The Shark

the trials of law school: the latest "documentary"

[cynthia foster]

"Law school can be this wonderful, exhilarating, intellectual roller coaster ride" - The Trials of Law School.

I think "trials" is supposed to be a pun.  I can't really see through the bleeding earnestness of the site, though.

It's not quite as fun as the Law School Musical, but hey.

so what if i want to buy a knock-off with my financial aid money?

[abony holmes]

I love this WSJ Law Blog item, not just because I’m interested in IP, but also because I love fashion. Diane von Furstenberg and Gwen Stefani have every right to hate knocks-offs of their designer duds.

I can’t pretend to know anything about Intellectual Property or copyright (I haven’t even taken one semester of Intro to IP), but surely it would be a great disservice to humanity to outlaw knock-offs.

It’s true, some designers spend months coming up with the “next big thing” in fashion, and if they didn’t mark-up the prices of those garments so monumentally, how could they afford to put on those awesome fashion shows and pay their workers sweatshop wages?  But what about the law student consumer, who regularly shops at Target, Forever 21, H&M and the like, and wants to look fashionable but doesn’t have $72 to spend on a Rasta hat? 

If the law blogs don't think of law students, who will?

(Sidenote: White girls with no dreds wearing Rasta hats… how quaint. I need to make sure and copyright this idea I have for a hat that’s sure to take the urban market by storm…)

your hopes for a balanced work-life future

[cynthia foster]

According to the NY Times' Fashion & Style section (lord help us), the legal world is run-run-running toward (or trying to, anyway) the new tradition of work-life balance.

And here comes David Lat of Above the Law, to begrudgingly discuss it. 

P.S.: Not to question the king, of course, but is anyone else thinking that it's a sign of ATL's times that he was "compelled" to respond to the article because of its popularity?

ch-ch-ch-changes (no one here ever said super tuesday ramp up was anything less than ridiculous)

[cynthia foster]

Make sure you make it to the end.  Maybe I'm getting punchy (there are approx. 5789345798235738957238957893475843759 propositions on California's ballot and I am drowning in my voter's literature), but I laughed-out-loud.

flunking out at a 4th tier school: yikes

[cynthia foster]

WSJ's Law Blog picked up an interesting item from the New York Lawyer about a 1L who is performing below-average at a 4th tier school.  Understandably, the student is having a bit of a career crisis.  The comments are particularly brutal.  Read on, all of you not prone to career-related depression.

uc has to refund $34m in fees, will current students have to offset this with their own wallets?

[justin gosling]

Remember the University of California students that sued the UC in 2003 for increased school fees (Kashmiri v. Regents)?  Well, the California Supreme Court just unanimously denied review of Kashmiri — clearing the way for UC students to get tuition refunds. It looks like the UC will fire up the automatic check writing machine and refund $34 million, plus the $6 million in interest. Ouch.

This sounds like good news for any students affected by the fee increases, and hopefully they can expect a little refund money in the mail. The only worry I have is that in rectifying this fee increase the UC will be pass on the costs to current students. Awesome. Not only are fees increasing on their own, but we have to worry about past fees resurfacing.

elaine brown raises some suburban eyebrows in davis

[cynthia foster]

One of the things I find really interesting about law school culture is the symbiotic relationship between conflict and political correctness.  Law schools tend to be hotbed for the outpouring of political and cultural rhetoric, but law schools and their students often seem hesitant to cross any sensitive public lines.  One of the best examples of this is the Erwin Chemerinksy vs. UC Irvine debacle.  It seems to me that a law school can't survive without pushing some cultural buttons, but it also can't survive if it pushes the wrong ones.  This fine line-dancing has gotten to the point where I think an administration can't really do one without doing the other.  Jab, retreat, jab, retreat. 

And so, I bring you:

Elaine Brown (left), former Black Panther and current Green Party presidential candidate, speaking in the keynote-fashion at UC Davis' King Hall.  Her lecture, in honor of MLK Day, was entitled "What Would Martin Do?"

Brown came out swinging against the war on terror, three strikes, the U.S. rejection of slave reparations, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, opposition to illegal immigration, and the war in Iraq.

According to Brown, "by removing Saddam Hussein, the U.S. had destroyed 5,000 years of culture... in a war for oil."

Of course, the school did not hesitate to separate itself from Brown's politics.  Kathleen Rojas, a UCD 3L and chair of King Week (the campus's celebration of MLK Day), distanced King Hall from Brown in a telephone interview taken even before Brown took the podium.

"[Brown] is definitely a controversial speaker. While we don't necessarily endorse all of her views, [those are] some of the views black activists have."

Drama in Davis.  Now there's something you don't hear too often.

the economy is bad, law school is a gamble.

[cynthia foster]

After a nice, long weekend (hope you all enjoyed yours, happy birthday Dr. King, etc.) I came in prepared to do a big blogo-wrap-up of the coverage of Kirsten Wolf and law school students' disillusionment.  Instead, I've realized that Prof. Paul Caron (of TaxProf Blog) has already done an excellent job.

Also, a Boston Globe article on how to survive a "sour" job market.

illegally download and you may lose your financial aid (!!!)

[cynthia foster]

WireTap Magazine reports on the recent legislative act that may reduce funding for schools where students are illegally downloading.  This, in turn, could effect financial aid by forcing schools to offset the loss through increasing fees or limiting/canceling financial aid.

dov charney is gross

[cynthia foster]

So, for all of you who didn't already know, Dov Charney (CEO and founder of American Apparel — where all your hipster friends buy their leggings) is gross.  The frequent subject of sexual harassment suits, Charney's newest errr entanglement involves the following justification for walking around in front of a female employee wearing only a sock on his man bits:

"'The demonstration of the' garment, Charney said, 'was a product we were considering — and I was in fit condition for it.' He ultimately decided against putting it in the American Apparel line. 'It wasn't classy,' he said."

Clearly, this man knows classy.  YES!  I'll be sure to let all the buff people in my office know they're allowed to walk around naked.  Only because they're buff, you understand.