The Shark

just what you want to hear: more rising fees! this time it's the california state bar.

[cynthia foster]

The California State Bar is planning to meet Friday to discuss whether or not to raise admission fees.

Among the fees on the discussion docket are the general exam fee, moral character fee, and laptop fee. According to the Cal Law story on the news (free reg. req.), "the Committee of Bar Examiners, which runs the California bar exam, is asking for increases of 5 percent per year for the next three years to forestall a projected shortfall of about $260,000 next year and more than $2.8 million in 2011."

Also according to the Cal Law story, deans at both Hastings and Golden Gate University were unaware of the proposed fee increases.

A table outlining the proposed fee changes is below, with data from the State Bar Board of Governors agenda.

Fee category	Existing fee	Proposed fee 2010	Proposed fee 2011	Proposed fee 2012
Bar exam application: general applicant	$529	$556	$584	$614
Bar exam application: attorney applicant	$769	$808	$849	$892
First-year law students’ exam application	$488	$513	$539	$566
Laptop fee	$119	$125	$132	$139
Registration: general applicant	$92	$97	$102	$108
Registration: attorney applicant	$166	$175	$184	$194
Moral character determination application	$431	$453	$476	$500
Moral character extension application	$206	$217	$228	$240
Appeal of adverse determination of moral character	$100	$500	$500	$500
Admission certificate	$69	$73	$77	$81

tips, tricks, and reasons to be optimistic: it's only up from here.

[petra pasternak]

Peter Zeughauser struck an optimistic tone Tuesday afternoon at Berkeley Law.

The Southern California legal consultant, who works with some of the biggest firms in the nation, said that while more layoffs and a few more law firm collapses could be expected this year, things will turn around by the time first-years earn their J.D.’s.

“Despite tough times, the legal profession generally has a strong future,” Zeughauser said in a Boalt Hall auditorium of about 150 students. He said that as world leaders prepare for the G-20 summit, there are signs that the American model of an appropriately regulated free market is the most desirable market for growth, and that demand for U.S.-trained lawyers will continue strong. 

Zeughauser was a little less sanguine on second-years, but only to say that they may not have the same summer experiences as students had in the past. But by the time 2Ls graduate, there will be more work opportunities, he said. “I think the market’s at a bottom,” Zeughauser said. “There is already activity starting.” He said he recently chatted with a big-firm chairman who told him that the last two or three weeks have seen a “significant uptick” in the corporate practice, with a big engagement coming in from the Treasury Department to fund small businesses, and about seven new deals in the health-related field in the last week. He didn’t identify the firm.

Zeughauser also assured students that law firms rarely fail. “Heller, Thelen and WolfBlock are exceptions.”

More advice on job placement, after the jump.

more start date deferral news.

[cynthia foster]

Our recession fallout chart has been updated today to include news of 3L start date reorganization at Dewey and Debevoise. 

We've moved the chart out of the feature position on the site to make room for other upcoming features and for our regular daily news, but we will be maintaining the chart on a daily basis.  Please check back regularly for updates, and continue sending us tips via comment or email.

got hope? no, actually. i'm headed for a "regular" job and my parents' couch.

[brian lauter]

Here comes the next installment of The Shark’s “got hope?” series. First, however, let’s take a minute to reflect on what we’ve heard so far.

We’ve talked to a wanna-be prosecutor, a wanna-be Biglaw attorney, and a wanna-be plaintiffs’ attorney. It’s been a fairly diverse group, but many of their answers have been similar.

They all say that over 50% of their friends are unemployed. None of them seem to have any ideas about how to get jobs or of what “alternative careers” they might pursue. All three have blamed the economy to some extent, and two out of three said that they would not recommend going to law school.

Next up in the series is “Bartleby,” an unemployed 3L who was considering work in both the public and private sectors, and really isn’t a fan of law school.

Ed. Note: If you are interested in participating in an email survey on your job search experiences, please contact us. 

Disclaimer:  To encourage candid responses we’ve used pseudonyms to disguise the interviewees’ identities.

Brian:  Why did you come to law school?

Bartleby:  I always enjoyed arguing and writing and I worked in an office with a bunch of attorneys who I admired and seemed to enjoy being lawyers.  People said I’d make a good lawyer and it seemed like a good fit for me.

Brian:  Can you give me a brief rundown of the jobs you’ve had in law school or the route(s) you’ve pursued?

Bartleby:  My first summer I worked for a judge.  My second summer I worked at a smaller class action plaintiffs’ firm.  I’ve also interned at the California DOJ.  I want to do consumer advocacy or environmental/land use work.

Brian:  Why haven’t these worked out?  (i.e. Why don’t you have a job now?) 

Bartleby:  Well, I took a job at a small, but well-respected, litigation firm where I knew I would get good experience.  I knew they might not have room to hire me, and they didn’t, but I still figured I could parlay my experience into a job at a similar firm that did have room or go into the public sector.  Nobody is really hiring anymore, though, so that hasn’t really worked out.

Brian:  Are you depressed/discouraged yet?  Do you feel like it’s the economy’s fault and not yours?

Bartleby:  I’m pretty depressed and discouraged about employment stuff at least.  I feel like it’s mostly the economy’s fault.  I guess I should have tried to just get a job at a big firm last summer instead of going for the experience.  I didn’t cover my ass very well there, but the reason I can’t get anything at all now is because of the economy I think.

