Law School Songs

Stressed, worried, impoverished, insecure, feeling inadequate, intimidated, exhausted, disappointed, overworked . . . welcome to the law, young people..

Law Student Resources

If you are working with law students or you are engaged in pre-law advising, you might be interested in this website. Onlinecollege.org has compiled a list of links to sites that may be of interest to law students seeking academic support or career exploration.

And now, a bonus musical interlude:

"Caveat Emptor," Law Students

So, you are thinking about attending law school.  You do your "due diligence" by investigating schools, including reviewing placement statistics reported by the school. Three years later, $100,000 in debt and unemployed, you make a more critical examination of those placement statistics and find them to be . . . misleading, at best. Can you sue?

Some Cooley Law School graduates did - and lost. A U.S. District Court judge in Michigan dismissed the case on the grounds that no reasonable person could have relied on the placement statistics compiled and reported by the school.

With red flags waiving and cautionary bells ringing, an ordinary prudent person would not have relied on the statistics to decide to spend $100,000 or more [on law school tuition and fees].

Barring no holds, the opinion continues, Sometimes hope and dreams triumph over experience and common sense.  Nevertheless, it would be unreasonable for Plaintiffs to rely on two bare-bones statistics in deciding to attend a bottom-tier law school with the lowest admission standards in the country.  

Ouch! Although, the plaintiffs may have doomed their case by alleging in the amended complaint: Cooley publishes its own law-school rankings, which have been met with “great skepticism, if not outright ridicule, and no reputable academic or legal commentator takes it serious.”

The decision concludes, "The bottom line is that the statistics provided by Cooley and other law schools in a format required by the ABA were so vague and incomplete as to be meaningless and could not reasonably be relied upon.  But, as put in the phrase we lawyers learn early in law school–caveat emptor.

Law schools, apparently, should be placed in the category with used car salesmen. A prospective "buyer" should expect to be guarded against a healthy dose of "puffing."



Legal employment is a difficult market:

The Day They Took the Laptops

I wish I could ban laptops. But since business students are required to have laptops, I cannot rely on support from the school administration.

Law Students Sing Their Brutally Honest Views

So you want to go to law school . . . ? Or should you just buy a puppy?

See, also, Law School Musical and Law School Worryin' Blues.





Lawyers:


Puppies:

Fabulous Tale - The Hipster and the Lawyer

This post is a little bit outside the classroom.  But if you do any pre-law advising, formally or informally, this is a great story to share with your students from Will Meyerhofer, JD LMSW.

Two guys from my high school. One year apart.

Hipster…and Lawyer.

Hipster plays in jazz band with Lawyer. They have the same academic advisor, and fall into a casual friendship.

Hipster has trouble in school. He plays drums and guitar, but struggles to maintain the grades. It’s nothing to do with behavior – everyone likes him. The academic advisor does his best, but after failing a few courses, Hipster’s expelled. He ends up bouncing from school to school, and manages to graduate, then heads to a halfway-decent state university known for partying. He spends most of his year there jamming with his buddies and soon drops out. They start a rock band, smoke dope, wear tie-dye, collect Grateful Dead tapes and call each other “dude.”

Lawyer thinks it’s a shame Hipster got kicked out of school. His own grades are A’s. He wins academic prizes, a scholarship to study in England, and advanced placement at Harvard, where he graduates magna cum laude. He heads to a first-tier law school, and places near the top of his class.

An offer arrives from a white shoe firm.

Stop the tape.

We know what happens next:

Hipster grows a beer belly, loses the tie-dye and winds up working in a call center. He moves into his old bedroom at home and turns morose. His parents mumble excuses about dyslexia.

Lawyer makes partner and earns a million six. He purchases a loft in SoHo, a little country place upstate and a vintage Porsche. His parents seek opportunities to smugly mention his doings to their friends, who hate them for it.

Read on to find out what really happens...

Law School Dog Day Afternoon

We all know law school is tough.  It is nice to see the administrators at Yale Law School are willing to recognize that and help out their students. Students in need of some stress relief may check a "therapy dog" out of the library. Do you think Monty may be touted as a new recruiting tool among the nation's elite law students?

Monty, the Yale therapy dog; cute, huh?

Law Music Video - Law School Worryin' Blues

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is Law School Worryin' Blues by Melissa Mitchell. I'm assuming from her sweatshirt that Melissa is matriculating at Suffolk law School in Boston. I enjoy having students learn from experiencing the perspective of other students. Thanks and Kudos to Melissa. Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.

Law Music Video - Law School Musical

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is Law School Musical from Owen.  Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.

Warning! This video includes the word “sh_t.” But it is a reality dose that should stimulate some student self-examination and a flurry of appointments with pre-law advisors.

Thanks to Owen - song writer, video creator and ostensible U of Md Law Student.