Archive for category Law School
What should I do with my JD and my life?
Posted by Caitlin in post law school life on July 21st, 2010
We recently took a poll on our Facebook fan page about what field of law our fans wanted to be. Responses ranged from Entertainment to Public Interest to Intellectual Property.
Going to law school is a big decision in and of itself, but figuring out what you want to do AFTER law school can also be a challenge. One decision to think about is whether you looking to work in a big firm or a smaller one. A recent article on Lawyerist.com laid out some important questions for lawyers to ask themselves when considering whether they would like to work for a big firm. It notes:
“For the most part, the bigger the firm, the farther away you are from being in a courtroom (or at least speaking in a courtroom). At the same time, when you do get the chance to talk, you will be extremely well prepared. If you are working in a small firm, or working with one other attorney, you are much more likely to get thrown into the fire quickly.”
So getting into a big firm is certainly a trade-off. Often it means a lot of money, but sometimes it means a year or two in the basement, looking for misplaced commas and other errors in endless pages of contracts. Yes, you’ll lose all color in your skin, but you’ll be able to pay for a great vacation to go tan it back!
If you’re unsure of where you want to land once you finish law school, you may want to consider environmental law. According to this article in the National Jurist, thanks to new EPA regulations and certain oil spills, there looks to be a big demand for environmental lawyers on both sides of the argument. Amber Maclver, an associate at Baker Botts, said “Environmental law attorneys are involved in every stage of a business’s life cycle. As a new attorney, there is a lot of potential to become an expert in a niche area of this practice. This is a great field to pursue with amazing opportunities.”
Whether it’s a big or a small firm, or whether you’re looking to help actors or oil-coated seagulls, there are definitely a lot of options for you and for many of us it’s worth thinking outside the box (or basement).
Should I Postpone, Cancel or Take an Absence for the LSAT?
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Admissions on May 12th, 2010
Good question! Obviously this depends on your situation, but in general, if by this Friday, May 14 – your last day to postpone your registration for the June LSAT – you are not scoring at least 3-4 points from a score that you’d be OK having, you probably won’t like your actual score. There are definite exceptions to this rule, but that’s a decent rule of thumb. But don’t pull your hair out over this question, because if you decide NOT to postpone, and then realize – eek! – you’re not feeling the LSAT winds blowing in your favor, you will face a set of options, many of which are perfectly acceptable. Steve Schwartz wrote a great analysis of these different options,
Law School Rankings – US News 2010 Rankings are Up! (We don’t want to care, but we do.)
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Law School on April 22nd, 2010
Many schools enter, but only one makes it to the top
It’s that time of year again, when all the hard work that law schools do gets acknowledged, along with the work their students put in before they were ever accepted. The US News and World Report 2010 Law School Rankings are up for your review!
What is all of that hard work that schools and their students do? If you’re an LSAT student (aspirant?), you might think it’s all about you, your LSAT score and your GPA. It turns out that we in the LSAT game are not the center of the universe! LSAT scores and GPAs, while perhaps representing 90% of how a law school measures its applicants, are only 25% of how US News measures a law school.
Here’s what US News look at and how important each factor is to a school’s overall ranking:
- Quality Assessment- 40%
- Selectivity – 25%
- Graduate Placement Success – 20%
- Faculty Resources – 15%
(Yup, it adds up to 100%.) So, the most important factor is what a school’s peers think of it, along with the views of various lawyers and judges. In some ways, those opinions are as much an assessment of the school as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a school is considered #1, it can select the best applicants, who in turn will be well-respected, and who will then have an interest in later ranking their alma mater as a great school.
Within selectivity, the median LSAT score of a school’s student body are 25% more important than it’s GPA. That’s probably giving far less weight to LSAT scores than what law schools use.
What were the big changes this year? The University of Chicago muscled out NYU, pushing it down to sixth — and that makes me mad, as a New Yorker. Once you leave the upper echelons, there were some larger jumps, including an impressive one on the part of George Washington University, which jumped 8 spots up to #20. Hooray!
To complain a bit more than I have in the past, these rankings have been widely criticized for being overly simplistic. More importantly, there are indications that the rankings have led to higher tuition and less diversity in schools. A good analogy would be a high school with an extremely fierce social hierarchy. (Or should I simply say, “a high school”?) There’s not much room at the top, and the folks at the top like it that way. Everyone complains about the pressures that the popularity rankings create, but everyone cares deeply about them (except maybe for a few kids spending lunch behind the gym, getting stoned – tsk, tsk).
It’s great to go to a school where you’ll find peers that challenge you and where the opportunities are vast, but don’t lose sight of the big picture! The majority of lawyers did not go to one of the top 20 schools. While it’s exciting to be at the top of the heap, it’s not a prerequisite for having a successful career in law. But, since our students are generally looking to get up there with the big dogs, good luck to you our hard-working student! Hit that 170+!
What does the LSAT have to do with Law School?
