Archive for June, 2011

The June 2011 LSAT is history.  Scores came out earlier this week and, by now, you’ve had a few days to mull things over.  If you’re feeling good about your score, congratulations and welcome to the world of law school applications (yay).  If you’re disappointed with your score, don’t worry, you’re in good company.  Though the goal is to take the LSAT just once, there are plenty of applicants who retake the test because their initial scores aren’t what they hoped.

But what if your not sure?  It’s not always so clear whether you should retake the LSAT. How can you tell if you’ve gotten all you’re going to get from this test?

Maybe you can improve your score, but that’s easier said than done.  In our recent podcast, Cancelling or Retaking the LSAT: What to Do When Test Day Doesn’t Go As Planned, we asked our guest experts for some guideposts. 

 Noah Teitelbaum is the Managing Director of Manhattan LSAT, and he says there aren’t a lot of good reasons to retake the LSAT, unless you prepare differently. “If you realize you didn’t do the preparation you could of and realize you can go a lot further, that’s a good reason. Another issue is maybe you do pretty well. Your applications are going in, but you have a feeling you can do even better, that’s a great reason to retake. But, I will say that statistically, people don’t do that much better on average when they retake. So, unless you just happened to have like a really bad day or like, you know, every single one of your pencils broke, you know, in a freak-pencil catastrophe, chances are you’re going to do the same. So, you’re going to have to dig deep in your preparation to do better. People are often delusional about what happened on test day and they also discredit stress and they think oh, I just got stressed out on that test day. I won’t get stressed out the next time. The act of saying that doesn’t end up making you not stressed out the next time. So, if there’s a medical issue, then you need to go see a doctor and deal with that. You need to learn some relaxation techniques. Whatever it is, you need to put a plan in place that’s going to change the way you take the test if you’ll go in and retake it.”

Even with all the right preparation, things do go wrong on test day. But, it’s important to consider how the law schools you’ll be applying to evaluate multiple test scores.  The law schools see all your scores, and while most schools take your highest score, some schools do look at the average of all your scores.  Though an ABA policy provides a good incentive for law schools to look at just  your highest score, some schools will average your score and Richard Geiger, the Dean of Admissions at Cornell Law School, explains the reason.  “Developers of the test, experts in psychometrics will tell you that if you take the test twice, the average score is going to be the best predictor of how you will do in law school. And so, we keep that in mind when we look at multiple scores that, any one score is really just estimation — of what you want to think of it as is an estimation of your true score. So, the more examples that you have of that estimate, the better you can sort of hone in on what the true score might be and it happens that the average of multiple scores tends to be the best predictor.”

How can you tell which approach (highest score or average of scores) is used by the law schools you’re applying to? Go to their websites and look. 

Learn more to help you sort out your options by listening to our full podcast!

Associates have spoken, and their voices are loud and clear: it’s not about size, it’s not about number of offices, and it’s certainly not about a fancy website—it’s all about Wachtell.”

In its ninth year on top, Wachtell has kept its title as the King of law firm prestige: the firm has once again clinched the No. 1 spot on the Vault Law 100. Released today, Vault’s annual law firm prestige rankings are based on responses from thousands—approximately 16,000—of law firm associates across the globe. This year, didn’t bring any surprises at the top of the rankings, as the trifecta of Wachtell, Cravath and Sullivan & Cromwell maintained the top spots as the three most prestigious firms. Rounding out the top ten is a familiar bunch:

1. Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
2. Cravath, Swaine & Moore
3. Sullivan & Cromwell
4. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
5. Davis Polk & Wardwell
6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
7. Weil, Gotshal & Manges
8. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
9. Kirkland & Ellis
10. Covington & Burling.

In fact, the only differences in this year’s top ten as compared to last year are Cleary’s jump from No. 9 to No. 8 and the exit of Williams & Connolly, whose spot was grasped by Kirkland & Ellis—a firm that has returned to the top ten after dropping out in last year’s rankings.

Turning to the bottom 90, below are some of the noteworthy trends from this year’s rankings:

What’s in a Name?

