Law School Podcaster

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Watch Out for Passage Wording on the LSAT!

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Many answer choices on the LSAT are written to be enticing. Some answers will be blatantly wrong, but most will only be slightly wrong.

That’s why you have to pay close attention to passage wording in Reading Comp and Logical Reasoning. Both sections make you read huge chunks of text closely but quickly, so when you’re scanning the questions for a passage the words start to run together. Take this snippet, from a very scientific passage about cats:

Traditionally, cats have been excellent self-cleaners. Housecats, more than other cats in the animal kingdom, rely on their tongues for bathing and fur maintenance. While their self-cleaning methods are effective, they also sometimes result in challenges like hairballs.

This is a shorter (and much weirder) passage than one you’ll find on the LSAT, but you can use the same strategies in addressing it. Say the first question asks us for a statement that is true according to the author and gives us four possible answer choices. The first choice might be easy to eliminate.

(A) Cats are excellent space travelers.

A gimme. Space travel is completely off-topic, so we can scratch this one. Let’s look at the rest.

(B) Housecats have proven throughout history to be some of the best self-cleaners in the animal kingdom.

Immediately we remember reading a lot of these words. “History,” “self-cleaners,” and “the animal kingdom” are all mentioned, and the self-cleaning skills of housecats are compared favorably to those of other cats. However, while the passage tells us that cats are “excellent” self-cleaners, the author doesn’t establish that housecats would rank highly among all self-cleaning creatures in the animal kingdom. This might be true in real life (and it almost sounds true in the passage) but we can’t infer it from what the author tells us.

OK, how about this one?

(C) In a way, self-cleaning methods are dangerous because they lead to hairballs.

This statement sounds familiar, and it certainly seems possible that hairballs could be a danger. It’s not true according to the passage, though. The author says that self-cleaning sometimes leads to hairballs, and while this can be a challenge for a cat, it’s not necessarily dangerous. The wording here is slightly too definitive, and the characterization is extreme.

And finally:

(D) Cats such as lions rely less on their tongues for bathing than do housecats.
The middle statement in the passage implies this. Then again, we already knew it was correct: since we paid attention to extreme, errant, and misleading wording, we were able to eliminate the other answer choices.

We can rest comfortably knowing we’ve arrived at the right answer. Plus, we learned something about cats.

Chris Black is a Content Developer at Knewton, helping students with their LSAT prep. He’s also really into barbecue. Law School Podcaster listeners can use a promo code to receive a discount on the Knewton LSAT course.

For more information about the LSAT, check out our podcasts "The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test," and "Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies".

Looking for The Inside Scoop on Part-Time Law School Programs?

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:34:00 +0000

We’re working on an upcoming podcast covering this topic.

Why attend law school part-time? With law school tuition on the rise, and an uncertain job market, many working professionals just can’t afford to walk away from their careers to pursue their law degree. For these folks, a part-time law school program makes the most sense. Basic financial reasons may also propel others to seek a program that is less expensive in an immediate sense as tuition costs are budgeted over a longer period of time (4 years) rather than condensed into 3 years of a traditional full-time degree program. Some part-timers are non-traditional students who may be older or who do not come to law school directly from undergraduate school or after taking just a year or two off after college.

In our upcoming segment, we asked deans of admissions at law schools with part-time programs about what they look for in applicants, about the merits and drawbacks of part-time programs and what these programs offer students. We get perspective on recruitment and job prospects for part-time students from deans of career services and we hear from a part-time law student at Georgetown about what it’s really like to balance law school life with an already full schedule!

Guests you will hear from include:

•Andy Cornblatt, Dean of Admissions, Georgetown University Law Center
•Stephen Brown, Fordham Law School, Dean of Enrollment Services
•Melissa Lennon, Assistant Dean for Career Planning, Temple University, Beasley School of Law
•Jannell Roberts, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
•Meghan Morris, Part-Time Law Student, Georgetown University Law Center

Stay tuned for more on this upcoming segment!

Shifting Paradigm for Law Firms and Legal Education?

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:23:00 +0000

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the changes taking place in Law Firm Land (for purposes of this discussion, including Big Law as well as mid-size and smaller law firms) and in legal education. Our earlier posts have addressed some of these discussions in the context of proposed changes to law firm recruitment at law schools, proposed changes to legal education and the effects of clients needs on demand for legal services from law firms.

And here comes another report documenting some of the changes that are taking place in the private practice arena. According to the ABA Journal, a new study released at ABA Techshow, “The Evolution of the Legal Profession: A Conversation with the Legal Community's Thought Leaders on the Front Lines of an Industry,” there is a "sweeping evolution" taking place in law firm structure and management and client expectations. The ABA Journal reports that the study was conducted by Ari Kaplan, a lawyer and technology and marketing author, and "is the first in a series that combines insights from a cross-section of the legal industry." This includes interviews with "practicing lawyers, academics, in-house counsel and CEOs about client expectations, shifting cultures and ways to prepare law students for the business of legal practice."

Some key points from the study:

•There are significant changes to billing structures and client expectations. "Nearly 75% agreed that the profession is experiencing a sweeping evolution that will be marked by permanent changes to billing structures, firm organization and value and efficiency expectations from clients".

•Nevertheless, the billable hour is sill alive and well in Law Firm Land.

•While law firms may be trying to come up with alternative billing arrangements that work for them and for clients, it is a challenge to do so given the business model of law firms (i.e., their capital structure).

•Clients are less willing to pay for 1st year associate work. (85% of those surveyed were aware of instances where corporate clients refused to pay for first-year-associate work done on their cases and one Kaye Scholer partner noted that “E-Discovery tools have eliminated the need to have junior associates review boxes of documents, which is why you are seeing thousands [of] junior associates laid off").

•Despite these changes, a recent study by the American Bar Foundation and NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education reported more than 70 percent of lawyers were moderately or very satisfied with their career decision. As the ABA Journal reports, Harvard Law School professor David Wilkins says, "Satisfaction is a blunt instrument, but the portrait of widespread misery is wildly exaggerated.”

Listen to our podcast "The Current Economic Environment: What It Means for Law School Applicants & Students" to hear more on this topic.

Attitude Problems on the LSAT

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:10:00 +0000

Attitude questions — you know, those mildly irritating ones that pretty much ask you how the author feels about something — may be the trickiest questions on the Reading Comp section of the test. If only those authors would just come out and say how they felt about the topic (I think that Yeats’ poetry is crap)! Luckily for us, these attitudes do come across loud and clear, as long as you know what types of language to look for.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Eliminate any answer choice with the words indifferent or neutral—if the author didn’t feel anything about the subject, the LSAT writers wouldn’t be asking the question.

2. Check out the adjectives and adverbs that describe the topic: are these mostly positive (comprehensive, informative, insightful, etc) or negative (disappointing, unfortunate, incomplete)?

3. Check out the verbs that are associated with the topic. Does the author say that it attempts, succeeds, or fails at anything?

