The Shark

barack obama: a gunner, and our 44th president.

[brian lauter]

We’ve already heard about how Barack Obama found his political voice in law school.  We’ve discussed his average career as an average associate and his short tenure as an “enthralling” law professor.  

We’ve also mentioned the generous financial support his presidential bid received from law professors.

Now, in honor of today’s Presidential Inauguration, one more Barack Obama law school item.

Last week, Noam Shreiber of The New Republic posted an item on The Plank discussing an article in Time discussing Obama’s urban background and how it might affect federal urban policy.  As a bonus, Shreiber relayed a law school anecdote from Obama’s law school local government professor.

Apparently, working in inner-city Chicago had piqued Obama’s interest in urban policy and he asked several questions throughout the semester about the power of inner-city populations to influence urban policy.

Obama’s professor, Gerald Frug, found Obama’s approach to city power dynamics interesting and included a question directly addressing it on the final.

Almost 20 years ago, Barack Obama lived every law school gunner’s dream, and (here comes the dramatic close) today he will live the dream of countless others.

everyone likes to ask edley what to do. even the uc.

[petra pasternak]

Boalt’s Dean Chris Edley has taken on a new job.

No, he’s not leaving Berkeley’s law school, but he does seem to have a busy year ahead, having been appointed “special adviser” to Mark Yudof, president of the UC system. An email announcement went to the Boalt community this week. 

His new role sounds both vague and important. Edley will advise and counsel Yudof and “execute special projects” on his behalf, Yudof said in an announcement to the chancellors, members of his cabinet and others dated Dec. 17. Edley will develop and oversee the university’s contributions to the improvement of P-16 education in California, to the energy and climate challenges facing the world, and strategize to help boost federal support for UC’s operating budgets. His appointment runs from mid-December 2008 to mid-December 2009. 

A UC president has not had a special adviser in recent memory, according to Paul Schwartz, who responded from the office of the president. “It’s not something we track, Petra, but I am virtually certain that there have been other UC presidents throughout the decades who have used advisors,” he wrote in an email.

Edley did not return a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

animal law is the new pink which was the new black which at one point was the new disco.

[brian lauter]

Is animal law the next intellectual property?  Probably not, but it is blowing up this week.

First, about three hundred people signed up to take Davis’ Animal Law class.  Nobody I talked to had any idea what the class was about (besides, obviously, law somehow pertaining to animals), but one person probably told one other person that it was interesting and/or easy and within twenty minutes half of the school was enrolled in Animal Law.

Apparently the first day of class didn’t really provide any answers regarding the subject matter either.  The response I got when I asked a friend what the class was about was, “I don’t know, he was talking about chickens for a really long time, though.”

Then, I read today on WSJ Law Blog that Bob Barker of Happy Gilmore fame just donated $1 million to the University of Virginia to establish an animal law program there.  Since his retirement, Barker has apparently been handing out his leftover Plinko chips to law schools all over the country, helping fund animal law curricula at schools like Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern.

Once again, however, the substance of animal law remains a mystery.  Neither the blog nor the press release explains what animal law actually is, but now that we know Bob Barker is behind it, I think its safe to assume that it centers around slapping people who don’t spay or neuter their pets with multimillion dollar lawsuits (“The price is wrong, bitch!” *judge slams gavel*).

So apparently animal law is where the money’s at.  Who knew?

Interested in becoming an animal lawyer?  Check out the International Institute for Animal Law, get an internship with an animal lawyer, or start an Animal Law Review at your school.

doc review: the worst job you may never be able to get.

[brian lauter]

If BigGov is the new Biglaw, where does that leave contract attorneys in the legal hierarchy?  Unemployed, according to a recent National Law Journal article (and discussed by ATL and Temporary Lawyer).

That’s right, the legal recession has gotten so bad that if you graduate law school without a job, you might not even be able to get irregular document review work that pays $35 an hour or less with no benefits.

As the article points out, the misery of contract work has been well documented in the blawgosphere.  No respect, no benefits, boring work, and a paltry hourly wage are the usual complaints.   Add Biglaw style competition for jobs to the list, and it becomes difficult to understand why anybody would take a job as a contract attorney.

Until you look at the alternatives.  Thinking that I would compile a smart-alecky list of less horrific jobs that pay $35 an hour or more, I did a few quick internet searches.  The results were disheartening.

If you aren’t really interested in earning thousands of dollars a month from your own home, and have a humanities BA and a JD, there doesn’t seem to be a wealth of realistic options unless you want to go back to school.

You’re probably not qualified to be a radiation therapist or an electrical engineer, and you’ll never make it into an exclusive job search engine like TheLadders.com with your stats.

At the end of the day, if you’re unemployed after graduation, contract jobs it may be the only way to survive when those loan bills start rolling in.  It’s brutal work, if you can get it.

we resolve to continue to be here. for you.

[brian lauter]

I was never much for New Year’s Resolutions, but last year I gave it a shot.

The experts say you should use a broad theme rather than a specific goal, choose an empowering theme, and keep your theme flexible. I’m sensing a theme here, not a resolution.

My New Year’s Resolution for 2008 was to not get any parking tickets (I racked up quite a few in the years 1999-2007), and I’m happy to report that, despite the statistical unlikelihood, my resolution experiment was a success.

Emboldened by the tremendous moral authority my success in the face of conventional New Year’s Resolution wisdom has earned me, I’ve come up with a few law student-specific resolutions for your consideration:

1.      I will remain calm, no matter how crazy it gets.

2.      I will make time for family and friends.

3.      I will not base my self-worth on my school’s U.S. News ranking.

4.      I will spend less class time messing around on the internet.

5.      I will not raise my hand in class to tell personal stories or give personal opinions.

6.      I will read at least one non-legal book a month.

7.      I will work on my writing skills.

No broad themes, empowerment or flexibility here.  Just, a few specific, attainable resolutions we can all hope to keep in the new year.

innovation = a return to the way things were before the Great Depression

[brian lauter]

Abolishing the third year of law school is an interesting idea. But, you know what would really save some time and money? Getting rid of the first and second year as well.