Two of the biggest drops in this year’s Vault Law 100 came from Hogan Lovells and SNR Denton. The firms underwent transatlantic mergers in 2010, resulting in name changes for both. Hogan & Hartson—ranked 28 last year—merged with Lovells—ranked 77 last year—to create Hogan Lovells, while Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal—ranked 64 last year—merged with Denton Wilde Sapte to create SNR Denton. From the perspective of Hogan Lovells’ Hogan contingent, the firm dropped more than 20 spots and out of the Top 50, moving to No. 51. Likewise, SNR Denton plummeted in the rankings, dropping out of the top 100 altogether.

Did these firms’ name changes impact their rankings? Firm branding has been front-and-center recently with a growing number of mergers and the trend toward one-name monikers, bringing even more focus to firms’ images. Vault will obviously be keeping an eager eye out for how these firms are perceived in the 2013 rankings once they settle into their new identities a bit more.

Recession Rally

Latham may have fallen from grace when it dropped out of the top 10 to No. 17 in 2010. But the firm is continuing to put its recession woes behind and rebuild its reputation. Last year, the firm moved up to No. 15, and this year, the firm nestled in at No. 11, a comfortable spot to peer into the top 10 and plot a potential breakthrough in the 2013 rankings. Following the same trend is Cadwalader, which moved up 11 spots this year from 44 to 33 after having dropped from 26 to 60 a few years ago. Like Latham, Cadwalader looks ready to pounce back on its old ranking. Time will tell whether associates will put recessionary layoffs aside and reinstate these firms to their past prestige.

Litigation Leapers

Proving that their recent success in the rankings stems from more than just luck, litigation-focused firms Quinn Emanuel and Boies Schiller continued their impressive scrambles up the Vault Law 100 this year. Quinn, which jumped from No. 43 in 2010 to No. 19 in 2011 landed at No. 16 this year, while Boies shimmied into the top 20, settling in at No. 17 from its spot at 23 last year. With the recent rise in litigation-focused firms creating interesting career path options for fledgling attorneys, these firms seem to be getting their share of the spotlight. See what a casual dress code or Cravath pedigree can do?

Big Moves

While small shifts are customary and expected, several firms caught associates’ attention this year, making some significant jumps in the rankings. Cahill plowed its way into the top 50, moving from 65 to 48. Two other firms to join the top 50 this year are DLA Piper, which moved from 53 to 45 and Bingham McCutchen, which took its place at No. 49 from 56. Other big shifts include: Dewey & LeBoeuf’s moving 10 spots from 47 to 37, Dickstein Shapiro’s 17-spot leap from 97 to 80, Blank Rome’s move from 92 to 81, and Bracewell & Giuliani’s jump from 93 to 83.

Hello & Goodbye

Several firms that didn’t make the cut last year broke into the Top 100 this year, joining the club of the most prestigious law firms, including:

• Drinker Biddle at 95
• Pepper Hamilton at 96
• Littler Mendelson at 97
• Kelley Drye at 99
• Foley Hoag at 100

But the Top 100 also bid adieu to a few firms. In addition to SNR Denton, Fenwick & West also exited the Top 100.

Looking for more rankings action? Vault has more to come in the weeks ahead – with release of their rankings on Diversity, Top Law Firms by Region, Best Firms to Work for and more. They’ve also got firm profiles, providing new, juicy insider tidbits each week (watch out for those releases on our twitter stream: @VaultLaw).

This post is authored by Mary Kate Sheridan, Vault.com’s law editor.  She covers legal news and trends relating to top law firms, law schools and the general legal industry. In search of a practical use for her writing, she wound up on the liberal arts path often-traveled: law school. After law school, she worked as a litigation associate in a large New York law firm. Mary Kate holds a BA in English from Mary Washington College and a JD from Columbia Law School.    

You can view the Vault.com rankings by clicking on the following link:  2012 Vault Law 100. 

For more information on law school rankings, check out our podcast, Law School Rankings: What Do the Numbers Mean?

Recently I was asked how much an internship experience with a not-for-profit would benefit a law school candidate in the application process. In particular, I was asked whether the candidate would be better served by choosing to work at a prestigious international organization for the summer rather than tutoring and mentoring students at his place of worship. 