4. Unless your findings are OVERWHELMINGLY positive or STAGGERINGLY negative, eliminate extreme answer choices (outright disdain, ardent admiration, unmitigated criticism, unconditional acceptance, etc).

Let’s take a look at this excerpt to see if we can figure what the author’s attitude toward Koons’s study is:

Koons’s study provides one of the more enlightening accounts of the Great Migration. Unfortunately, it fails to fully address the reaction of Northern whites to this sudden influx of African Americans.

Okay, so the author describes the study as one of the more enlightening accounts. That’s pretty positive! However, he then adds a negative qualification: it unfortunately fails to fully address something. So, the author has a somewhat positive attitude about Koons’s study. We’ll keep this in mind as we go through the answer choices:

A. Enthusiastic reverence

This is an extreme answer choice. We know that the author feels positively about Koons’s study, but we also know that he has some reservations about it. So this one is out.

B. Complete indifference
This choice claims the author doesn’t have an opinion on the subject—we can eliminate it right off the bat.

C. Qualified rejection
This suggests that the author’s attitude is mostly negative, but we know the author’s feelings are generally positive.

D. Reserved admiration
There’s our correct answer! The author shows admiration for the study (it is one of the more enlightening accounts.) We know this admiration is reserved, because the author points out one of the study’s unfortunate shortcomings (it fails to fully address…)

E. Pointed skepticism
Here’s another extreme answer choice. Plus, it’s overwhelming negative, while we know the author has somewhat positive feelings about the study.

Emily Holleman is a Content Developer at Knewton, helping students with their LSAT preparation. Law School Podcaster listeners can use a promo code to receive a discount on the Knewton LSAT course.

For more information about the LSAT, check out our podcasts "The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test," and "Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies".

When Choosing a Law School, Think Regionally!

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:40:00 +0000

One sound bite I use a lot when counseling prospective law students is to "put the end at the beginning." Before thinking about program specialties and clinical opportunities and academic profiles and acceptances rates and anything else that might determine your selection of law schools to which you will apply, think about the end game. Picture graduating, taking the bar, and going off to work. Seriously, do it, even if it feels weird.

The reason it might feel weird is because the law school process is very insular, especially compared to other graduate professional programs like medical school and business school. Just look at the applications: MBA and MD programs ask students specifically about their career goals and prospects, while law schools simply present a personal statement that allows you to write about whatever you want (and in most cases, you should be writing about something besides career goals). Even the process by which law schools admit students is focused entirely on what will make for a good law student - almost no thought is given to whether the candidate will make for a good lawyer one day. So law school applicants can be forgiven when they lose sight of the end game (the legal profession), choosing instead to focus entirely on the law school part of the equation.

Part of putting the end at the beginning is understanding career prospects and the recruitment process that while occur while in school. Law school is very hierarchical in the sense that attending a top school can lead to an easier path to prestigious job opportunities. Attending a truly elite school can often take some of the pressure off of finding a BigLaw job and it has the added benefit of creating a truly national job search. Virtually everyone attends on campus interviewing processes at programs like Harvard, Columbia, and Chicago, and while some firms are cutting back on their level of recruitment, graduates of elite institutes can still expect to meet with recruiters from law firms based all over. A Chicago grad will not only receive the opportunity to meet with Chicago-based firms, but also firms based in other cities, major market branches, and even satellite offices. When I interviewed during OCI (on campus interviewing) at Chicago in the fall of 2005, over 25 L.A. firms were on the docket.

However, the harsh reality is that most law students will not have the chance to attend a top five, ten, or even "T-14" law school and the even harsher reality is that the current legal recruiting climate is narrowing the options available to students and graduates. All of which puts a premium on planning ahead and thinking about which city you want to work in when you graduate. If you can't go to one of the truly national law schools (a group that is growing smaller every year), then you simply have to consider the regional recruiting implications of your school selection process. Emory is a fine law school but you won't find 25 firms from Los Angeles on campus for recruiting and you won't even find that many from New York. D.C., sure, but expect a heavy dose of Atlanta. Students at Texas can expect to see a lot of firms from Texas. George Washington grads are going to get most of their offers from D.C. area firms. This is just the way things tend to work when the job search becomes more regional in nature.

Once students understand this basic consideration, the next question becomes obvious: "What region of the country do I want to live and work in?" For many, the answer is easy - they want to be close to family, to return to their roots, be near a spouse's job, and so on. For other students, however, the possibilities are endless. They can and will go anywhere for the "right" opportunity. Usually, that means going to the school they perceive to be the best. However, let me offer another regional consideration, one that puts the end at the beginning: think about the value of law firm employment.

Assuming you go on to study law at a regional school, have access to regional recruiters, and land a job with a law firm in that region, you are going to be looking at some basic factors that speak to the value of that work experience. For instance, practicing law in New York is known to pay the biggest bonuses, but also demand (often by far) the longest hours. It is not uncommon to hear of junior associates billing 2,400 hours a year. And while the bonuses may be bigger in the Big Apple, the base salaries are often similar to those in other major markets. Consider that cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and D.C. all pay "New York salaries" yet have cultures with lower billable hours. There are certainly still sweatshops in those cities and you must pick a firm carefully, but billing a lot of hours in L.A. or Chicago looks more like 2,100 than 2,400. And the pay is just about the same. So those cities start to look pretty good. And to take it a step further, you can easily research cost of living and see that Chicago is an absolute steal compared to Los Angeles (and, of course, New York).

So if you are a law school applicant considering "regional" schools in New York, L.A., and Chicago, you also want to consider the value of your job when you graduate. For pure return on investment, Chicago blows the other two cities out of the water. This analysis also extends to somewhat smaller markets like Portland, Dallas, and Denver - firms don't pay quite the same salaries, but the billable hour requirements are usually far lower and the cost of living is a fraction of the bigger markets.

Obviously, the ability to secure employment in the first place and to do so at a firm that allows for interesting work and a good environment for professional development is all necessary for any sort of value calculation to do any good. But when you are looking at regions of the country to practice law, don't just think about the schools themselves or which city you might want to live in for three years - really think long and hard about where you can get the most value out of your legal practice once you graduate. Where you go geographically will make all the difference when it comes to maximizing the return on your significant investment.

Adam Hoff is the Director of Admissions Consulting and Research at Veritas Prep. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Pepperdine University, where he served as the Associate Director of Admissions. Adam oversees Veritas Prep’s law school admissions consulting services to ensure that Veritas Prep clients are successfully poised for admission to their select law schools. You can hear more from Adam on strategic tips for your law school application in the Law School Podcaster episodes, Law School Application Strategy: What You Can Do Now To Help You Get Accepted and "Law School Personal Statements and Letters of Recommendation: Where to Begin?"

How a Campus Visit Can Help Your Chances of "Getting Off the Waitlist"

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Our latest podcast, "Getting Off the Waitlist," takes a look at what the waitlist means, how law schools use the list and what waitlisted students can do to get that spot in the entering class. One thing waitlisted applicants can do is visit campus and use the visit to strategically promote their candidacy. Cornell Law School Dean of Admissions, Richard Geiger explains what this means at Cornell. "At Cornell we’re a little bit different from other places because we actually invite them to have an interview so we offer up an interview and that’s something that if somebody is on our waiting list, I strongly encourage them to take us up on that offer.”