That’s right, no more law school. Imagine if, instead of going to law school for three years, all you had to do to practice law was hit up the ATM and stop by your local thrift store for a snazzy discount suit.

Who, you might wonder, would propose such a thing? A debt-ridden attorney? A bitter law student? No, this tantalizing idea came out of the recent Leading Legal Innovation conference in San Diego, which you can read all about here.

Conference participant George Shepherd, a professor at Emory University School of Law, argues that before the Great Depression there were no bar exams or law degree requirements. Attorneys simply posted bond, showed up in court and everything ran smoothly.

Further, according to Shepherd and Preston McAfee, an economist from Caltech, ABA requirements and the bar exam serve as artificial barriers to entry into the legal profession that drive up the cost of legal services, hurting attorneys and poor clients.

All law students do is surf the internet for three years anyway, so maybe it makes sense to do away with the barriers and open the profession up to normal market forces.

Since no other “innovations” seem to have come out of the conference, it looks like its real purpose was to get a group together to publicly blame the ABA for forcing law schools to produce students who know next to nothing about how to practice law.

For instance, in addition to the anti-ABA arguments above, Northwestern’s Dean David Van Zandt also accused the ABA of “stifling change” and forcing law schools to “build an Acura instead of a Corolla.”

Acuras are nice, but if it means zero law school debt, I’ll take a trip back to the Model T era any day.

yes, i am a dork. but i take comfort in the fact that you probably are, too

[pam smith]

So I will admit that I am the kind of dork that would listen to a law school lecture for fun, assuming that a) it's entertaining, b) it doesn't involve an assignment, and c) I don't have to pay any tuition. If you're that kind of person too -- and I suspect a lot of you are -- I'd highly recommend this one that W. Mark Lanier gave at Harvard Law in November. (HT to Drug and Device Law)

And if you're not already clicking on this link to watch (thank you for showing us the way, HLS), maybe these reasons will pique your interest:

• Texas trial lawyer + part-time preacher = one hell of a folksy story teller. He sounds kind of like Garrison Keillor.

• Wardrobe. He may look all buttoned-down on his law firm's Web site (photo at left), but his "campus casual" getup is a lot louder.

• The man has had Miley Cyrus play his Christmas party. Seriously. Aren't you curious?

linx: why wait for work? reasons abound for kissing butt in law school

[pam smith]

• A California law school uses the don't panic button pencil as a way to help its people pass the Bar. And it works! (O.C. Register)

• On thinking 20 years ahead: You should be really nice to everyone now, because some day they might end up being president, or at least advising the president. Then again, if everyone thought that way, you'd have to wonder if your law school buddies really like you, or if they're just hedging their bets in case you end up surprising everyone and doing something amazing one day. (Politico, The Harvard Crimson, The Stump blog #1, #2 and #3)

• We know where Elena Kagan is going. But who will take her place? (Boston Globe)

• Judge to lying, texting mayoral aide: No law school for you! (ABA Journal)

since law school doesn't teach you this, i will

[brian lauter]

How often have you had to tell an inquisitive friend or relative, “I haven’t taken that class,” or “we didn’t have to learn that?” Probably quite a bit.

As law students, we’re rarely responsible for knowing and understanding current laws that actually relate to people we know.

Lucky for you, I’m here to help. The following is a summary of a few of the more interesting California laws taking effect in 2009. More comprehensive reviews can be found here and here.

1. No texting while driving

2. Chain restaurants with more than 20 locations must post nutritional information (effective July 1, 2009)

3. If you are on probation for DUI and are pulled over with a BAC of .01 or higher, the DMV may suspend your license for a year and impound your car

4. GPS units in cars must be located in the lower five inches of the left side of your windshield or the lower seven inches of the passenger side of your windshield

5. Schools may suspend and recommend expulsion of students who engage in cyber-bullying

6. Companies with business interests in Sudan are prohibited from bidding on state contracts for goods or services

7. Insurers may not refuse to pay the medical expenses of those injured while under the influence of drugs or alcohol

The texting law has been pretty well publicized, but you never know when your little brother will need a cease and desist order to ward off a cyber-bully, or your crazy uncle will get wasted and break his collarbone trying to pop a wheelie on a forklift.

At any rate, that should be enough to keep you and yours on the right side of the law in 2009. Excuse me while I dump my stock in the Bank of Sudan.

sex, cash, ego: do we see a pattern here?

[brian lauter]

A few months ago I listed the three reasons most people go to law school. Since nobody contradicted me, I’m going to go ahead and assume that I was correct.

The obvious next step was a list of reasons why people shouldn’t go to law school. Thinking that this list might take weeks to compile, I ignored the task in favor of lower hanging fruit.

Fortunately, somebody else has undertaken it for me. This weekend, Joshua Auriemma over at Legal Geekery released a list of 9 Reasons Not to Attend Law School.

The list is succinct, but comprehensive, covering the three areas of most interest to prospective law students:

1. Cash (Expensive Books; Huge Loans)

2. Sex (Law-cest; Leisure Activities)

3. Ego (You’re Not That Smart; Your Friends Are Your Enemies; The Curve Is Evil)

As Mr. Auriemma notes, the list should serve as fortuitous warning to those considering law school because they can’t think of anything better to do (the third reason in my original post).

Undeterred? Great! Get ready for high school 2.0 and start stockpiling those energy drinks.