 While an internship with an international organization can help strengthen your law school application, working as a tutor or mentor in your own community, along with other service at the local level, demonstrates a genuinely deep commitment to community service.  As you consider your options for community involvement, be sure to focus on organizations about which you are passionate and to which you can commit yourself entirely. By dedicating your time and energy to an organization about which you are genuinely enthusiastic, you will naturally find yourself in situations that will make excellent fodder for quality application essays and powerful recommendations. A detailed resume that showcases your community involvement (and that ideally highlights not just your actions but also your impact) can demonstrate to the admissions committee that you would add diversity to an entering class that would not be the same without someone like you. Though you cannot fully predict the value of your community service experience now, you can set yourself up to reap the most benefit by choosing one in which you will most likely excel.

This blog post is authored by jdMission co-founder, Sunitha Ramaiah. After graduating Princeton University, Sunitha attended Columbia University Law School.   She practiced corporate law for eight years, before she met Jeremy Shinewald, the Founder of mbaMission, the world leader in MBA admissions consulting.  Together they started jdMission to provide the same stellar service to JD candidates. 

Do you have a question about applying to law school? Submit your inquiries to info@jdmission.com, and we might choose your question to answer in an upcoming blog post here at Law School Podcaster.

You can also sign up for a free one-on-one consultation with jdMission by submitting the form found at http://jdmission.com/consult.php.

And be sure to check back here every other Tuesday for tons of great law school admissions tips and  application advice. We look forward to hearing from you and wish you luck on your road to law school!

Take the Logic Games Challenge! Manhattan LSAT posted Logic Games Challenge #32 and they invite our listeners to join in the chance to Win $200 off any LSAT Course or any Manhattan LSAT Strategy Guide (your choice!). The latest challenge:  The Graduation Game (Easy)

Seven friends—K, L, M, N, O, P, and R – graduated from college over the course of seven years, one person per year. The following conditions apply:

• K graduated two years before O.
• P and M graduated in consecutive years, though not necessarily in that order.
• N graduated third.
• L did not graduate sixth.

Think you can solve this Logic Game Challenge? You can win $200 off any LSAT Course or a Free Manhattan LSAT Strategy Guide (your choice!)

Post your answers on Manhattan LSAT’s site and your explanation on their LSAT Forum. You have 2 ways to win: (1) Correct Answer Prize: Manhattan LSAT will randomly choose from any submitted correct answers during the Challenge period and (2) Best Explanation Prize: Manhattan LSAT will choose the best explanation posted on our forums.

Good luck!

For more information about Manhattan LSAT and LSAT study options, listen to Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies: Which One is Right for You?”

For more information about the LSAT, check out Law School Podcaster’s full shows:

• The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test
• Conquering the LSAT: Tips for Tackling the Test
• Mastering LSAT Logic Games: Tips to Beat the Toughest Part of the Test
• Cancelling or Retaking the LSAT: What to Do When Test Day Doesn’t Go As Planned

And more LSAT shows are on the way…..

Wondering about the answers to the last Logic Game Challenge #31? Here they are: (1) (2)  (3) (4)  (5)  (6)  (7)

Interested in sports and entertainment law?  Our new podcast, Career Tracks for Law Students: Spotlighting the Sports & Entertainment Law Practice Area is just for you! 

The idea of representing celebrities, athletes, authors, entertainers and their employers sounds great, but not too many applicants and students really know what the legal practice area of sports and entertainment law involves or how to get started on this career track.  With that in mind, we talk with leaders in this practice area, serving both as outside and in-house counsel, and also with a professor who directs the entertainment curriculum at a top law school to get their insight on this topic. 

Since jobs and career opportunities are always on the minds of students, we asked our guests about the projected growth for this sector.  Fox Television Studio Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, Shelley Reid says new technology may open new opportunities.  “I think that there’s more opportunity in cable but I think that if you’re in school as a freshman or a first year law student, three years from now, the business is going to look very different.  Five years from now, it’s going to look very different.  I don’t know how it’s going to look, but it’s changing so rapidly.  So, the most important thing any young law student can do is really keep his/her eye on the ball of what’s going on in technology.  Cable is here to stay, I think, for the not too distant future.  I think broadcast television is going to morph into a very different way but certainly, not the mechanics but the economics of television programming across the board are going to change dramatically, podcasting, simulcasting.  So, the metrics of the economy, the economics of it are going to change.”