Posted by AileenNielsen in Law School on March 17th, 2010
When I first started preparing for the LSAT, I found myself a little frustrated by the logic games section in particular but also by the logical reasoning component of the test. What, I asked, could this possibly have to do with who is ready or able to go to law school? In particular, I ruefully compared the LSAT to other exams for professional school admissions, such as the MCAT and GMAT, which test more substantive knowledge about chemistry or specific mathematical formulas, directly relevant to coursework in medical and business schools. I thought the LSAT had little to do with law school and was something of a throwaway, but the more time I spend in law school (I’m a 3L) the more I think this is not really the case.
Logic Games?!
The skills learned for logic games have been quite helpful in two ways, one tactical and one practical. The tactical skill the logic games taught me was the habit of developing a system for organizing information and spelling out relationships. Lots of times on law school exams professors give you a problem that has several ambiguities, and these ambiguities can link up. The best answers are the ones that figure out the ramifications of every likely (that is legally colorable) argument. For example, did the parties form a contract for a lease of the house or didn’t they? And in either case, when one party moved in and then damaged the door, did that party do so negligently? What ramifications are there for each party under the four potential combinations of resolutions to these two questions? Is your head spinning yet?
When you’re taking an exam in law school, you must recognize all these possibilities and figure out which ones are sufficiently probable to merit discussion in a time and space controlled writing context (i.e. a really stressful exam in a little blue book!). You also need to be careful not to forget any possibilities, and that’s where it comes in handy to have a systematic tool for approaching these ambiguities, just like on the logic games section.
Second, for a more practical application of logic games skills, it’s very helpful to have a truly strong grasp on the conditional logic you need to learn for binary grouping games and sometimes for assignment games. Lots of people don’t study conditional logic unless they happen to take a course on it in college, but this is one piece of formal knowledge that is quite useful in law school. For example there are often questions in court cases as to whether a sufficient condition is also a necessary one (don’t worry if you haven’t yet started studying for the LSAT and don’t have a clue what that means – you’ll learn it). For example, if declaring all of her assets is sufficient for a corporate board member to fulfill her obligation to be financially transparent, does that mean that declaring all her assets is also necessary for the board member to fulfill her obligations? And vice versa?
More on the other sections in a few days…
Getting A Great Job After Law School?
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Law School, post law school life on January 18th, 2010
This past weekend the New York Times had a sobering article explaining that law school is “No Longer the Golden Ticket.” Many people somehow assumed the the legal field was immune to the economic downturn. “Well, Wall Street is dead for now,” people thought, “so I’ll go for law school. Not as glamorous, but at least the money’s there.”
Turns out that big law firms are laying off big time and are not hiring many if any new lawyers. In fact, we’re seeing a lot of resumes of law school grads that are looking for something to do during their “gap year.” Overall, these folks are not making the Atlas cut, but many are quite bright. Interestingly, often they’ve been hired by some law firm and then told to not show up for a year and instead do something community-oriented (and these folks receive half their salaries, which is still a nice chunk of change). This sounds like a pretty good deal considering what many large law firms have young associates doing for the first couple of years (cue shot of Igor, the hunchback in old Frankenstein film creeping in the basement). As we see it, the problem is that when the economy picks up and folks start suing and merging with each other with gusto again, law firms will probably pick up their half-way house hires and hold off on taking new ones for a year or so. Basically, there’s a lawyer log jam. [Yes, that sounds like the end of a good lawyer joke.] Particularly since there’s been a 20% increase in LSAT test-takers this year!
So, what does this mean for you? Well, it truly does depend. If you are headed to law school because you really enjoy legal thinking, complex albeit sometimes boring puzzles, and technical reading and writing, then no worries. You’re probably where you should be. Perhaps you’ll have a tougher time getting a job out of the gate, but hang in there. There’s probably room for you, give or take a year of a job you’re not super-psyched about.
If you’re going to law school for a sure fire route to a quick $250K salary, then hold on a sec. Look around, talk to grads — both those who have landed jobs and those who have not — and consider holding off a year or so until the job market “normalizes.” Perhaps this is a good time to address some weaknesses in your application (like a weak LSAT score or a lack of community service, etc.).
P.S. And don’t forget that there is one more little (?) thing to keep in mind – law school debt.
Law School Rankings
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Law School on December 8th, 2009
A recent article in the National Law Journal raises some critical issues about the effects of US News & World Report’s annual rankings. What I found most disturbing are some of the tricks that law schools play to increase their rankings (accepting students as part-timers, hiring graduates so those grads are not unemployed), and the ranking’s effect on how law schools spend their money is disheartening. According to a GAO study, tuition at law schools has risen because of the need to hire top faculty amidst an increasingly competitive market.
If you’re on the fence about where to set your sites, one thought to consider when you’re facing the rankings game is whether you’d like to be in the top 10% of the 20th school on the list, or in the bottom 10% of the school ranked number 8. Your ranking within your class can make a difference in terms of your experience at school and how potential employers view you.
