Recently in Law School Category

Even the guys from the Hangover weren't this bad ... at least until today's newly-released second sequel.

Three UC Berkeley School of Law students ended the life of an exotic bird, and perhaps their legal careers, with one moment of stupidity and cruelty last year, when the three intoxicated men chased an exotic bird into the trees at a Las Vegas hotel's wildlife habitat. Moments later, they emerged with a decapitated bird corpse.

This should cause a bit of a chuckle. We’ve pointed out recently, a couple times, that the massive drop in law school applications has meant a shift in admissions results. Someone destined for a middling school in 2006 might have a shot at a top school today — or better yet, a scholarship!

Less applicants presumably means less people talking the LSAT and less people with gaudy LSAT numbers to fill the slots of the top schools. Of course, they could always reduce the size of incoming classes (adjust supply for the reduced demand). But that’d mean less incoming tuition to cover the schools’ massive overhead.

Instead, at least at the University of Michigan Law School, they’re looking at the whole person.

It’s summertime! Unlike your younger years as a carefree college kid delivering pizza, this summer you’ll be doin’ time in an office. You’ll spend your days researching law, handling client intake, or if you have a really unique boss, writing movie scripts!

In the old days, most law students would spend their summers working for a judge, a BigLaw firm, or in a public service internship. Today’s reality is a bit different, and you could be working anywhere from BigLaw to a craigslist-sourced crapternship™. No matter where you work, however, keep these tips in mind:

Much respect to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the first-term Congresswoman who beat incumbent Republican Scott Brown for one of Massachusetts’ seats in the Senate. According to the Los Angeles Times, a big reason for her victory was her embrace of the Occupy Wall Street movement and criticism of big banks.

And with her first bill, she may have just won a few more votes.

The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, which has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing, would set student loan interest rates (for one year only) at the same rate that banks get when they borrow money from the federal government: 0.75 percent. The interest rate on federal student loans is currently set to double to 6.8 percent this summer.

Without even perusing Above the Law’s 2013 Top 50 Law School Rankings, we were certain of one thing: they beat the heck out of Thomas M. Cooley’s Judging the Law Schools Rankings (which emphasize the number of chairs in the library — Thomas M. Cooley is #2, right behind Harvard!).

No ma’am, ATL’s rankings emphasize something far more important to grads and pre-L’s everywhere: actual legal employment. As the glorious blog quipped, “Most people attend law school to become lawyers. Not butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers.” Bonus points are awarded for BigLaw and clerkships.

After I passed the bar, I stopped pricing bar review classes because — frankly — I had better things to do. At least I did until today.

Do you have any idea how expensive bar prep is these days? More specifically, do you know how much BarBri costs? Law grads spend a hefty sum on bar review classes each year. BarBri’s Massachusetts bar review course costs $3525. In New York, it’s $3675. In California, it’s $4135. (Oh, but don’t worry: You get $250 of that back if you return your books and materials.)

BarBri is either good at what it does, or the people who flock to its courses are particularly smart; either way, the company boasts an impressive bar passage rate. And now it’s touting similar kick-ass-and-take-names results for a course geared toward incoming law students.

Practicality? Puh-leez. If that was the only consideration, philosophy majors wouldn’t exist.

With the collapse of the entry-level legal job market, and the unfathomable employment statistics that go along with it, one would expect that the pool of potential law students would shrink. Indeed, that has been the case. One foolish blogger has even suggested that this is the perfect “buy low” time to go to law school.

That foolish blogger (who coincidentally holds a liberal arts degree with two liberal arts minors) apparently has company. A survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep finds a whole lot of pre-law students who are headed to law school knowing that there are no law jobs. A few of the hilariously naive results from the survey include:

Entrepreneurship is all the rage these days. The idea of working for yourself, of building something, of creating new jobs. It’s very appealing.

It’s also good for the legal industry. After all, even the risk takers of the world need legal representation. That’s why it’s refreshing to see another law school training its students to respond to that demand for attorneys who can assist entrepreneurs.

WinslowTHall, of SeriousEats.com, is facing one of the most important decisions of his life: which law school should he attend. He has two choices: University of Oregon and Syracuse University. Mr. Hall, per his profile, is from Durham, North Carolina and is concerned with the foodie atmosphere of the two towns.

Wait ... the foodie atmosphere?

Look, I'm a fat man. I get it. Food is tasty. After three years in Lexington, Virginia, which has such fine dining establishments as Waffle House (covered and chunked - what up?) and Applebees, I can understand the need for decent grub. Still, you're deciding factor between two schools is the quality of the cuisine? If you are really having trouble deciding, here are the factors you should consider.

Jay-Z once said, "Moral victories is for minor league coaches." Grammatical issues aside, we couldn't agree more -- except we'd amend that to "Moral victories are for minor league coaches and blogger-lawyers."

I'll let you in on a little secret: In 2008, when I entered law school, I couldn't even fathom the concept of working as a law blogger. I wanted that BigLaw money -- $160K of pure, unadulterated happiness. Yes, money does buy happiness. Just ask the legions of unemployed lawyers with $100K in debt. And though I'm having a hell of a good time blogging, much like Allure, I'm slowly dying with every student loan bill.

Nonetheless, I can take solace in one simple fact: I passed the hardest bar exam in the country on my first try. Moral victory? Sure. Pathetic thing to brag about? You're damn right.