The Managing Director of the Motion Picture Association of America’s Indian Office, Rajiv Dalal, is also a guest on the show and has some great advice for law students interested in this field.  Dalal emphasized the importance of international markets and new media needs.  “Anyone getting into this field on the transactional side or just even in the representative capacity that I’m in, obviously, intellectual property courses are very important in understanding copyright.  But, I would say international copyright classes are really important, which I think people either aren’t afforded that opportunity within their curriculum or they overlook it because it’s so specialized.”  Dalal also explains why law students should take advantage of curriculum offerings in internet and new media technology.

Other guests on the show include:

• New York Mets General Counsel, David Cohen
• Loeb & Loeb Associate, Rupen Fofaria
• Executive Director of the Entertainment Program at University of Southern California Law School, John Schulman. 

Listen to the full show to learn more!

If you’re thinking of applying to law school, mark your calendars now and get ready for The Law School Seminar Series — a series of events that focus on the LSAT and the law school admissions process.

These events will be held throughout the month of June in several locations throughout the NY Metro region.  Attend where you live or where you work and get the same great information. 

In the Personal Statement Workshop, join jdMission co-founder Sunitha Ramaiah to learn how to write a winning personal statement that gets the attention of law school admissions officers. You’ll review actual personal statements to learn how you should and should not present yourself.

Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m. EST

Location: Kaplan Midtown Center, 131 West 56th Street, New
York, NY 10018

Price: Free!

Recently, Stephen, a law school candidate, asked me whether he should include an addendum with his law school application to explain why he had earned a failing grade in a particular graduate course.

I told Stephen that this is an excellent idea, especially because the LSAC does not provide any analysis of graduate school transcripts on the Academic Summary Report.

I explained to Stephen that the admissions committee does take your graduate work into consideration, and the type of graduate work you have completed will influence how seriously the admissions committee weighs your grades in those courses.

Stephen also asked us whether to explain some additional weaknesses with other parts of his application.  He wondered whether he should also explain a number of withdrawals from undergraduate courses in an addendum as well as a learning disability that required him to take extra time on the LSAT (extra time that was provided).   Since Stephen is already planning to submit an addendum to explain this grade-related anomaly in his grad school record, I advised him not to submit any additional addenda.  Though there might be exceptions,  a good rule of thumb to follow:   ‘one applicant, one addendum.’

In almost all cases, we caution applicants against submitting multiple addenda with your application.  It’s just not a good idea to make excuses for multiple parts of your application or candidacy. If your grades and LSAT score are also poor indicators of how you would do in law school, this would create obvious red flags for the admissions committee. If you have more than one reason for a less-than-glowing performance in college, for example, pick only the most significant one and explain the situation in clear and sincere language—then let the rest of your application speak for itself.

This blog post is authored by jdMission co-founder, Sunitha Ramaiah. After graduating Princeton University, Sunitha attended Columbia University Law School.   She practiced corporate law for eight years, before she met Jeremy Shinewald, the Founder of mbaMission, the world leader in MBA admissions consulting.  Together they started jdMission to provide the same stellar service to JD candidates. 

Do you have a question about applying to law school? Submit your inquiries to info@jdmission.com, and we might choose your question to answer in an upcoming blog post here at Law School Podcaster.

You can also sign up for a free one-on-one consultation with jdMission by submitting the form found at http://jdmission.com/consult.php.

And be sure to check back here every other Tuesday for tons of great law school admissions tips and  application advice. We look forward to hearing from you and wish you luck on your road to law school!

The LSAT is less than a week away and people are often asking for final tips about test day.  Here’s my best of:

← Early Versions of the Reading Comprehension Section of the LSAT

Caveat: if you know you’ll do better with momentum, go right ahead and get momentumming– go crazy the week before the LSAT.  Some people like to do a six-section LSAT a week before test day to make 5 sections seem easy.