Not every school will grant you an interview if you are waitlisted, but they may still welcome your visit. For example, on March 1, 2009, the Admissions Office at The University of Chicago Law School sent out this message to wait listed applicants via Twitter: "Waitlisted applicants are always welcome to visit & we are happy to answer questions, but we do not set up appointments or grant interviews."

Even without an interview, a campus visit can still help a waitlisted applicant. Clear Admit's Graham Richmond notes that a visit can provide you with concrete examples of why a school is your top choice, and those examples can help form a strong basis for articulating your reasons to the school itself in a letter expressing your "continued interest" in the school. “I think that it is actually a really great idea, even before you send in the letter of continued interest, to go to campus and then when you go to write your letter about why you’re interested in this program and why it’s the perfect fit for you, you’re going to have so many great data points to draw upon and people whose names you can mention that you spoke with."

Ann Levine, Founder of LawSchoolExpert.com has this advice: "Line up that quality face time at the school you want to attend. “You know, let the Admission Office know you’re there, you’re coming, and you want to sit in on a class, be professional, talk to the students who are sitting around you. Talk to the students who are hanging out on the quad, get names of people, follow up with them, introduce yourself to the professor whose class you’re sitting in on. If you have an area that you really have a demonstrated interest and expertise in, find the professor at that school that shares that expertise that you would want to work with and study with and contact that person."

William J. Hoye, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs advises waitlisted applicants to send "a carefully crafted note to us that expresses your interest with some detail."

While "details" include new developments and information about yourself, they can also include those concrete pieces of information you gain through a visit to campus.

Tune into the full show to hear more strategies for "Getting Off the Waitlist."

Brain Game Time: Another Logic Games Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:10:00 +0000

Atlas LSAT posted Logic Games Challenge #22 and they invite our listeners to join in: Poetry

The LSA group of students in a poetry class is being assigned readings. Each of three students – Francis, Grace, and Hu – will read at least one of four poems – Walkabout, Xtravagance, Yonder Cloudbreak, and Zoolandia.

• No student reads both Yonder Cloudbreak and Zoolandia.
• Hu reads more poems than Grace and Francis.
• Any student that reads Xtravagance also reads Walkabout.
• Any poem that is read by Francis is also read by Grace.

1. Which of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the poems read by the students?
A. Francis: Xtravagance, Walkabout; Grace: Xtravagance, Walkabout, Yonder Cloudbreak;
Hu: Walkabout, Yonder Cloudbreak
B. Francis: Walkabout, Xtravagance; Grace: Walkabout, Yonder Cloudbreak; Hu:
Walkabout, Xtravagance, Yonder Cloudbreak
C. Francis: Walkabout; Grace: Walkabout, Xtravagance; Hu: Yonder Cloudbreak, Zoolandia
D. Francis: Yonder Cloudbreak; Grace: Yonder Cloudbreak; Hu: Walkabout, Xtravagance
E. Francis: Walkabout; Grace: Walkabout; Hu: Xtravagance, Yonder Cloudbreak

2. Which of the following must be true?
A. Grace reads more poems than Francis.
B. If Grace reads Xtravagance, Francis reads Xtravagance.
C. If Francis reads Xtravagance, Grace reads Walkabout.
D. If Hu reads Yonder Cloudbreak, Francis and Grace do not.
E. If Hu reads Zoolandia, Francis and Grace do not.

3. If Hu does not read Yonder Cloudbreak or Zoolandia, then all of the following could be true
EXCEPT:
A. Francis reads Zoolandia.
B. Grace reads Yonder Cloudbreak.
C. All three students read Walkabout.
D. Exactly two students read Zoolandia.
E. Exactly two students read Xtravagance.

4. Which of the following must be true?
A. Francis cannot read Xtravagance unless Hu does.
B. Francis and Grace always read at least one poem that Hu reads.
C. Hu can only read Zoolandia if Grace does not.
D. Hu can read three poems only if Francis reads two poems.
E. Zoolandia can be read by at most two students.

5. If every poem is read by at least one student, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:
A. At least one poem is read by all three students.
B. Francis reads exactly the same poems as Grace.
C. Grace reads more poems than Francis.
D. Francis and Hu read two of the same poems.
E. Xtravagance is read by either Francis or Grace.

And this next one is more slog than you might want…

6. How many different ways can the poems be assigned such that each poem is read by at least
one student?
A. 4
B. 5
C. 6
D. 7
E. 8

Think you have the answers? E-mail them to logicmaster@atlaslsat.com. First person to submit the correct answers wins a $25 Amazon gift card. The best explanation posted on Atlas LSAT Forums wins $25 as well.

Answers to Logic Games Challenge #21: (1)E (2)B (3)E (4)C (5)B (6)A (7)D

For more information about the LSAT, check out Law School Podcaster's full show "The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test." To hear directly from LSAT test preparation providers about study options, tune in to "Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies: Which One is Right for You?"

Waitlisted? Listen Up!!

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

As the admissions season rolls on, many of you are playing the waiting game. Waiting to hear back from law schools, waiting to see if you got in or if you've been rejected. But what if your wait ends with a waitlist? Does that just mean MORE waiting??

Listen to our show on Getting off the Waitlist: How to Improve Your Chances of Getting Accepted.

You'll learn what things you should and shouldn't do while WAITING on the waitlist!

You'll hear from these experts to help you plan your strategy:
• Richard Geiger, Associate Dean and Dean of Admissions, Cornell Law School
• William J. Hoye, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, Duke University School of Law
• Graham Richmond, Founder and CEO of Clear Admit
• Ann Levine, Owner of LawSchoolExpert.com and author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert.

If you've managed to get off the waitlist, please send us your story to info@lawschoolpodcaster.com.

More Law School Faculty to Love...and Pay For

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:21:00 +0000

Sounds pretty good, right? A lower faculty-to-student ratio and improved faculty scholarship. But all that comes at a price -- one paid by law students in the form of higher tuition. According to a recent National Jurist post previewing a study about to be released later this month, "the average law school increased its faculty size by 40 percent over the past 10 years."

"This increase in staffing accounts for 48 percent of the tuition increase from 1998 to 2008, the study shows. Tuition increased by 74percent at private schools and a 102 percent at public institutions from 1998 to 2008."

The National Jurist reports that "the dramatic increases are related to two things — an increased need for specialization and the U.S. News & World Report rankings of law schools." William Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University Mauer School of Law said, “Law schools tend to believe that their faculty reputation is driven by scholarship and they are very interested in U.S. News.” He suggests that “Lowering your faculty-to-student ratio improves your [U.S. News] ranking and increases time for scholarship.”

Some stats to note:

• Professors are spending less time in the classroom; the typical teaching load has dropped from five courses a few generations ago to three courses today.

