I met Debra Snider on Twitter in a conversation about women & large law firms. That conversation led to a spirited email discussion, which we’ve broken down into four blog posts. After a distinguished 21-year legal and business career, Debra became an author and speaker. As a lawyer, she handled…
This is for discouraged lawyers (be they unemployed, underemployed or simply dissatisfied) and law students(1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls). Today I read this post by The Unemployed Lawyer who is in the Seattle area. Here is the comment I added to her blog. “I called the Washington State Bar Association and…
It is critically important at this time when there has been a decline in recruiting by the large law firms who have dominated campus interviewing to deemphasize employer outreach. A school unable to attract sufficient employer responses adds to the students’ frustration. Their self-esteem is diminished since they are not…
ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN THE BOSTON GLOBE For law graduates, a public-service detour on road to success By Rich Barlow, Globe Correspondent | April 27, 2009 With his degree from Harvard Law School due in June, Juan Valdivieso makes an attractive prospective hire, and last summer, he scooped up a…
As many of you may know, in July 1992 the ABA’s Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap issued what came to be called the “MacCrate Report”, a withering critique of traditional law schools. In substance, the task force compiled a list of the 10 fundamental…
Since in so much I have written I have taken quotes from the ABA’s MacCrate Report and one issued by the Mass School of Law, both in 1992, I decided to publish (in three parts) a handout I distributed at a panel I moderated for the National Lawyers Guild in…
When the U.S. News & World Report issued its ranking of law schools in March, 1990, I drafted a letter criticizing one major defect in its analysis; i.e., failing to include as a criterion the extent to which the law school ensures that its graduates fulfill the legal profession’s obligation…
Are you a law student attending a hard-to-get-into law school (notice that I did not use the descriptive words “good” or “best” or “tier x”)?If yes, here’s a research project for you. What percentage of the Class of 2006 graduates took positions right out of law school in BigLaw or did so after…
Below are excerpts from a Memorandum which I sent last year to the Professor at Stanford Law School who was heading up the search committee for an Executive Director for its Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest. _______________________ (O)ver the last 44 years since I graduated law school…
President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC 20500 January 1, 2011 Dear President Obama, We all knew it was coming! On December 3, 2008, an article appeared in CNNMoney.com “Verdict is in: Legal job market tightens” The article said “Employment opportunities for legal professionals have traditionally…