2. Pack-up the night before. Get all your pencils sharpened, print out the ticket (and make sure your printer doesn’t cut off any part of it), make sure you have a passport-sized picture, and find that analog watch your dad gave you years ago. Make sure you know how to get to your testing center – there’s nothing worse than freaking out on your way to the test. Plan to arrive early and to enjoy a coffee outside while you do a warm-up section, a crossword puzzle, or something that is fun and slightly intellectual.

3. Warm-up mental stretches. Bring some light, warm-up LSAT material with you to the testing center. I suggest bringing some tough questions that you completely mastered.  Before you enter the testing center,  run through the questions one last time, toss the paper into the recycling bin, and head to your room.  Don’t bother checking your work.  The reason to do all of this is so the first section of the test isn’t your warm-up.  You want your logical thinking already moving when you start section 1.  The brain is a muscle, so warm it up just like you would your legs.

4. Visualize consistency. This will be the cheesiest-sounding suggestion, but perhaps one of the most important. Many Olympic athletes spend some time before their event imagining every single step of the process. Studies show that this activates the parts of your brain that you will actually use, and it reinforces the steps you’re going to do. So spend 10 minutes before the LSAT imagining what will happen.  Visualize your attitude during the test, visualize how you will deal with a tough question, and visualize staying focused. It works – and what do you have to lose?

5. Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. On all but the easiest problems in LR and RC, you should generally eliminate 4 answers. If you’re going down the answer choice list, and (B) seems to be the answer, act suspicious – assume you’ve been duped – and go on and look at the rest of the answer choices, seeing if you can eliminate them.  It’s too easy to “shut down” your brain once you think you’ve found the answer.  Unless you’re scoring 180s, face it: the LSAT is fooling you some of the time.  So look for the wrong answers, not the right ones.  This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give to students who are looking for a way to freshen up their process if it has hit a plateau.

6. Move along. If you are stuck on a question, take comfort in the fact that most everyone around you is probably struggling with that question too!  Some of your neighbors will spend 4 minutes on that one question, and others will move on and devote time to questions they can tackle.  Those who move on and keep their cool will probably do better.  So, make an educated guess, bubble it in, circle the question number, and move on.  If you have time, come back to it.

7. Focus! If you find yourself meta-thinking (i.e. “wow, I’m taking the LSAT and it’s really tough, I hope I’m doing well . . . shoot, I really need to focus!  I think I bombed that last logic game.  Dang, what if I can’t focus . .”) you need to get back to work!  One easy way is to read the passage or question to yourself aloud (very quietly obviously).  Some people understand better when they hear information.  Another way to do it is to start writing on the test – “Conclusion!” “Why?” “Author’s opinion!”

8. Try something. For logic games, if you are into the 2nd or 3rd question and have been struggling the whole way there, you may have not made some important inferences that could “un-lock” the game (and by the way, not every game has important inferences built into the scenario, sometimes they’re all in the conditional questions).  Lay out two possible scenarios with
the elements and question yourself along the way: “could E go anywhere? Why not?”  This might help focus your thinking.  This isn’t usually the most ideal route to unlocking a logic game, but if you’re stuck, you’ve got to do something!

9. Stay limber. You’ve probably spent a lot of time learning diagrams, logic rules, etc.  During test day, feel free to abandon ship if something is not working, but don’t abandon everything you’ve learned and go back to your fight-or-flight LSAT brain. The best test-takers are flexible with their methods, but have a steady hand. That being said, don’t throw out your general approach to the test It’s your routine that will see you all the way through section 5.

And I still stand behind my longstanding night-before-the-LSAT recommendation:  Watch Legally Blonde, 1 or 2.

This post is provided by Manhattan LSAT, a leading LSAT-exclusive test preparation provider. To hear more from Manhattan LSAT, you can listen to these great Law School Podcaster shows:

• The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test
• Conquering the LSAT: Tips for Tackling the Test
• Mastering LSAT Logic Games: Tips to Beat the Toughest Part of the Test
• Cancelling or Retaking the LSAT: What To Do When Test Day Doesn’t Go as Planned

Good luck on Test Day!