• From 1998 until 2008, the number of law faculty at 195 ABA-accredited law schools grew from 12,200 to 17,080 — a 40 percent increase. A subset of that total, the number of deans, librarians and other full-time administrators who teach more than tripled — from 528 to 1,059.

• While part of this increase was in part-time faculty, that category grew at a lower pace— 33 percent — than full-time faculty.

• All of this has lowered the average student-to-faculty ratio from 18.5-to-1 in 1998 to 14.9-to-1 in 2008. It was an estimated 25.5-to-1 in 1988 and 29-to-1 in 1978. In other words, there are twice as many law professors per student today as there were 30 years ago.

So, is this too much of a good thing or is increased faculty size making legal education better?

Hear more about the factors that affect where you want to go to law school in our podcast "Choosing the Right Law School" and be sure to check out our podcast "Financing Your JD: How to Pay for Law School" for more information on this topic.

Optimistic Outlook for In-House Hiring of Lawyers

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports on "a breath of spring in a job market that’s been wintry for far too long." Given our recent post documenting the latest dismal numbers for law firm hiring of law students, it's refreshing to hear from the Association of Corporate Counsel’s (ACC) 10th Annual Chief Legal Officer Survey that things seem to be looking up for hiring of in-house lawyers.

According to the ACC survey, the outlook for Chief Legal Officers is showing signs of optimism, with increased job satisfaction and internal hiring plans for 2010.

Some key points to note from the survey:

• Uptick in hiring/staffing: There was a greater focus on internal hiring in legal departments, as well as an increase in corporate attorneys outside the U.S. Despite the recession, more than a quarter (29%) of the respondents plan to hire staff for their in-house legal departments in 2010,up from 23% who had hiring plans in last year’s survey.

• Job satisfaction is strong: Even with increased scrutiny and expanded duties, an overwhelming majority of respondents (91%) reported they are still satisfied with their chosen career, up from 88% in 2008.

• Increase in workload, demand for alternative fees and decrease in outside counsel work: Even with this uptick in staffing, the recession has impacted legal departments’ workload, budget and outside counsel spend. More than one-third (34%) of respondents reported a cut in spending on outside counsel, and those who did employ outside counsel used more alternative fee arrangements. (Of course, the downside is that this could mean less work for law firms, and fewer jobs for lawyers and law students at those firms).

While the optimistic outlook for hiring of in-house lawyers is a bright spot on the legal employment horizon, Ashby Jones, Lead Writer of The Wall Street Journal Law Blog notes in his post that, "of course, this doesn’t mean that the floodgates have opened. Nor does it mean that in-house jobs are going to be easy to get."

The increase in in-house hires may just be a glimmer of hope or it could be more of a restructuring caused by the recession, as suggested by ACC deputy general counsel, James Merklinger. Merklinger says in a recent post on Corporate Counsel: "The added hiring most suggests that the recession is forcing chief legal officers to change the way they operate. They're bringing more work in-house, spending less on outside counsel, and boosting spending on alternative fee arrangements, the survey shows."

Still, someone has to get those in-house jobs, right?

Ashby Jones of The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog was a guest on a recent Law School Podcaster segment, “The Current Economic Environment: What It Means for Law School Applicants and Students.” Check out the full show to hear more on this topic.

The Latest Numbers on Recruiting Law Students

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:35:00 +0000

It's hardly news, at this point -- we know that law school grads face layoffs, deferrals and increased competition for fewer jobs. Yet somehow the numbers from the fall 2009 recruiting season seem worth noting. As reported in the ABA Journal, the National Association of Law Placement's (NALP) annual Perspectives on Fall Recruiting (PDF) was released Tuesday and, not surprisingly, recruiting volume by U.S. legal employers on law school campuses "nose-dived."

Some key stats to note:

• Summer associates: the median number of offers dropped to seven for 2010 hiring. The median number of offers for students recruited in 2008 was 10, dropping from 15 in 2007, NALP reports.

• At large firms with more than 700 lawyers, offers extended to 2Ls dropped to eight in 2009, down from 18.5 in 2008 and 30 in 2007. And while larger firms of more than 500 lawyers were the most likely to cut back on-campus recruiting efforts, smaller firms with 100 lawyers or fewer were more likely to have kept to their regular on-campus recruiting schedule.

• Acceptance rates were 42.8 percent, the highest ever recorded -- evidence that law students quickly snapped up offers of employment.

• Almost two-thirds of offices reported that their summer program was at least one week shorter than in 2008. Among firms of 251-500 lawyers and 701 or more lawyers, over 70% did so.

• Deferrals were also way up, with 85 percent of law schools reporting that at least one 2009 graduate faced an offer delay well into 2010. NALP estimates that at least 3,200 and as many as 3,700 graduating law students faced deferrals.

• Third-year hiring all but dried up, with just a handful of offices reporting any activity at all, and with those that did typically making 1 or 2 offers. In total, only about 3% of employers reported recruiting any 3L students.

NALP Executive Director, James Leipold, said in a statement about the report, "this represents an enormous interruption in the usual recruiting and employment patterns that we have come to expect.” Leipold noted "the largest impact was the deferral phenomenon" for the Class of 2009.

While many deferred associates have now started to work, deferrals are still present and, NALP expects those who don't have solid start dates at this point will be deferred.

There is, of course, "tremendous variation in legal hiring -- both by region and by individual employer" but these numbers tell a story and NALP doesn't expect big improvement in this picture for the short term. The ABA Journal reports that "NALP expects law school recruiting to continue hobbling along until at least the class of 2012 graduates, "though the worst does now seem, we hope, to be behind us."

NALP's Jim Leipold was a guest on Law School Podcaster's segment, "The Current Economic Environment: What It Means for Law School Applicants & Students." Tune into the full show to hear more on this topic.

In the End, Just a Few Small Changes to Law Firm Recruiting Guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:33:00 +0000

In a recent post, we noted that "change does not come easily to the citizens of Law Firm Land." So no surprise that the board of the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) has, for now, made just two small changes to the law firm summer associate recruiting guidelines: The deadline for students to accept offers will drop from 45 days to 28 days, and the deadline for students who have completed a summer program to accept job offers will move from Nov. 15 to Nov. 1.

The National Law Journal (NLJ) reports that NALP board has backed off the recent NALP recommendation to delay the summer associate offer process by four months -- a proposal that would have initiated a January offer kickoff date for law firm summer associate offers.

Law firm recruiters and law school administrators "largely welcomed" the outcome, reports the NLJ. The NALP proposal to delay law firm summer associate offers to January, met with a chilly reception from many law firms and those involved in law firm hiring.

NALP Executive Director Jim Leipold said that the organization received 800 responses to the proposal since it was unveiled in early January, but there was "no easy consensus or even a trend around one particular idea." Leipold explained that "Law firms and law schools are both conservative and risk-averse institutions. The scope of change was very large and it doesn't surprise me that there was resistance."

NALP's Jim Leipold was a guest on Law School Podcaster's segment, "The Current Economic Environment: What It Means for Law School Applicants & Students." Tune into the full show to hear more on this topic.