September 2009 LSAT – Whether To Re-Take
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Law School on October 2nd, 2009
You’ve taken the LSAT! Hoorah . . . but how did you do? If you’re one of the many folks considering whether to re-take or not, take a look at this:
But do not operate under the influence . . .
If you’d like to review the LSAT with us, we’re holding a live online workshop on October 25th at 8pm EST http://www.atlaslsat.com/EventShow.cfm?EID=3&eventID=113
One interesting development in the latest LSATs is the introduction of a new strain of question in logic games. The LSAT has begun to ask which rule change would have no effect on the scenarios possible under the rest of the game’s constraints. One of the impressive aspects of the LSAT is how it continues to evolve so that it remains an accurate assessment of one’s ability to make inferences. Strict executors were thrown for a loop by those questions since they’re new and not directly covered in most courses or books. Flexible test-takers were able to adapt. One of the major considerations with such a question — and a line of thinking that can help you avoid the time-consuming testing out of each answer choice – is “How does the removed rule affect the game?” All rules limit the possibilities, so the challenge is to figure out how that happens in relation to the other rules.
Top 5 Tips for Entering Law School Students
Posted by noah@atlaslsat.com in Law School on August 13th, 2009
The first year of law school has been built up to near-legend. Journals, grades, awards, and job prospects often are determined in your first year, leaving you not a whole lot of time to get settled. Here are Atlas’s 5 Things to Remember from those who have been through the halls of legal academia and lived to write about it:
1. More is not better. On your way to class your first week, you will almost certainly see your fellow students carrying around many books aside from your shared caselaw textbooks. Law outlines from Emanuel’s, Gilbert’s, and other study aid companies will abound, and you will think to yourself, “Hmm, I wonder if that outline is better than what I’m studying from? Maybe I should pick that up at the book store.” Before you know it, you’ll find yourself in a study supplement arms race, and your room will be filled with a stack of outlines in addition to your textbook and your notes. Do not succumb to this temptation! You’ll likely find that your notes are the best resource. Outlines and tests from your professor’s past classes, which your school’s law library will generally have on file, are also very useful. At most, pick up one commercial outline you like for each subject (they’re all the same anyway). A big stack of outlines will only distract you and wind up gathering dust in the homestretch.
2. One head may be better than three. Yet another potential arms race is the study group. Ambitious 1st year students will jockey to form study groups with other students who ‘seem smart.’ If you’re the type of student who studies best independently, you may feel both left out and in danger of falling behind. But if you stand around for 10 minutes and listen to a study group study together, they’re generally doing one of two things: being quiet and studying independently or talking about something that has nothing to do with law. You’ll notice over time that many study groups devolve into gossip sessions. You should be true to your own style of learning, whether that’s independent or in a group. At a minimum though, it’s good to have a friend or two in your section to borrow notes from on the rare occasion you miss class.
3. Don’t overthink it. Law professors like to complicate things during lectures – it makes for more interesting class sessions and makes them feel smarter. But the truth is that much of the case law is pretty straightforward in the way it will be tested. There are only so many ways for a Torts final to test the concept of Battery, for example. The students that get themselves into trouble are the ones who present themselves with all sorts of convoluted exceptions, or who overcomplicate the concepts. Run this test on yourself when studying: if you understand the case law in a way that you could explain it to a twelve-year old in simple language, you’re in great shape. If you start presenting all sorts of strange formulations and jargon, you should work to simplify.
4. You’re doing as well as you think you are. One of the biggest concerns for 1st year law students is “How am I doing?” You don’t receive any concrete feedback until the middle of your 2nd semester, when you receive your grades from your 1st set of finals, as virtually no law school courses offer mid-terms or any intermediate grade (law school professors don’t like to grade things, so most only offer a final). This kind of feedback-free environment preys on the insecurities of many students, as many feel like they’re falling behind if they don’t study endlessly. Don’t let it shake your confidence. Remember that no one has received any grades, and it’s a level playing field. Focus on what you’re doing day-to-day and remind yourself to stay positive. If you’re desperate for feedback, visit your professor during office hours and relay to him or her your understanding of various cases – it’s a good way to both see where you are and get to know your professor a little bit better.
5. Put down the books sometimes. It’s sorely tempting to try and study all the time when you arrive at law school. People around you will be talking about their long hours in the library. But if you’re like the vast majority of people, your brain stops functioning at a high level after a certain amount of studying, and the returns will diminish dramatically after, say, the 5th hour. Give yourself a normal schedule, including time away from the books doing things you enjoy and relaxing. Think to yourself, “I’m going to spend 3 – 4 hours in class per day, and 4 – 6 hours a day studying efficiently.” After that, go spend time with people who are not in law school. Have fun. Take advantage of the student lifestyle and explore your new environment. Get away from campus. Maintain perspective and enjoy yourself as much as you can. Remember, it’s not the workaholics who succeed in law school – save that for your first job after you graduate. 