Brian:  How has your search for a job impacted your personal life? 

Bartleby:  Earlier this year I spent a lot of time working on getting a job.  Recently, I’ve pretty much given up, so my personal life has been pretty much normal, just a little less carefree.

Brian:   What does your family think about you not having a job?  Are they freaked out?  Supportive? 

Bartleby:  My parents don’t seem too freaked out.  I mean, I think they’re worried that I will have problems paying back my loans and that I’m unhappy, but they’re supportive.  They even offered to let me stay on the couch if I don’t have a job after the bar.

Brian:  What are your plans if you get to the point, say you’ve taken the bar, and you still don’t have a job lined up?

Bartleby:  I guess I’ll keep applying, maybe try to substitute teach or get a regular job to pay the bills.

Read the rest of Bartleby's interview after the jump.

bitter lawyer corners sleep-deprived exam victims. guess what ensues.

[cynthia foster]

Despite the Grade A meltdown of Biglaw, some brave law students trekked to a convention center near them last month and took the California Bar Exam: Version February. Bitter Lawyer sent a video camera and a "host" to the Ontario exam site, and interviewed exam-takers on their way out. The video made me laugh twice, which is huge, since it's Monday. 

bar prep loans may be lacking, but fear not for your ramen and rent: there's a plan B

[pam smith]

In a Cal Law story we just posted (free reg. req.), we've got one school noticing more loan rejections than usual this bar prep season, and many more wondering if they'll see the same, given the shrinking pool of lenders and the credit environment in general.

But fear not -- they have a plan. Many are banding together to try to persuade the federal government to give loans out for more bar prep costs (like, say, those pricey exam-prep courses) than it will typically cover. So long as the federal government moves swiftly, all should be just ... oh, um ... hmm.

uc davis suffers possibly embarrassing(?) drop in bar exam passage rates.

[cynthia foster]

TaxProf has a nice chart up breaking down the July 2008 California Bar Exam passage rates by school.  You can see his full chart here. 

Probably the biggest shocker here is that UC Davis dropped considerably in the statewide rankings. 

In July 2007, Davis came in at a very respectable #5 with a passage rate of 84% (.pdf).  In 2008, however, they slipped to #14 with a passage rate of 80%.  While the discrepancy between the two rates doesn't seem to be that much (4%), it is worth noting that most schools experienced an increase in their passage rates, because overall the passage rates for the 2008 exam were the highest in 11 years.  California Western, a school in the middle of an effort to improve its exam stats, jumped from #13 to #8.

Better luck next year, King Hall?

Brian, an, ahem, King Hall student, weighs in on the overall California results below:

[brian lauter]

Last November we reported on California’s brutal 2008 bar passage rate.  Now, just when you had finally weaned yourself off of the Prozac and come out of hiding, the California Bar has released the July 2008 bar passage rates by school.  You can check out the official document here.

Don’t feel like doing all of that clicking?  Here are the highlights: 

·        Stanford (97%) gave the rest of the California schools a giant beat down with a passage rate 7% higher than the second place school.

·        USC, UCLA and Berkeley all hover at around 90%. 

·        Surprise!  Pepperdine, USF and Loyola are close behind. 

·        Davis and Hastings come in below the state average of 83.2% and get embarrassed by schools populated by students they rejected:  Cal-Western, Whittier, Santa Clara and McGeorge.

·        Western State, which you’ve probably never heard of because its not rated by U.S. News, beats Southwestern which you might have because it is. 

·        La Verne College of Law is a colossal rip-off – if you go there drop out immediately and demand a full refund.

What effect will this have on next year’s U.S. News Rankings?  Probably none, because everybody knows academic prestige is much more important than students being able to actually practice law after they graduate from law school.

What effect will this have on next year’s 1Ls?  Here’s hoping a few of them decide to weight bar passage rate a little more than U.S. News does.

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)

what ohio's got that california doesn't

[pam smith]

Well, there's the million and one inches of snow on the ground there. But actually, we are not lobbying to get that in San Francisco.

We are, however, kind of intrigued by this mentoring program for new lawyers that a state Supreme Court justice just wrote about in the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum. (Our second-favorite story in today's edition: "'Barkery' treats dogs to gourmet goodies." Seriously. The puns in it are really impressive.)

But back to the program Justice Paul Pfeifer is peddling: It matches up volunteer experienced attorneys with newly annointed members of the Ohio State Bar, in the hopes of teaching them all of the practical things that law school doesn't. Things like dealing with problem clients, networking, working with support staff, and figuring out office politics.

Sure, this is all of the stuff that lawyers have been figuring out on their own, or with the help of older-and-wiser compatriots, for centuries. Still, if it's a low-cost option for California's State Bar, might not be a bad idea for recent grads who find their colleagues are too a) few b) busy c) ornery or d) generally hapless to be a help. Or for those who don't have colleagues, period, due to the awesome job market.

november mpre scores, available now.

[cynthia foster]

Hi all.  Happy Monday.  To celebrate, I report that MPRE scores have been released today.  Hopefully you all passed, because who needs to add failure to the fubar of finals week.

From the California State Bar:

"Effective January 1, 2008, the new minimum Multistate Professional Responsibility
Examination score required for admission to practice law in California is a scaled
score of at least 86."