The "Go-To" Law Schools, According to the Biggest Law Firms

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Law school applicants getting ready to choose a law school will undoubtedly face a competitive legal hiring market, along with the prospect of servicing enormous debt on graduation. While it's fair to say that not everyone graduating from law school wants to or will be able to work in a big law firm, there's no escaping that one measure of a law school is the rankings and statistics that tell us how that school does with placing graduates in the biggest law firms. So, even if you think you might opt to work in the public sector or in another position outside of the big law firm world, it's worth looking at law school placement numbers at the big law firms when making that decision.

The National Law Journal (NLJ),has compiled its rankings of the Top 50 "Go-To" schools based on the percentage of 2009 J.D. graduates who landed jobs at NLJ 250 firms by Sept. 30, 2009, using survey data submitted by the 250 top law firms as ranked by NLJ.

At the top of the NLJ list is Northwestern University School of Law, which placed 55.5% of its graduates at NLJ 250 firms -- a sharp decline from 2008, when the highest percentage of graduates heading to NLJ 250 firms was 70.5%.

The top 25 schools in The National Law Journal’s annual Go-To Law School List are as follows:
1) Northwestern University School of Law -- 55.9%
2) Columbia Law School -- 55.4%
3) Stanford Law School -- 54.1%
4) University of Chicago Law School -- 53.1%
5) University of Virginia School of Law -- 52.8%
6) University of Michigan Law School -- 51%
7) University of Pennsylvania Law School -- 50.8%
8) New York University School of Law -- 50.1%
9) University of California, Berkeley School of Law -- 50%
10) Duke Law School -- 49.8%
11) Harvard Law School -- 47.6&
12) Vanderbilt University Law School -- 47.1%
13) Georgetown University Law Center -- 42.8%
14) Cornell Law School -- 41.5%
15) University of Southern California Gould School of Law -- 41.3%
16) University of Texas School of Law -- 36.6%
17) University of California at Los Angeles School of Law -- 35.9%
18) Yale Law School -- 35.3%
19) Boston College Law School -- 34.6%
19) Boston University School of Law -- 34.6%
21) George Washington University Law School -- 31.6%
22) Fordham University School of Law -- 29.4%
23) University of Notre Dame Law School -- 28.8%
24) Washington University School of Law, St. Louis -- 27.5%
25. University of Illinois College of Law -- 26.7%

The NLJ reports that "the 2009 percentages include deferred associates, so an even smaller group actually went to work last year. Remember, the list consists of the very top performing schools, where job prospects in years past have proven recession-proof. Not so in 2009. We’ve ranked the top 50 law schools by the percentage of 2009 juris doctor graduates who snagged jobs at NLJ 250 firms by Sept. 30, 2009. Numbers are based on information gathered from our annual NLJ 250 survey—statistics we get from the nation’s largest law firms."

The NLJ also identified firm favorites—the schools from which the top law firms on the NLJ 250 recruited most of its first-years in 2009.

Listen to our full podcast "Choosing the Right Law School," for more information on this topic.

Summary of Free LSAT Classes That Are Currently Being Offered

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Many test-prep companies these days are offering free sample LSAT® classes. Take advantage of the offers, test out the various companies and find a teacher and course that really works for you.

Here’s a summary of some of the top companies offering free classes:

1. Atlas LSAT Test Prep: Scroll down to “Trial Classes” and learn about attending the first session of the full LSAT prep course for free. Atlas LSAT also offers free LSAT workshops that teach strategies and review LSAT basics. Both Trial classes and LSAT workshops are free and available Live Online and in select cities across the US and Canada.

2. Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions: Scroll down “LSAT Prep” box and click on “Find a Free Event” and plug in your zip code. Sample classes, free practice tests and more near you!

3. Knewton: Free trial includes free practice test, live online instruction and LSAT® and law school admissions seminar.

4. Powerscore Test Preparation: “Free LSAT Help Area” with a collection of tips and discussions and a Complete LSAT® Logic Game Tutorial and Explanation.

5. The Princeton Review: Free LSAT® events across the country, including strategy sessions, practice tests, hyperlearning classes and forums.

Please let us know if we missed anyone!

For more info and tips about the LSAT, tune into our full show “The LSAT: Everything You Need To Know About the Test”.

To hear more from the test prep companies about the unique features of the different courses, study options and materials they offer, listen to our podcast “Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies: Which One Is Right For You?"

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part: Upcoming Podcast to Look at "Getting In Off the Waitlist"

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:50:00 +0000

The "Waitlist.” Purgatory. Limbo. Call it what you want. What does it mean? And, what should you do? Some schools advise the best thing to do now is nothing at all, while others say they want to hear from you with periodic updates. How can you tell what the right approach is?

Law School Podcaster rounded up some experts to help you plan your strategy. For our upcoming show, "Getting In Off the Waitlist," we interviewed Richard Geiger, Associate Dean, Cornell Law School, William J. Hoye, Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, Duke University School of Law, Graham Richmond, Founder and CEO of Clear Admit, Ann Levine, Owner of LawSchoolExpert.com and author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert.

We’ll find out how to know whether a school really wants to hear more from you, what to send to the admissions committee, how often you should contact them, and what else you should know to help you move off the waitlist and on to the admitted students list. Stay tuned to hear more about this segment!

How to Mitigate a Weakness in Your Law School Application

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest tasks confronting a law school applicant is the need to mitigate weaknesses or perceived weaknesses in an application. Nearly everyone applying to law school knows they need to perform this necessary step, but the hard part is ascertaining true weaknesses and then actually addressing them. Here is a 5-step process for mitigating the biggest weakness in your application:

1. Identify the biggest weakness in your candidacy. The first step is identification. If you don't know what your biggest weakness is, how can you possibly mitigate it? For many law school applicants, this is the most difficult task of all. Part of the problem is frame of reference. Most applicants attempt to perform a self-analysis and many are even incredibly critical of themselves, so the problem isn't one of willingness or effort. Instead, the issue stems from a failure to visualize the competitive landscape. More often than not, candidates will evaluate themselves by comparing their own backgrounds and accomplishments relative to those of the people around them (classmates, friends, family members, co-workers, etc.). This is a rather unhelpful comparison. Instead, a law school applicant should make every effort to analyze their candidacy in relation to other applicants. This is the primary value that admissions consulting companies like Veritas Prep provide, although students can certainly get this perspective from faculty members and friends, if they are lucky enough to have access to such qualified individuals.

2. Understand that the weakness works two levels. Every element of your application that might be a major weakness - GPA, LSAT score, resume, etc. - works on two levels: an obvious surface level and a latent, thematic level. The surface level is easy enough to understand, but is the hardest to compensate for, as the premise here can be summed up as "it is what it is." A 2.9 GPA is just that - a 2.9 GPA. There is nothing that you can do to change it and there's no way to convince a school that it doesn't matter. You have to report it to the law school and the law school has to report it to ranking agencies. Everyone in the process is captive to raw numbers and surface-level determinations. However, the thematic level is something else entirely. This is the aspect of a major weakness that most candidates miss, which is a shame because it is much easier to sway a decision-maker on a thematic level. To take the low GPA example above, the latent implication of a low GPA is a lack of discipline, focus, and maturity. Candidates have a much easier time showcasing those traits in other aspects of their profile than they do of making the low GPA go away.

