The Shark

opportunities for grad beyond practice

[cynthia foster]

Cal Law has an interesting article up about law school grads who choose paths other than practice.  The grads profiled cite a variety of reasons for their unconventional career choices.  Among them: a less-than-friendly job market, a free and entrepreneurial spirit, and the desire to "do good" beyond pro bono.  Read up if you're beginning to wonder where you fit in.

flexing some knowledge muscles, fighting the good fight against patent trolls

[justin gosling]

The ABA Journal has an interesting article about an anonymous blogger that criticizes alleged patent trolls. One of the accused patent trolls is so frustrated that they are offering $10,000 for the blogger's identity.

For those not familiar with the term, Wikipedia explains that Patent Troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company that focuses solely on enforcing patent rights in an aggressive or opportunistic manner, despite having no research or manufacturing base. Umm, yeah. Basically they buy patents and threaten to sue suspected infringers if they don't pay up.

Sometimes the threats are legitimate cases of infringement, while others are tenuous and exist only to nag another business into settling.

A patent's exclusive monopoly is one of the primary incentives for promoting innovation. When patent trolls exploit the enforcement aspect of the patent without any promise of future innovation, the justification for granting an exclusive monopoly vanishes. Maybe I'm overstating the case, but based on intuition alone this cannot be what the framers envisioned.

share the wealth of law school outlines on the web

[cynthia foster]

Bookmark this one, guys.  It'll come in handy at the end of the semester.

Docstoc (a "user-generated community where you can share legal and professional documents") has racked up quite a collection of law school and bar exam resources.  Clicky clicky for free outlines, etc.

start budgeting now: average first year salaries

[abony holmes]

This morning, Law Librarian Blog reported on a National Jurist study that ranks average starting salaries by law schools. I try not to get too wrapped up in this kind of information, as I firmly believe there is more to life than my law school’s average starting salary. And anyway, my school’s average starting salaries does not guarantee my starting salary.

However, I am only human.  It’s good to know that Boalt is tied at the top with 125k.

Here's how other California Law Schools stacked up*:

Boalt	$125k
USC	$125k
UCLA	$102,120k
Santa Clara	$96,956k
Hastings	$95,891k
Davis	$91,864k
Loyola	$86,451k
USF	$83k
Southwestern	$82,500k
Pepperdine	$80k
UC San Diego	$74k
Pacific McGeorge	$67,935k
Whittier	$65k
Chapman	$55,892k

*Stanford is suspiciously absent from this list.  Maybe it really isn't part of California anymore?

linx

[cynthia foster]

Back again, continuing to help you navigate the internet.

• Donations to Law Schools Are Soaring (Law.com)
• Undergrads Shadow Law Life, Courseload (The Stanford Daily)
• Gift Grants Law School a Center on Climate Change (The Daily Bruin)
• Do You Politically Match Your Law Firm? (Nuts & Boalts)

even you can recover from bad grades last semester

[abony holmes]

Last semester is dead and gone, and I’d hate to be the one to dig it up. Yet, as dead as last semester is to us law students, it will most certainly live on for years to come in the form of our transcript. Today, Frugal Law Student offered some excellent advice on how to bounce back from less than stellar law school grades.

(Since it’s against my school’s honor code to discuss grades, the remaining comments relate to a hypothetical person who is totally not me.)

In particular, he advises that you commit what went wrong (if anything) last semester to paper, and use it to plan a new strategy for this semester.

This advice is particularly helpful for student A (not Abony) who was not thrilled with her grades. Initially, student A wanted to write them off as being completely arbitrary, but after some cooling off time and a little perspective, Frugal Law Student’s advice makes a lot of sense to her. Student A believes student Z will find the advice as helpful as I…er… she has.

advice from a seasoned mock interview pro

[abony holmes]

Interview season is upon us, and last Thursday I participated in my career office's mock interview program. If you have an opportunity to do this, take advantage of it. Not only was it great practice, but the feedback I received will most certainly be used if I should ever be lucky enough to get a job interview.

Just a bit of advice in advance of the mock interview, gleaned from my mock experience:

• Be sure to wear interview attire, and don’t be afraid to ask if your outfit looks ok.  Mock interviewers are there to answer your questions, no matter how small or fashion-related.
• Have some of these questions prepared beforehand. This will be your last chance to get feedback from interviewers with no repercussions, so take advantage of it.
• While, technically, these interviews are repercussion-free, keep in mind these are interviews with actual attorneys and that you may cross their paths at some point in the future. This is why you should wear interview attire and come prepared, but it’s also why you should be careful not to completely embarrass yourself. Mock interviews are a great chance to try that angle on your story that you think is too edgy for the public interest firm of your dreams, but don’t take it too far.

Be honest, be charming, but, above all, be professional.

linx

[cynthia foster]

For your interneting pleasure:

• Law School FinAid is Worse Than Expected (Little Green River)
• How Law School Advertising Made Me Feel Like a Fish In a Barrel (fysigunk.us)
• Law School Myths: Revealed (Virginia Law Weekly — slightly lame, read to feel superior)
• Law School Plagiarism and Bar Admission (Legal Profession Blog of the Law Professors Blog Network)

And in the name of advancing "non-traditional media outlets" by revealing how ridiculous that very term is:

• Target Tells a Blogger to Go Away (New York Times)

supplement your education with a little net neutrality

[justin gosling]

Rather than read for class, I spent Saturday at my alma mater attending the Net Neutrality 2008 Symposium I mentioned earlier this month. It was a fascinating experience, and the panelists did a very good job of discussing various perspectives and implications surrounding a very complex issue. I didn't know it at the time, but Above Supra actually assisted in the event (and points to a blow-by-blow from one of the other attendees in her post-symposium recap).  Right on!

Apparently the talks were recorded, but I couldn't find them online. When they do finally pop up I plan on sharing some of the more relevant presentations so you can view the symposium highlights. In the meantime, this brilliant Daily Show bit on net neutrality is worth a few minutes of your time. Consider it a primer.

you stole my fork, prepare for legal action

[justin gosling]

Above The Law is running a great piece about a lengthy letter between law school roommates concerning the alleged theft of silverware and bowls. Naturally, it threatens legal action.

This seems to be a legitimate gunner sighting outside of their native environment. Law students, please resist the urge to flaunt a basic understanding of the law (especially in writing). Not only does it make you sound stupid, but the content is bound to become public and haunt you later on in life.

This letter's author is lucky because ATL was nice enough to redact their name, but that may not always happen. Social stigma and possible employment problems could arise when a private altercation becomes heated and words are exchanged in writing. The roommate allegedly taking the silverware is clearly in the wrong, but readers tend to remember an overreaction more than the situation's specifics. Consider yourself warned.