The Shark

turns out law degree may only be good for practicing law. um, yikes.

[brian lauter]

A few months ago I wrote rather flippantly about the upcoming recession.  No big deal, I said.  Sure, most of the economy is tanking, but law jobs will still be there.  Mid-size firms will figure more prominently into law school recruiting, a few people more people will have to resign themselves to practicing bankruptcy law, but everything will be okay.

In hindsight, I may have been a bit hasty. 

Big firms have gone under, mid-size firms have been laying people off, and even small firms are having trouble.  Jobs are scarce, no-offers are common, and offers already given are being rescinded. 

Obviously, I’m no economist.

Although a couple of my predictions were a little off, my overall confidence was clearly justified.  I mean, sure, the legal market is tough right now.  But even if you can’t get a job as an attorney there are hundreds of things you can do with a law degree, right?  All those career advisers and opinionated old people who told you how valuable a law degree could be outside of the law can’t have been wrong.

Actually, according to an article in the National Law Journal, they may have been.  Lawyers applying for non-legal jobs are finding themselves “priced out, overqualified and undervalued.”

finals racket, literally.

[cynthia foster]

As you head on into Finals Time and begin feeling really sorry for yourself, try to get over it by repeating after me: at least you're not at Boalt.  Unless you are, in fact, at Boalt.  In that case, well, please continue feeling sorry for yourself.

we'd all like to think we're smarter, but maybe the california bar exam is just harder.

[brian lauter]

As you may have heard, the California bar results were released last Friday.  Congratulations to those who passed, and better luck next time to those that didn’t.

In the wake of the results, a couple of interesting stories have emerged.  First, remember when an earthquake mildly disturbed bar exam takers in Southern California?  The California State Bar did when it got around to scoring the July exam, and it awarded southern California test takers as many as 5 extra points based on which test center they were at during the earthquake.

Apparently, the Bar created some kind of fancy matrix to figure out how to award the extra points it felt earthquake-terrorized test takers deserved, and, since lawyers suck at math, the matrix produced some pretty ridiculous results.  The absurdity is covered in detail by ATL and Lowering the Bar, so I won’t bore you with it here.

Mentioned in the ATL item, but not really discussed, is another intriguing storyline.  As The Shark reported late Friday, the overall passage rate for California’s July exam was 61.7%, the highest passage rate in California since 1997. 

As ATL notes, the passage rate in California typically hovers (.pdf) in the 40s and 50s.  By contrast, the passage rate (.pdf) for New York’s July exam was 74.7%, the highest passage rate in New York since...2007.  Further, by my count, in 2007 (.pdf) only the District of Columbia (56%) and the Virgin Islands (52%) had bar passage rates equal to or lower than California’s (56%).

Why are California’s passage rates so much lower than New York’s?  Some argue that New Yorkers are just smarter than Californians.  I seriously doubt this is true.  It seems more likely that the California test is just harder.  But, this may not be entirely accurate either.

A couple of weeks ago, Dean Barbieri, Director of Examinations for the State Bar of California, came to King Hall to discuss how the bar exam is graded and how students should prepare for it.  During this discussion Mr. Barbieri discussed several factors which lead to California’s historically low passage rate.

First, California allows graduates of non-accredited law schools to take its bar exam.  This year, for instance, the pass rate for first time test takers from non-accredited law schools was 33%, compared with 83% for first time test takers from accredited law schools.  Mr. Barbieri also noted that California has one of the highest passage requirements for the MBE section in the nation, that it allows certain apprenticeships in lieu of legal study, and that it allows law students from foreign jurisdictions to take its exam.  Finally, as evidenced by the guy in this video who has taken the California bar exam 41 times, California allows people to take its bar exam as many times as they would like.  Repeat test-takers have significantly lower passage rates.

So, don’t be discouraged by California’s low bar passage rate. When you start breaking down the statistics, the passage rate that matters to most people – the rate for first time-takers from accredited law schools – is 83% in California.  Still not as high as New York (91%), but those three years of California living should more than make up for the gap.

UPDATE:  Attempting to paraphrase Mr. Barbieri above, I wrote "California has one of the highest passage requirements for the MBE section in the nation."  After a commenter pointed out that my paraphrasing of Mr. Barbieri might be inaccurate, I phoned Mr. Barbieri.  As it turns out, the commenter was correct.  According to Mr. Barbieri, California has the second highest minimum passing score when the nation's bar exams are evaluated on the same scale (Delaware has the highest).  The MBE score is tied to this score, but my original understanding of Mr. Barbieri's statement was wrong and I regret my error.

the laptop-free life: give a pen a chance.

[justin gosling]

After my laptop-free semester, it's time to evaluate my decision to take all of my law school notes by hand.

For those who don't print out my blog posts and frame them (shame on you), let me give you a recap about my little experiment. Basically, my laptop died right as fall semester began, and I was forced to take notes by hand until the repairman replaced my motherboard. I found that I took better notes and payed more attention in class than I did with a laptop on my desk. I decided to jump in feet first and abandon the laptop for all my classes, and law school has been a completely different experience.

Overall, I found that taking notes by hand is superior to using a laptop and I will continue to do so in future classes.

That's right, my laptop is staying at home again next semester. I maintained focus for longer periods of time and internet temptations were nonexistent. I did bring the laptop for certain days, like when there would be a recap on material and I knew that my typing speed would be important. I also brought the laptop when I knew I would need computer access and I didn't want to sit in a crowded computer lab. On a few occasions I tried to use a laptop and write notes, but putting a casebook, laptop, notes, pens, and a highlighter on my desk was just too much clutter to handle.