3. Start with school selection. Once a weakness has been identified and properly understood on two levels, the first step toward mitigation is to be smart about school selection. Again, sticking with low GPA, it behooves a candidate to do some research into programs that seem more forgiving of a low GPA. A quick comparison of two elite law schools - Chicago and Berkeley (tied for 6th in U.S. News & World Report last year) - shows a pretty major disparity in GPA range. Berkeley's 25th-75th percentile range for GPA in 2009 was 3.64-3.9 while Chicago's was 3.49-3.76. That may not seem like much, but a .15 difference is massive for such equitable schools. Not surprisingly, Chicago's LSAT range is much higher than Berkeley's (169-173 for Chicago compared to 163-170 for Berkeley). You can make a lot of guesses as to why these disparities exist, but the biggest rule of thumb is don't fight it! If you have an awesome LSAT score and a lower GPA and are debating between Chicago and Berkeley, the choice should be easy. Apply to Chicago and give yourself the best chance to succeed.

4. Take any steps possible toward correction. Once you have a list of schools that makes the most sense, it is practical to take any steps you can toward "fixing" the weakness. This is cheating a little bit, because if something can be fixed, it rises to a level several degrees higher than mitigation. That said, it is startling to see how many candidates settle and accept their fate. If you have a sparkling profile but bomb the LSAT, take it again! If you tanked an accounting class freshman year, take another one. Sure, it won't erase that bad grade or change your GPA if you already graduated, but it will show the law school that you have grown up and are serious about moving in the right direction. When the weakness is in leadership, teamwork, or other extra-curricular factors, it is even easier to take correctional steps, as it simply requires getting involved.

5. Mitigate through the application. This is the step where every candidate ultimately lands if there is a true weakness in the profile. Once you've identified the weakness, worked through the two levels of impact, selected the best schools, and taken correctional steps, you are left with the challenge of positioning your application in such a way that it mitigates the harm of the weakness. Going all the way back to a low GPA and what it means for your candidacy, mitigation will mean using the application to express to the reader that you indeed have the maturity, focus, and discipline to succeed in a law school classroom. The position that such an applicant would take would be to build a "here's when the light bulb came on for me" narrative. For someone with a low LSAT score, the application becomes about intellectual horsepower. And so on. Most law school applicants mistakenly highlight their strengths at the expense of mitigating weaknesses, or they go too far and overtly apologize and make excuses for those weaknesses. The key is to use the personal statement and other application components as a way to change the reader's mind on a thematic level about a component from the profile. Ultimately, that is how you mitigate a weakness.

Adam Hoff is the Director of Admissions Consulting and Research at Veritas Prep. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Pepperdine University, where he served as the Associate Director of Admissions. Adam oversees Veritas Prep’s law school admissions consulting services to ensure that Veritas Prep clients are successfully poised for admission to their select law schools.

You can hear more from Adam on strategic tips for your law school application in the Law School Podcaster episode, Law School Application Strategy: What You Can Do Now To Help You Get Accepted.

Turnabout Is Fair Play! ABA To Take Closer Look at Rankings of Law Schools & Law Firms

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:54:00 +0000

Looks like the organizations that rank law schools are about to be evaluated themselves. Can you hear the chuckles? The American Bar Association (ABA) voted this week at its midyear meeting to take a closer look at how a "variety of organizations" rank law law schools and law firms.

The ABA's resolution stopped just short of mentioning the U.S. News & World Report rankings, but that's clearly the focus. You may have heard that the U.S. News law school rankings have generated just a little bit of "discussion" and "debate" for quite a while now -- among law school deans, law firms that hire law grads, law school applicants and, well, just about everyone else.

Just what does this ABA resolution say? Well, it's pretty general, to say the least: "RESOLVED: That the American Bar Association examine any efforts to publish national, state, territorial, and local rankings of law firms and law schools."

It seems like the ABA vote was prompted, to some degree, by an announcement last July from U.S. News that it intends to add law firm rankings, conducted in conjunction with the Best Lawyers survey of law firms, to its annual reports. The rankings of law firms are expected to be published in October 2010. Counting the days already?

The ABA Journal reports that the New York State Bar Association sponsored the resolution, and said, in an accompanying report, “we know, based upon the experience of the U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of law schools, that there will be significant issues regarding the validity of the rankings.”

After the resolution passed, ABA President Carolyn Lamm said that she would ask the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to examine law school rankings, and the Ethics 20/20 Commission to review law firm rankings.

To review, the ABA has resolved to "examine any efforts" of organizations to publish rankings of law school and law firms. Believe it or not, the ABA Journal reported that "the debate in the ABA’s House of Delegates about the measure proved to be the most contentious of any resolution it considered [Monday]." Yep, that's what they said.

Baby, It's Cold Out There! Law Firms Respond to Proposed Changes in Recruiting at Law Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:28:00 +0000

Change does not come easily to the citizens of Law Firm Land. Witness the tepid reaction, if not downright frigid, by some big law firms to the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) Report's (pdf) recommendation to move the period when offers are extended to law students to January, five months after on-campus interviews.

For those not yet familiar with the acronym from the on-campus interviewing (OCI) experience, NALP is the national organization of law schools and employers that, among other things, sets guidelines on the annual on-campus interview season, and determines how long students can hold onto a job offer before making a decision. Tradition is king here -- the process has remained pretty much the same for 40 years, with law firms recruiting on campus in the fall and making offers shortly thereafter.

The recent NALP Commission and subsequent Report (see our earlier post detailing the Report's recommendations) came as a result of the recession, where law firms found themselves overstaffed and forced to lay off hundreds of lawyers in New York and nationwide, and delayed by up to one year the first-year start dates.

Jones Day was an early critic of the plan for an “offer kick-off day” in mid-January during students’ second year of law school and now has offered more details in a critique (PDF) on its website that says the plan is an anticompetitive “radical restructuring” of the recruitment process.

NALP solicited comments to the recommendations in the Report and they are hearing back from member law firms and law schools. According to Jim Leipold, executive director at NALP, "almost universally people felt a January kick-off date was too late." The biggest issue? Recruiting officials at firms have expressed concerned that a January "offer kick-off day" will create a prolonged recruiting season with law firms spending nearly half a year wining and dining top students.

Leipold told the New York Law Journal, reaction to its proposals among the schools and firms is "mixed." NALP is reviewing feedback from more than 825 members, including more than 125 written comments.

NALP's Jim Leipold was a guest on Law School Podcaster's segment, "The Current Economic Environment: What It Means for Law School Applicants & Students." Tune into the full show to hear more on this topic.

Brain Game Time! Another Logic Games Challenge.

