Law Journal Monday outlined the discussion among law school leaders that has arisen since a shift toward “outcome-based” ABA accreditation standards has been proposed. The article labeled the proposal “the most significant change to law school accreditation in years.”
Reflecting an overarching shift in legal education, the suggested accreditation changes would seek to ensure that graduating law students possess the necessary practical skills to succeed in the profession. Rather than merely evaluating inputs, such as student-faculty ratio and school facilities, the proposed changes would additionally focus on “the skills and competencies they want students to have when they graduate.”
Currently, accreditation relies on the “output” of bar passage . . . → Continue Reading
February 23, 2010
In this week’s Trivia Tuesday, we are considering the very popular discussion-based seminars offered at Harvard Law School and Michigan Law School.
Known as Reading Groups at HLS and Mini-Seminars at Michigan Law, the weekly seminars are held outside of the usual school day, usually during dinnertime, at the home of the professor who is leading the course. The scheduling and location of the seminars, combined with the intimate class size, give students the opportunity to explore a legal topic in a casual setting under the guidance of a leading legal scholar. In this way, the evening courses function as channels for community building and provide opportunities for faculty members to get to know their students outside of class while . . . → Continue Reading
February 22, 2010
Supplanting Columbia Law School in the annual “go-to” law school list, Northwestern University School of Law garnered top honors in a relatively down recruitment year.
The rankings, released Monday afternoon by The National Law Journal, detail the number of law school graduates placed as first-year associates at the nation’s largest 250 law firms in 2009.
Northwestern took the top slot by placing 55.9 percent of its 2009 graduates at BigLaw firms. Columbia, which ranked No. 1 in 2008 and 2007, was second in 2009. Stanford Law School, the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law rounded out the top five, respectively. The top nine programs placed 50 percent or more of their graduates at BigLaw firms.
Overall, the . . . → Continue Reading
February 22, 2010
David Onek, who founded the Barkeley Center for Criminal Justice (BCCJ) in 2006, is stepping down as executive director and will be replaced by current associate director Andrea Russi. Prior to joining the BCCJ in 2006, Russi worked as an assistant attorney in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division, taught at the USC Gould School of Law, and clerked for the Central District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The BCCJ promotes collaboration among legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, with the mission to develop new criminal and juvenile justice law and policy approaches. Berkeley students have the chance to attend BCCJ conferences and roundtable events, as well as work with the program, such as the . . . → Continue Reading
February 22, 2010
With readers finding content via publication websites or other online resources, paid circulation for law reviews has dropped significantly over the past three decades, according to a new study.
The research was conducted by Professor Ross Davies of George Mason University School of Law, who tracked 21 of the most prominent law reviews from 1979 to 2009 using data from the U.S. Postal Service.
Detailed in a recent article in The National Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review has experienced a circulation decline of nearly 77 percent, while the Yale Law Journal has seen a drop of more than 57 percent over that time period.
In the article, Prof. Davies offers a number of reasons . . . → Continue Reading
February 19, 2010
Outlining a slight change in its testing schedule, LSAC has pushed three of next admissions season’s LSAT exams back a week each.
Compiled neatly in a blog post by LSAT tutor Steve Schwartz, the altered timeline affects the October 2010, December 2010 and February 2011 tests. In 2009, the September/October exam was on Sept. 26; in 2010 it will be offered on Oct. 9. In 2009, the December LSAT was on Dec. 5; in 2010 it will occur on Dec. 11. In 2010, the February exam (though delayed in many locations along the Mid-Atlantic due to inclement weather) was on Feb. 6; . . . → Continue Reading
February 19, 2010
Hi there, and welcome to the latest installment of Clear Admit’s weekly Fridays From the Frontline! This week found ‘blawgers’ up to a variety of activities. Some hopefuls/aspirants received news from schools, while current students looked toward their summer job chances.
oL LSAT Lifer received his first law school acceptance, which he was grateful for even if he still hoped to get off the waitlist at slightly more competitive schools. 0L Ricky Nelson started a Twitter account for his blog. In honor of Valentine’s Day, Lovely Mrs shared some of her favorite quotations about love. Miami ’12 Goateed 1L’s classes were cancelled so that all 1Ls could attend an on-campus court of . . . → Continue Reading
February 18, 2010
It was announced Wednesday that Stanford Law School will offer a new LL.M. program, International Economic Law, Business & Policy (IELBP), beginning in the fall semester.
The newest Master of Laws addition is the school’s third such program, joining Corporate Governance & Practice and Law, Science & Technology. IELBP will initially be open to 12-15 students. All participating students are required to have a primary law degree from an institution located outside of the United States.
According to the Stanford Law School website, the LL.M. will focus on the following areas: “international trade, international dispute resolution, international business transactions, international investment law, international environmental law, international finance, international . . . → Continue Reading
February 17, 2010
Representing the growing shift toward practical legal education, the last of Harvard Law School’s 2006 first-year curricular reforms created an experiential problem-solving workshop for its new law students.
And with the Class of 2012 the first class to undertake the workshop, Harvard Law Record, the school’s independent newspaper, took stock of the recently-implemented program in an article last week.
In speaking to students and faculty, the paper offered a largely positive view of the latest curricular addition. Quoted students especially appreciated the chance to work with a legal practitioner and to work through problems in groups. Dean Martha Minow also said that the participating teachers found the workshop “exciting and rewarding.”
The required three-week workshop . . . → Continue Reading
February 17, 2010
As we’ve stated in other Admissions Tips, the personal statement is the prime opportunity for law school candidates to express themselves in the application process. Therefore it’s important that in this section of the application, candidates present themselves positively, therefore effectively show the admissions committees why they would be good additions to the law school community. We offer some tips below to help law school applicants put their best food forward in doing this and writing their personal statements.
1. Put yourself at the center. In talking about your future goals or in elaborating on your academic or work experience to date, you will want to put yourself in the picture, indicating what you . . . → Continue Reading
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If you'd like us to add your blog to the feed, simply send us an email. School News BlogsStraight from the source. The latest press releases and news items streaming from the leading schools.
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The popular self-described "legal tabloid."
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Wall Street Journal on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community.
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