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ABA ponders ‘Truth in Law School Education’
Law schools need to be more transparent about the costs and employment data they give to applicants, and it's time to make that happen. So says American Bar Association President Steve Zack (pictured), who recently told a group of educators that the ABA is considering whether to increase the types of information that schools are required to disclose to consumers.
Weighing the value of LL.M.
LL.M. = Lawyers Losing Money. That's a running joke in the online legal world these days, where bloggers and practitioners puzzle over whether a master of laws degree yields valuable returns for recipients or simply plunges them into another year's worth of law school debt. It's not an easy question to answer. On one hand, the demand is certainly there. The number of LL.M.s granted by American Ba[...]
Excess Supply? NC attorneys fear state’s 7 law schools making too many lawyers
As a record number of North Carolina's law students buckle down with their casebooks this fall, members of the bar are questioning whether the state's seven law schools are churning out more graduates than the market can bear, as well as raising questions about how prepared the new graduates are to begin practicing. These and other questions arose at a summit the N.C. Bar Association held earlier [...]
Guest Commentary: Student-lawyers help legal community meet pro bono needs
The effects of a troubled economy, including foreclosures, joblessness and residential evictions, heighten demand for legal assistance but also render more clients unable to pay for those services. Nonprofit legal organizations, like Legal Aid of North Carolina, and attorneys offering pro bono services struggle to provide assistance to all those in need. This increased demand for pro bono legal se[...]
Coach’s Corner: When does recruiting become misrepresentation?
By ED POLL, Special to Lawyers Weekly [email protected] In a recent column we wrote about a Texas lawyer who successfully sued his new firm, alleging that he was “lured” away as a lateral hire from his previous firm only to conclude that his new firm had misrepresented its prospects and environment. Two new legal […]
Vocation variation: A cop, a cabinetmaker and others find second careers in the law
Guns, drugs, high-speed chases, pit bulls and stakeouts. Sounds like all of the ingredients of an action movie, but it actually describes the early days of Charlotte attorney Mark Simpson's career. And he didn't practice criminal law - at least not in the traditional sense. Simpson is one of many "second-career" lawyers - those who started off working in one job only to switch to law mid-stroke. [...]
With test results in, hard part begins
The Charlotte School of Law markedly increased its passing rate on the bar exam from the numbers its first graduating class posted last year - 82.2 percent this year over 67.3 percent in 2009. The top spot among in-state law schools went to UNC, with 90.3 percent of its graduates passing. Elon University's second graduating class did worse than last year, with 79.5 percent passing, although 100 pe[...]
Carolina grads tops in bar exam performance
The N.C. Board of Law Examiners has released its statistical breakdown of how graduates of the state’s seven law schools fared on the July 2010 exam. The University of North Carolina (my alma mater) came out on top with more than 90 percent of its alums making the grade – besting rival Duke University by […]
Hispanic National Bar Association honors Campbell Hispanic Law School Association
RALEIGH (NCLW) – The Hispanic National Bar Association recently named Campbell Law School’s Hispanic Law School Association as its 2010 Law Student Organization of the Year. The group was recognized for its commitment to the Hispanic students at Campbell Law by bringing relevant, high-profile speakers to the school and hosting events to raise funds for […]
Bar examiners take team approach to score essays
As hundreds of would-be attorneys gathered on the state fairgrounds in Raleigh to take the exam earlier this week, a new concept in grading essay questions was about to be used for the first time in North Carolina. It's called "team grading" and it will reduce the time it takes to grade the exams, allowing the N.C. Board of Law Examiners to stick to a two-week grading period instead of having t[...]
Herd of bar examinees hits the fairgrounds for ‘judging’
By 7 a.m. Tuesday, the sun was already beginning to beat down as the parking lots filled up at the fairgrounds in Raleigh. No one wanted to be late. No one wanted to miss out because they couldn’t get a parking spot. It was bar exam time. Chris Mickler of Pickens, S.C., was one of […]
NCADA approves law student members
At its spring 2010 conference, the N.C. Association of Defense Attorneys voted to amend the association’s bylaws to allow law student membership, according to its new president, Bonnie Refinski-Knight. Refinski-Knight said the association and law students will both benefit by the addition of younger members. “We have a lot to offer students and young attorneys […]
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Commentary
- Name game can end up being blame game
- Stericycle decision forces evaluation of policies, practices
- Are workplace DEI policies still legal after SCOTUS decisions?
- N.C. justices to decide many interesting cases
- Amotion sees resurgence after almost a decade
- The flip side of generative AI in law and how to address it
- The fight for equal educational opportunity continues
- Court’s term was rough on big business
- Ex-president, bar association have made their choice
- Ruling sharpens boundaries in attorney-client privilege
- Lawyers Weekly debuts new and improved web experience
- US Supreme Court bites back at parody’s use of the First Amendment