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Atlas LSAT has posted the most recent Logic Games Challenge #21 and they invite our listeners to join in: College Comedy Tour

A comic is planning her college tour schedule for the year. Her tour will include performances at least one of exactly eight different schools: Penn, Queens, Rice, Stanford, Tufts, Utah, Vermont and Wellesley. Her tour schedule must conform to the following conditions:

•If she performs at Rice, she will perform at neither Penn nor Stanford.
•If she performs at Queens, she will perform at neither Stanford nor Tufts.
•If she performs at Wellesley, she will perform at either Tufts or Utah, but not both.

1. Which one of the following could be a complete and accurate list of the schools at which she performs?
(A) Queens, Rice, Wellesley, Vermont
(B) Queens, Rice, Tufts, Vermont, Wellesley
(C) Rice, Tufts, Utah, Wellesley
(D) Rice, Stanford, Tufts, Wellesley
(E) Penn, Stanford, Tufts, Vermont, Wellesley

2. If she performs at Wellesley and Vermont, but not Utah, then she could also perform at any one of the following schools EXCEPT:
(A) Penn
(B) Queens
(C) Rice
(D) Stanford
(E) Tufts

3. If she performs at exactly four schools, including Tufts and Utah, the schools at which she does NOT perform could include any of the following pairs EXCEPT:
(A) Wellesley and Stanford
(B) Queens and Stanford
(C) Vermont and Rice
(D) Penn and Rice
(E) Stanford and Vermont

4. If she performs at exactly five schools, and does NOT perform at Rice, it could be true that she performs at neither
(A) Vermont nor Stanford
(B) Vermont nor Tufts
(C) Tufts nor Queens
(D) Tufts nor Utah
(E) Queens nor Stanford

5. If she performs at Rice, what is the maximum number of schools that could be included in the tour?
(A) 6
(B) 5
(C) 4
(D) 3
(E) 2

6. If she performs at exactly five schools, including Stanford and Vermont, the schools at which she does NOT perform could include any of the following EXCEPT:
(A) Penn
(B) Queens
(C) Rice
(D) Tufts
(E) Utah

Challenge Problem – Not for the faint of heart…
7. If she performs at exactly five schools, how many different groupings of schools (disregarding the order visited) are possible?
(A) 8
(B) 7
(C) 6
(D) 5
(E) 4

Think you have the answers? E-mail them to logicmaster@atlaslsat.com. First person to submit the correct answers wins a $25 Amazon gift card. The best explanation posted on Atlas LSAT Forums wins $25 as well.

Answers to Logic Games Challenge #20: (1)E (2)D (3)C (4)A (5)E (6) C (7) E

For more information about the LSAT, check out Law School Podcaster's full show "The LSAT: Everything You Need to Know About the Test." To hear directly from LSAT test preparation providers about study options, tune in to "Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies: Which One is Right for You?"

Is LSAT Test Preparation In Your Future?

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:29:00 +0000

Comparing LSAT Test Prep Companies: Which One is Right For You? is a new podcast from Law School Podcaster to help you consider some of the test preparation options available. To help you figure out the best approach to studying and preparation for the LSAT, we have interviewed the various test preparation companies to hear what they have to offer.

In this show, we hear directly from the folks at the following test prep providers:

* Atlas LSAT Test Prep
* Knewton
* Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions
* Blueprint LSAT Preparation
* The Princeton Review
* PowerScore Test Preparation

They discuss the different types of courses they offer, from traditional classroom courses, private tutoring and online courses. Each company will have the opportunity to explain how they are unique and what makes them stand out. Listen and learn what option is best for you.

Talk About Bridging the Gap Between Law School Education and Legal Employers' Needs

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:33:00 +0000

It's pretty much a safe bet that most law school applicants and students don't want to hear a legal employer equate their three year law school education, with oh... say... a Pontiac. But one general counsel of a large company put it just that way recently and that is the question posed by the title of a recent NALP (National Association for Law Placement)article, Has Legal Education Gone the Way of the Auto Industry?

The article, from the NALP 2010 Bulletin, reports on a December 14, 2009 panel of legal industry experts gathered in New York City "to continue the public conversation about changes that are happening in the legal industry." The Roundtable Discussion took place among a mix of law firm partners and associates, law school deans and NALP professionals. (NALP is probably best known to law students as the organization that provides the industry guidelines that govern on-campus interviewing (OCI) by legal employers at law schools around the country).

Highlights from the Roundtable discussions include the following:

•A back and forth about how the law school curriculum may need to change in response to changes in the economy and the industry and the role of law firms in training young lawyers.

•Philip Bradley, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Duane Reade, pointed to the gap between what law schools think they're doing and what the law firms think they're buying." Bradley continued, "For the law schools to continue to churn out people in sort of the academic vein without bridging that gap makes you somewhat akin to the car companies -- you're manufacturing something that nobody wants." He called on law schools to come into the modern world and "bridge the gap" because "the luxury of practicing law for three years to learn how to practice law -- which was what it was when [he] came out of law school -- isn't there today."

•A discussion focused on lawyer training and development both in law school and through the practice of law. Law firm and law school participants recognized that law schools do a good job of teaching the essential skill of "thinking like a lawyer," but also that law schools have to find better ways to teach a wide range of professional skills, loosely categorized by Dean William Treanor of Fordham University School of Law, as "the craft of lawyering skills"(these include clinical skills for both litigation and transactional practices, professionalism, business and quantitative skills, ethics, sense of service, problem solving skills group and teamwork skills and an awareness of emotional intelligence).

•A discussion of integrating more "experiential learning into the curriculum," without raising the cost of a legal education "by including more widespread use of internships and by providing more opportunities for specialization within the curriculum." This will require greater collaboration between law firm lawyers and law schools.

•The group drew insight from information about the "Canadian articling process, a year-long training program required by the provincial licensing authority in Canada that accomplishes many of the goals clients and firms in the U.S. say they want."

•There was discussion of law firms transitioning away from lock step advancement by law school class to "levels-based" advancement and compensation schemes. "Profitability is going to depend more on ... organizational capital in the future, as opposed to individual rainmaker capital."

•Bradley suggested that law firms take a "short-term view of things" when they "skinny back on the professional development programs [at law firms] in times of economic distress." He pointed to in-house counsels' frustration at law firm partners focused too much on "profits per equity partner" rather than investing in the in-demand group of people that they'll be pulling through the system."

To hear from the Executive Director of NALP, Jim Leipold, on what changes in the legal industry mean for law school applicants and students, tune into the Law School Podcaster episode "The Current Economic Environment ."

Promoting Women in the Law

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:36:00 +0000

There's a great resource available to law students and it's also helpful and inspiring for those considering or applying to law school. Ms. JD is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by law students four years ago to reinforce and expand the representation of women in law school and the legal profession. Ms. JD offers a wide range of content -- through it's website, ms-jd.org, blog, a student organization at 70 law schools around the country called the NWLSO (National Women's Law Student Organization), a national conference, scholarships, fellowships and lots more.

The Ms. JD blog has something for everyone! Blog posts include topics like “Advice on Taking the Bar Exam” and “How to Get a Clerkship” to “Balancing Acts: Your Career and Personal Life" and “Choosing A Career and Landing a Job".”

