A lawsuit brought against the John Marshall Law School in Chicago alleging misrepresentation of graduate employment numbers was dismissed with prejudice. The lawsuit was brought by the Law Offices of John Anziska on behalf of three named plaintiffs, citing advertising materials from the school stating that within 9 months of graduation, 90 to 100 percent of its graduates had found full time employment. The complaint [pdf] goes on to assert that:
The context of these representations make it appear to the reasonable consumer…that the jobs reported are full-time, permanent positions for which a law degree is required or preferred…[and that the John Marshall Law School] grossly inflates its graduates’ reported mean salaries, by calculating them based on a small, deliberately selected subset of graduates who actually submit their salary information.
The judge in the case “found all of plaintiffs’ claims defective for want of proximate cause and speculativeness of damages,” said PRWeb.
Anziska brought many other cases against law schools based on the same claims, so it will be interesting to see if they all begin to fall like dominoes now that this case has been dismissed. I suspect that will be the case given the problems with trying to blame a law school for the fact that a person can’t find a job in a bad economy.
(photo: Shutterstock: 83382025)
Based on data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States added approximately 1,000 jobs to the legal sector in September—up approximately 3,000 from September of 2011. Although a relatively small number overall, this addition is part of a trend of growing employment in the legal sector, which is comforting news for many recent law school graduates.
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Guest post by law professor Aaron Taylor.
The recent recession provided a compelling backdrop for legal education to come under scrutiny. The resulting angst about jobs engendered skepticism regarding the law degree’s value and the forthrightness of law schools in characterizing that value. A couple schools have been found to have intentionally misrepresented data, and others are being formally accused of such.
There is also a pervasive feeling that even though most schools have complied with reporting requirements, some have nonetheless failed to tell the whole story. Caveats were undisclosed. Explanations were unprovided. In short, law schools too often failed to adhere to the heightened standard of conduct they expect of students.
So what can law schools do to regain the public’s trust and provide prospective students with the most useful data?
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While the blogosphere hums with charges and counter-charges about the reliability of law school employment reports, there has been little discussion of how the information is collected. Inquiring minds ought to know how this works.
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The first day of work can be especially challenging for someone who has never worked in an office. Even if your employer has a first-day orientation program, you will also need to orient yourself. Assume nothing. Use this five-point list to get started.
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You’ve got a new associate position at a firm. First of all, congrats! That’s a big deal in this challenging legal market. But don’t get so excited that you screw it up by making some very typical new associate blunders in the first few days, weeks, or months on the job.
Working with lawyers and law firms, I get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to new associates and how they integrate themselves smoothly (or not so smoothly) into the law firm culture. Based on my observations, here are ten of the most significant mistakes I see new associates making (though seasoned associates and partners could learn a few lessons here as well.)
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The decision to attend law school is an important one: one that may involve up to six figures of student loan debt. Despite the recession, many prospective law students entered law school under the false presumption that they would be able repay those loans after attaining employment upon graduation. But when law schools publish deceptive employment statistics, prospective and current law students may be basing their future livelihoods upon unreliable information.
As another academic year draws to a close, many soon-to-be and recent law school graduates have been left holding the bag as far as employment prospects are concerned. Law School Transparency, however, hopes to promote greater accuracy in law school employment data.
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So, you spotted an opening and landed an interview with a rural employer. How do you set yourself apart from the rest of the pack? Beyond the skills any legal employer will look for, like writing and research skills, people skills etc., there are two things that rural employers will look for during the interview process.
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Guest post from Kevin Chern.
Last month, I read a blog post that suggested attorneys who could afford it should outsource some of their daily tasks to increase productivity. While that suggestion was a good one, it also implied that outsourcing might be something many attorneys cannot afford. That’s probably not accurate.
It is true that some solo practitioners run one-person operations, juggling their own phones, marketing, accounting, research and other administrative work. This one-man-show, however, is not usually very efficient and often drains attorneys of time that could be better spent making money doing actual legal work. Attorneys who want to make the most of their billable hours usually hire at least one assistant or clerk to help manage their law firm.
Assuming that many attorneys have moved past the inefficient one-man-show model, which option is more cost-effective—hiring employees to help manage a law firm or outsourcing administrative and non-legal tasks to a virtual worker? The simplest way to answer that question is by measuring the costs of each option. While the exact figures may vary from firm to firm, here are a few things attorneys should look at when determining which office management options are best:
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In my last post, I wrote that after practicing law for more than 25 years, I have little to complain about. I am proud to be a “professional,” I make a respectable living and at times, the work is satisfying. In a thoughtful comment to the post, one reader challenged that view. More specifically, he noted that he has been able to “(a) make a positive difference in other people’s lives; (b) understand the function and limits of government, and; (c) be a leader in my respective community” and referenced the “Attorney’s Oath” in our state of Minnesota to support his position.
As an initial matter, I certainly did not intend to imply that lawyers should not strive to do those things. Indeed, in my own career, I have accomplished all of them.
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