your high-priced TTT education.

[brian lauter]

Every once in a while I write an item that is critical of the state of legal education.  I’ve suggested getting rid of the 3L year, talked about the importance of practical experience in the new job market, and weighed in on the practical v. theoretical debate.

An item yesterday on Legal Satyricon, entitled “The Worthlessness of American Legal Education,” makes my little criticisms look like child’s play.  The tirade critique by Professor Marc John Randazza attacks American law schools with a candid fervor rarely witnessed in the blawgosphere.  It’s informative and entertaining and I recommend checking it out.

The item is long, so, rather than relate it all to you here, I pulled out a few choice quotes. 

On legal academics:

“Nobody wants to upset the academic apple cart — more appropriately described as a circle jerk.”

“…you’ll be shocked at how many people with a few months of experience practicing law are responsible for training the next generation of lawyers.”

On the myth of solo practice right out of law school:

“Should we really turn out a few thousand solo practitioners a year who have been taught by those who couldn’t hack it as practitioners? Then what? Just have them “figure it out” on their own?”

“The majority of tenured law professors don’t know how to be lawyers either. With that kind of “training,” dumping hundreds of clueless solos on the market will result in: 1) an avalanche of legal malpractice suits; 2) a hailstorm of unethical and unprofessional behavior by solos who lack the institutional mentors to teach them better; and, 3) a swarm of unsupportable litigation by desperate solos who are just trying to pay the rent.”

On UCLA’s new “Transition to Practice” LLM program:

“Yes, for the bargain basement price of $41,500, and another year of your life, UCLA will actually teach students what they THOUGHT they were getting for the first three years of tuition payments — how to practice law.”

“This new “program” at UCLA is an admission that law school is severely broken. Many people already say that law school is a year too long. I partially agree. It is a scam.”

“What kind of an abject fool would actually pay to attend this program? Honestly, anyone with this LLM on their resume should be blackballed as someone too incompetent to be a lawyer in the first place.”

Comments

[Susan Cartier Liebel, Esq.]

This is actually frightening. I know after just the first month we have a much better option for law students and lawyers at Solo Practice University ( http://solopracticeuniversity.com ) where enrolled students are actually taught by practicing attorneys ( http://solopracticeuniversity.com/faculty/ ) who are succeeding in the real world and all for the bargain-basement price of $595 per year with unlimited classes by over 50 'faculty'.

If I had known we could charge this much....;-) We still wouldn't have! :-)

[SFJD]

Where did he reference "TTT"s specifically? He seemed to be indicting the entire legal academic system. Also I think this criticism of law school is more appropriate in reference to higher ranked schools than lower ranked ones. Lower ranked schools, or "TTTs" as anonymous ATL commenters (and now you?) like to call them, generally push practical experience for their grads because they know they will need it to be competitive in the job market.

My law school, GGU, encouraged (and in some cases required) its students to take advocacy and clinic courses. Doing so is how they distinguish their school and make their grads more competitive with other grads from higher ranked schools, who don't necessarily need a healthy resume of relevant experience to land their first job.

In other words, a higher ranked school is going to be guilty of leaving their grads in the dark as far as job training more often then a lower ranked school which needs its grads to do so in order to be competitive. In my opinion this ironically makes more higher ranked grads clueless as to how to actually practice compared to lower ranked grads. That is not the fault of schools entirely. It's the fault of big law firms who throw away resumes from grads who didn't attend certain schools, and the general perception among high paying clients that only grads from Harvard Yale and Stanford are worth the money. Throwing the entire legal academic profession under the bus, especially low ranked schools, is not really seeing the big picture in my opinion. High ranked schools will not push practical experience until their grads actually need it to get a job.

[Cynthia]

SFJD,

The TTT in the subject line was my addition, not Brian's, and was in reference to the worthlessness of the legal education in general, meaning that all schools are now "TTT" regardless of their rank.

[SFJD]

Cynthia,

I understand the comparison, i.e. TTT is a negative connotation so let's apply it to an article about how law school is worthless. Admittedly I get a bit defensive when I see a headline that continues the practice of referring to schools like mine as a toilet, or implying that my education is presumptively worthless, so maybe my own ego has something to do with my disagreement. Nonetheless, low ranked schools, at least those I am familiar with in California, like to bill themselves as offering the opposite model of a legal education than the kind criticized by the Legal Satyricon. Calling all law schools "TTT" as a way of denoting their "worthlessness" is therefore missing the point of the Legal Satyricon's post in my opinion. Average salaries and job prospects are not what we are talking about here.

My school—-fourth tier according to good ol' US News—-actively encouraged learning practical skills and how to actually represent clients as part of our legal education. If you agree with the Legal Satyricon then, Calling a high ranked school "TTT" is therefore giving them more credit that they deserve :)

[SFJD]

duh "than" not "that" in last sentence

[Cynthia]

SFJD,

Interesting point! I always enjoy your comments.

[John]

What exactly does "TTT" stand for?

[Cynthia]

John,

Third Tier Toilet - a less than elegant way of describing the quality of education at a lower-tiered school.

[realistic pussy]

well done, that's what i call A REAL BLOG!!!
let's see if you can continue with the good work, a blooging is not only write words, you have to commited with the subject, learn about it, known every detail, be in touch with the readers, i'll guess you fullfil the profile...
Jajajajaja, keep it this way, you're doing just fine!!! =D

V. Alucard

[viagra online]

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[Corn Flour Mill Manufacturer]

The email came out this morning at 12:11am, so I haven't had time to talk with any fellow students, but my guess is that they will be thrilled with the change. It's unfortunate that the current outgoing 1L class had to suffer through the last year of harsh grades, but the positive news is that the next two years will be a little better. With all this excitement how can I possibly study for my crim exam at 1:30? Oh yeah, the old grading system will determine my grade...

There is my motivation