A few of the things to note from Ms. JD:

* Ms. JD Scholarship: Every summer Ms. JD funds summer stipends for two female law students dedicated to public interest work. Past recipients have used their stipends to intern at the ICC in the Hague, the JAG Corps, the ACLU Voting Rights Project, and the Equal Justice Foundation.

* Ms. JD Fellowship: Ms. JD is launching the Leadership Fellows program. In conjunction with the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession's Margaret Brent Award, Ms. JD will match 20 high-achieving female law students with mentors from among the Commission's alumnae of commissioners and award winners. The one-year program is designed to foster a commitment to excellence in a new generation of women attorneys, inspired by the generation of trailblazers who paved the way for their success.

Law School Podcaster is teaming up with Ms. JD to share more news and information that will benefit law school applicants and students.

Keep listening and stay tuned for more!

Law School Application Update: Up, Up, and Away!

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:43:00 +0000

The law school application season is just beginning to wind down, and the application numbers coming in are up, up and away. Applications are up at many schools, but the "away" award goes to Cornell Law School -- reporting a 52% increase over applications filed last year. Cornell Law School's Dean of Admissions, Richard Geiger, told the University’s paper he was as mystified as anyone. “The increase is probably the result of a number of things working together,” Geiger told the Cornell Daily Sun. “What I can’t explain is why it’s 50 percent and not 20 percent.”

A 20 percent increase is more consistent with trends nationwide. The number of people who took the LSAT climbed 20 percent in October 2009, reaching an all-time high of 60,746. The New York Times recently reported that many other schools have reported substantial increases in applications over last year. "Washington University in St. Louis has had a 19 percent year-to-date increase in applications to its college of law. At the University of San Francisco School of Law, applications are up 35 percent over last year, and at the University of Iowa’s College of Law, applications are up 39 percent." According to the New York Times, "applications to the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University have risen 54 percent this year, an increase that might be related to its rise in the U.S. News & World Report rankings to 23 in 2009, from 36 the year before."

Richard Geiger, Cornell's Dean of Admissions, cannot point to any obvious reason for the increase in applications. He told the New York Times, “I’m a little thrown off by the fact that our increase is much bigger than expected. There’s nothing big we’re doing to explain that kind of increase.” Cornell's U.S. News & World Report Ranking has remained relatively stable.

Dean Geiger said that the 52 percent increase in applications means that “we’ll be a little more cautious in making decisions.” He explained that “the increase in applications will make us scrutinize things a little more carefully since we don’t fully understand what this is all about.”

What does this mean for applicants? Well, increased competition, most likely. The Cornell University newspaper reports that the law school "does not plan to increase its enrollment cap and remains committed to continue as 'a small, intimate collegial law school.'”

For applicants still waiting to hear from Cornell, that's not good news. Like most law schools, Cornell accepts students on a rolling basis, and many have already received their acceptance letters. Future law school applicants might want to make note of that for next year. Law school admissions deans around the country have been guests on Law School Podcaster shows and they tell us this over and over -- with rolling admissions, getting a law school application in early is key.

Cornell Law School Dean of Admissions Richard Geiger will be a guest on an upcoming Law School Podcaster segment, "Getting In Off the Wait List."

Latest Logic Game Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (Law School Podcaster) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:57:00 +0000

Our friends at Atlas LSAT have posted the most recent Logic Game Challenge #20 and invite our listeners to join in:
IPA Beer

A bartender is organizing a taste test of the newest IPA beer selections. Exactly seven different varieties of beer will be tasted – Long Lake, Moon Rune, Newtonbury, Olenguard, Pumpkin Pale, Quest, and Roundabout – one at a time and consecutively.

No other beers are to be tasted. The bartender must adhere to the following rules:
• Olenguard must be the third beer tasted.
• There is exactly one beer tasted between Newtonbury and Quest.
• Either Long Lake or Pumpkin Pale is the fifth beer tasted.
• Either Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Roundabout or Moon Rune is tasted before Newtonbury, but not both.

1. Which one of the following could represent the order in which the beers are tasted, from first to last?

(A) Long Lake, Newtonbury, Olenguard, Pumpkin Pale, Quest, Roundabout, Moon Rune
(B) Long Lake, Moon Rune, Olenguard, Newtonbury, Pumpkin Pale, Quest, Roundabout
(C) Long Lake, Quest, Olenguard, Newtonbury, Roundabout, Pumpkin Pale, Moon Rune
(D) Long Lake, Newtonbury, Moon Rune, Quest, Pumpkin Pale, Olenguard, Roundabout
(E) Long Lake, Quest, Olenguard, Newtonbury, Pumpkin Pale, Roundabout, Moon Rune

2. Which one of the following must be true?

(A) Long Lake must be the first beer tasted.
(B) Moon Rune must be the last beer tasted.
(C) Pumpkin Pale must be the fifth beer tasted.
(D) Either Newtonbury or Quest must be tasted fourth.
(E) Either Long Lake or Pumpkin Pale must be tasted first.

3. If Roundabout is tasted first, which one of the following must be true?

(A) Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Moon Rune.
(B) Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Long Lake.
(C) Moon Rune is the second beer tasted.
(D) Newtonbury is the sixth beer tasted.
(E) Quest is the sixth beer tasted.

4. Each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

(A) Pumpkin Pale is tasted second.
(B) Moon Rune is the first beer tasted.
(C) Moon Rune is the seventh beer tasted.
(D) Roundabout is tasted second.
(E) Roundabout is tasted seventh.

5. If Newtonbury is tasted at some point after Pumpkin Pale, which one of the following could be true?
(A) Long Lake is tasted before Pumpkin Pale.
(B) Neither Newtonbury nor Quest is tasted before Long Lake.
(C) Neither Moon Rune nor Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Olenguard.
(D) Olenguard is tasted after Long Lake.
(E) Moon Rune is tasted before Roundabout.

6. If Pumpkin Pale is tasted first, the seven beers could be tasted in how many different orders?

(A) Four
(B) Five
(C) Six
(D) Seven
(E) Eight

7. Which one of the following, if substituted for the condition that either Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Roundabout or Moon Rune is tasted before Newtonbury, but not both, would have the same effect on the order in which the beers are tasted?

(A) Either Roundabout is tasted after Pumpkin Pale or before Moon Rune, but not both.
(B) Either Long Lake or Roundabout is the first beer tasted.
(C) Either Newtonbury or Quest is tasted sixth.
(D) Either Pumpkin Pale is tasted before Moon Rune, or Roundabout is tasted before Newtonbury, but not both.
(E) Either Roundabout is tasted before Pumpkin Pale, or Newtonbury is tasted after Moon Rune, but not both.

Think you have the answers? E-mail them to logicmaster@atlaslsat.com. First person to submit the correct answers wins a $25 Amazon gift card. The best explanation posted on Atlas LSAT Forums wins $25 as well.

Answers to Logic Games Challenge #19: (1)B (2)A (3)E (4)C (5)C (6)C (7)D (8)D

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