But not everything was rosy.

california bar reports highest pass rate for july exam since 1997.

[cynthia foster]

Bar results have been released to the takers.  I'll have a more in-depth analysis of the stats on Monday, but quickly: 5,330 people passed, which amounts to 61.7% of the test-takers.  This according to The State Bar of California and an email I received 12 minutes ago.

Congratulations or better luck next time, guys.

UPDATE: This is the highest pass rate for the July exam since 1997.

cal law's bar exam resource: update for july 2008 exam.

[cynthia foster]

For those of you anxiously awaiting your California bar exam results tomorrow (good luck!), I bring you something to occupy your obsessive mind: sample answers to real questions from the July exam, written by experts in the field of passing the damn test.  Additionally, there's a story on job search tips on this cruel and unkind economy.  All of these resources are free, with no registration required.  Check them out when you wake up tonight in a cold sweat.

twitter is all hype and buzz. shields up!

[brian lauter]

Man, am I sick of hearing about Twitter.  What's more, I don’t know a single person who uses Twitter, and I never use it myself.

The reason I’m sick of it is because around 50% of the law blog items I’ve read in the last week or so have been about Twitter.  Since Twitter is supposedly the wave of the future and law students are going to be practicing law in the future, I thought I’d mention it.

Twitter, for those of you who suck at technology, is “a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.”

Still don’t get it?  Its like if every time you updated your Facebook status, your new status message was changed on Facebook like normal, but also texted to all of your Facebook friends’ phones, emailed to them, and/or added to their RSS feed.

There’s been a fairly heated debate (dramatically dubbed, “The Twitter Wars”) in the legal blogosphere about the importance of incorporating Twitter into one’s law practice.  David Giacalone over at f/k/a fired a warning shot across the Twitter bow last week, essentially arguing that Twitter is a waste of time, a trend, and a distraction.

Giacalone’s missive apparently angered Kevin O’Keefe at Lex Blog, who immediately posted a reply which essentially called Giacalone ignorant and prejudiced and argued that Twitter was “adding a lot to many lawyers’ lives.”  The argument for Twitter, according to Mr. O’Keefe, is that Twitter helps lawyers market themselves, obtain answers to questions, and enjoy the practice of law.

king hall and hastings law profs latest to get gold stars from obama.

[brian lauter]

A few people have mentioned that I was kind of hard on law professors in my item on Proposition 8 a couple weeks ago.  The point of the item wasn’t really to place the blame on law professors, but maybe that’s how it came across.

At any rate, since I always strive to present a fair and balanced picture of any group that has the power to affect my grade point average, I thought I’d post something positive about law professors to even things out.

A couple of days ago, by way of Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, I saw an item on Hunter of Justice listing the appointments our nations best connected brightest law professors are getting on Obama’s transition and review teams.

You probably already read in The Shark about UC Berkeley Dean Christopher Edley’s placement on Obama’s Transition Advisory Board.  (Aside:  Considering his wife is a Clintonite, is it unreasonable to suggest Edley is lobbying Obama to appoint her Secretary of State to calm the waters at home?)  But, here are the other California highlights from the list:

• Cruz Reynoso - UC-Davis Law, emeritus - Commission on Civil Rights team co-leader

• John Leshy - UC-Hastings Law - energy and natural resources review team

• Goodwin Liu - UC-Berkeley Law - education and labor review team

When the president-elect is a former law professor, and the vice-president–elect is a former law professor, I guess you can expect many of their appointees to be law professors.  Congratulations to all involved, but let’s not forget about that whole Prop. 8 thing either, eh?

difficult woman wurtzel fails new york bar exam, is not gracious.

[cynthia foster]

Just a quick update on Prozac Nation's Elizabeth Wurtzel. 

Last month we reported, with some surprise, that Wurtzel had switched from Bitch to Boies Schiller and was trying out the whole first year associate thing. 

Unfortunately for her, Above the Law is reporting (via Gawker and the New York Observer) that she has failed the New York bar exam. 

Doubly unfortunately for her, 2008 saw an "historic" year for the NY bar exam - 91% of first time-takers passed (.pdf).  Awkward.

ATL has some more awkwardness to share.  When asked how she felt about being outed as a failure, Wurtzel replied:

"Wow, really? I had no idea. I didn't even see that. That's interesting."

Super awkward.  And pretty attitudinal, if you ask me.

ucla and usc get down and dirty to see who is the nicest and most giving.

[cynthia foster]

While attending UC Didn't-Get-Into-Berkeley, I learned next to nothing about school rivalries.  Davis is a very calm place, a nice place where (when I was there) "Division 1" were not words on anyones' tongues.  Sometimes I think I missed out a bit on this aspect of the collegiate experience, and I've always found it interesting that law schools manage to strike up rivalries without any athletic activity of any kind.  What do people fight about?

Well, it seems that one law school rivalry, between USC and UCLA, wants to do some good for their communities.

The two schools are having a pro bono-off, dreamt up by USC Law Student Bar Associate President Alyson Parker '09, to determine which one can complete the highest percentage of pro bono hours during the 15-week spring semester.

The competition is known as the "Cross-Town Pro Bono Challenge".

“The alumni were really enthusiastic about the goals and receptive to mentoring students at their alma mater to become more well-rounded attorneys,” Parker said. “And they were also competitive. They said they’d never miss a reason to beat UCLA.”