The Shark

more rankings, more problems: us news to blame for high tuition.

[cynthia]

According to a study released by Government Accountability Office, we can all gather 'round and blame US News (and its less popular siblings) for the rapid clip of tuition increases in the last few years.

According to my much-loved Tax Prof, the study (which came out Monday) pinpoints rankings, not accreditation, for your big bills.

From the GAO:

"According to law school officials, the move to a more hands-on, resource-intensive approach to legal education and competition among schools for higher rankings appear to be the main factors driving the cost of law school, while ABA accreditation requirements appear to play a minor role."

Prior to these revelations, the Internet was awash in ABA-blame for the problems modern law schools face. Instead, unsurprisingly, it is not the gargantuan, antiquated bureaucracy that is to blame, but the trend-obsessed and more nimble law school administrations that have subjected their institutions to the whims of PR.

A page from the study says it all: 

Of course, to add to the absurdity, as ATL calls it, this last week has seen news that federal loan levels are remaining stagnant even as tuition prices inflate. Where are you all getting the money to feed the US News monster? It's certainly not coming from your state government, anyway.

hastings mid-year tuition increase: not happening. everyone breathe!

[petra]

Hastings students anxious about mid-year tuition increases can relax – at least for now.

I caught up with law school CFO Dave Seward this evening to ask about today’s meeting where tuition was discussed. Seward assured me that there will be no mid-year fee increases at Hastings. He basically said he’d kill puppies before he let that happen. (Well, he didn’t say that, but he agreed something really drastic would have to happen before the school made such a move.)

“We feel very strongly about advanced notice,” Seward said.

A memo did go out to first- and second-years about the fees that were approved in September for the school year starting in fall of 2010. Enrollment fees will go up to $36,000 (not including health insurance and such) – up from $29,383 in the 2009-10 school year. For details, check out the memo.

Petra is a Cal Law reporter.

would you like fries with that? the disconnect between career services and students.

[dennis]

Law Week reports that things are bleak in Colorado:

In 2009, more people passed the July Colorado bar exam than in any other year this decade. But the boom in the number of new lawyers is happening during a bust in the job market.

About 35 percent of the University of Colorado School of Law’s class of 2009 had jobs at graduation, down from 55 percent the year before.

The school’s Career Office is probably embarrassed; good thing that it does not view itself as a placement office:

“I think that we have out of necessity had to rethink our role in career development,” said SuSaNi Harris, assistant dean for CU law school’s Office of Career Development.

Most law schools no longer have traditional “placement offices” that line students up with jobs, she said.

“We got away from that because no office is staffed to place, one by one, each of their students. But what we’re exploring here is sort of a pseudo-placement effort.”

Details are in development.

There is an expectation gap at many law schools: law students expect job placement, law school career offices expect only to provide job hunting skills.

Students tune out when they hear that the Career Office doesn’t offer anything more than resume critiques and a mock interview. I think that the majority of law students had some form of interviewing experience during undergrad (or during their previous careers) so the services offered by the Career Offices are pretty useless.

A student at my coworker’s law school was told by her career office that her grades were so bad that she should not bother with OCI. She was told that she shouldn't even go for practice because she was unemployable.

The student was so offended that she contacted the OCI employers, arranged her own interviews, and scored a job. She then returned to the career office and told them exactly what she thought about them.

But most students don’t approach the career office and say, “Hey, you are useless!” – they simply ignore the office.

Read Dennis's tale of woe and ineptitude regarding an interaction with his career services department, after the jump.

true life: i'm a gunner?

[cynthia]

MTV and Cardozo are apparently in talks to produce a reality show based on life at the law school.

Above the Law says the school is gathering opinions from students via Twitter. So, what's the consensus?

So far only three replies, but they're all a resounding no:

@caseyvaughn cardozo on MTV? http://bit.ly/3l2aNQ . GOD NO, DON'T DO IT. a solid 50% of the class is brain dead. talk about PR nightmare. @cardozolaw

@joshuetree @cardozolaw absolute not! I am one of your students too...don't do this to me.

@soverykerry @cardozolaw no. also, my boyfriend is an alum, and he says no. (Ed. note: Thanks for polling the bf, soverykerry. Cardozo appreciates your thoroughness.) 

ATL, which seems to have more success with crowd-sourcing information than, well, anyone else (including Cardozo on Twitter), ran a poll on the issue. 50%+ of poll takers agreed that Cardozo should stay away from MTV. As an avid appreciator of the egomaniacal genius of Spencer Pratt on The Hills and believer in reality TV in general, I'm gonna have to go ahead and hope this show really does happen.

skipping class is okay, really.

[dennis]

It is mid-October. Brief due dates are looming, and class attendance is dropping.

Attendance was so bad in my tax class yesterday that the professor thanked us for showing up. Today in employment law, I was the only person in my row. 

My professors fall into two camps: those who don't care whether we show up and those who claim that attendance is "essential" to foster discussion. I disagree.

The students who actively participate in class tend to be the ones who show up regularly. The skippers are obviously not interested in participating, so why demand the presence of people who are just going to spend their time on farmville and TMZ? Will the increased body count lower our heating costs? Having more people in the room does not mean you have more people listening.

Ironically, my professor who is most adamant about class attendance is the professor who promotes the least fruitful discussions. He wants us to parrot the reading, and the remainder of the time is monopolized by a few people who love to hear themselves talk.

I attend class out of politeness to the professor, and not because attending class is always worth my time. There are a few classes that I would not dream of missing (tax, conflicts) but there are other classes where my sole purpose is to provide an audience for the professor and the divas in the room. 

My school threatens to un-enroll us if we stop going to class. This threat carries some vague reference to ABA standards, but I think this is ridiculous.

We've already paid tuition, extra people in class doesn't enrich the learning environment, and our degree isn't that helpful in securing employment anyway.

That's why people skip. And I that's why I think it is okay.

sheriff cites fake law, blames cornell law website.

[dennis]

An Arizona sheriff faces criticism after citing a nonexistent law to bolster his claim that he can continue to arrest undocumented immigrants during controversial crime sweeps even without a special agreement with ICE.

The Wall Street Journal has covered the story of Sheriff Joe extensively:

Those who follow immigration policy in this country certainly know about Sheriff Joe.

Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County which includes Phoenix, has forged a reputation for being perhaps second only to Lou Dobbs in his zeal for staunching illegal immigration.

In light of a new offensive by Homeland Security, Arpaio’s deputies no longer have the authority the randomly check the immigration status of people. Yet, the sheriff recently announced that his deputies will continue to round up illegal immigrants in the streets.

AzCentral.com reports that Arpaio’s staff alleged that the citation came from Cornell’s website:

The Arpaio document cites a provision of Title 8 of the federal code followed by language that says "state and local law-enforcement officials have the general power to investigate and arrest violators of federal immigration statutes without prior INS knowledge or approval, as long as they are authorized to do so by state law."

The sheriff's claim seems odd until one realizes how extensive Cornell's law website is. 

bill aims to stop student loan forgiveness being taxed as income.

[julie annes]

In June we mentioned new federal programs that could help students unload, or at least manage, a bit of the student debt they incurred during their undergrad and law school years.

If you'll recall, the program, which took effect July 1, gave some borrowers access to an income-based repayment plan. Under the new program, whatever debt is not paid back after 25 years is forgiven, and the period is even shorter, 10 years, for those who go into public service.

But we didn't mention one teensie little catch to that whole "forgiveness" thing.

Truth is, even if your loan is forgiven after those 25 years, the amount forgiven would be taxed as income to the borrower, according to an email sent out by the Project on Student Debt. 

As a possible solution, H.R. 2492 was introduced in May. The bill, which looks like it's still set to be reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee, would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to keep the forgiven amount from being reported as income. This would only apply to borrowers whose repayment plans were income contingent or income based. 

Find out more about the bill at the Project on Student Debt, which allows you to fill out and print a form letter that you can send to your representative to urge them to show their support if you are so inclined.

You can track the bill's progress here.

berkeley law loses one of its own.

[petra]

Berkeley Law has lost a long-time faculty member.

Stephen Barnett, an emeritus professor, died Tuesday after suffering cardiac arrest on Oct. 2. He was 73.

Not one to hold back when he had an opinion, Barnett had kept a keen eye on how the California Supreme Court went about its business and frequently criticized its policies. Chief Justice Ronald George grudgingly acknowledged to me that all of Barnett’s effort wasn’t in vain, and the court wound up adopting some changes based on his critiques. Barnett also targeted the State Bar. Colleagues said he didn’t limit his reach to the public sphere, though. Barnett was known to dig into decisions and policies at the school, too.

“If there is such a thing as a constructive gadfly, that was Steve,” said Berkeley law professor Richard Buxbaum, who had known him since Barnett joined the faculty in 1967.

Though he had retired four or five years ago, Barnett still made regular appearances on campus. Berkeley professor Jesse Choper said Barnett taught a first-year course and showed up to faculty meetings. But he also traveled a good deal for his international work and worked from home. “He had a big study at home,” Choper said. “Unlike most law faculty he tended to spend a lot of time working at home.”

The law school is planning a memorial service at the university.

Petra is a Cal Law reporter

twitter adds list feature.

[cynthia]

One of the cornerstones of social media is being able to organize others into groups according to your relationship with or interest in them. Twitter's joined the ranks of sites making customizable groups available to its users - well, some of them.

Social Media Law Student reported this morning that Twitter's unveiled its "Lists" feature, which allows you to organize the accounts you follow and allows other users to add you to lists as well. The feature's not available on all accounts yet (our Twitter account doesn't have it yet, for example), but once it's universally available it'll be an easy way for you to follow all of your law school-related social media at once.

Some of our favorite law school tweeters, who will be added to a list once we have list-making capabilities:

@Lessig: Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig

@BitterLawyer: "entertainment" law blog 

@EvilEsq: The Bar Association for Evil and Unethical Lawyers

@BlawgWhisperer: ABAJournal.com web editor

@blackbooklegal: law blog out of Philly

And, your Shark contributors on Twitter:

@julieanneines and @no634

Please feel free to share your favorite law/law school-related Twitter accounts in the comments.

massachusetts is just not that into you, law school.

[cynthia]

Yesterday, Dennis introduced us to the possibility of a public law school in Massachusetts. Today, the state treasurer announces no way. The state can't afford it.

“From an economic point of view, it’s an investment in a profession that we may not need more of,” [Timothy] Cahill, who is running for governor as an independent, said in a telephone interview. “It’s not like training medical technicians or nurses, which we need more of. In this economy, we should make investments in things beneficial to the state, and I don’t see that here,” he added.

No word on whether or not Southern New England School of Law (that had offered itself to UMass for acquisition) feels this was just some recession era politicking — shouldn't the 15th most populous state in the nation have a public school for its residents?

Meanwhile, broke University of California manages to keep one of its own, despite the perilous financial situation it's in; Prof. Stephen Bainbridge will not be leaving UCLA to visit UVA next year.