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Selective Attention
February 20th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Want to see why it’s more difficult to multi-task than you think? Take a look at this video. It’s silly, but it shows how limited our attention is. Our brains aren’t video cameras that record everything within hearing and seeing distance; instead, we focus selectively on parts of the landscape. Other events–like all of those changes in the video–escape our notice.
This lesson is important for students who think they can follow a law school class while texting, reading for the next class, or (horrors) reviewing another professor’s law review submission. If their attention is focused on one of those activities, they will miss much of what happens in the classroom.
The phenomenon, however, also has implications for professors.
Summer Employment
February 18th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) recently announced “an encouraging view of law firm recruiting,” pointing to the fact that “the average size of law firm [summer] programs has nearly recovered to pre-recession levels.” That statement conflicts with accounts I have heard from students, so I looked more closely at the NALP report.
It turns out that the average size of 2015 summer programs reported to NALP matches that for programs reported to the organization for the summer of 2007: Reporting firms in both years averaged thirteen second-years in their summer programs. The number of firms reporting to NALP, however, has declined dramatically since 2007.
In 2007, 425 firms told NALP that they had employed a total of 5,379 second-year students in their summer programs. That works out to an average of 12.7 students per program. Last summer 335 firms reported a total of 4,329 second-year summer associates. That’s 12.9 students per summer program–but it’s also 1,050 students fewer than in 2007. What should we make of this? Do these figures really give “an encouraging view of law firm recruiting”? *
Education and Employment
February 6th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is once again considering amendments to Standards 304 and 305 in order to permit externship credit for paid work. As I have written before, I support that change. When granting academic credit, the quality of the experience counts–not whether the student was paid for the work.
I have heard about unpaid externships that offered very little educational content. Conversely, I know of terrific externship placements (with both nonprofit and for-profit employers) that required students to choose between academic credit and pay under our current rules. I see no clear line between pay and educational value. Nor does a black letter rule seem appropriate for a learned profession: Surely ethical educators can determine which externships deserve academic credit.
The debate, meanwhile, raises a more troubling issue. If education and paid employment are incompatible, as some comments on the ABA proposal suggest, then we have lost an essential element of our professionalism. It’s possible that we have lost that element, but I think it’s worth reflecting on the issue.
2016 State of the Legal Market
January 24th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Georgetown Law’s Center for the Study of the Legal Profession has released its 2016 Report on the State of the Legal Market. The data-driven study of mid-sized and large law firms repeats many of the same findings that researchers have reported since the Great Recession. The news, unfortunately, is that there is nothing new. In 2015, as in other recent years, demand for law firm services “was essentially flat,” productivity among lawyers at those firms declined, and realization rates “plummeted.” (A realization rate “is the percentage of standard billing rates that is actually collected.”)
In sum, “2015 will go down as another overall lackluster year in terms of law firm financial performance.” Yikes. What does that mean for law schools? (more…)
Experiential Education and Bar Passage
January 22nd, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
Robert Kuehn has written an excellent post about clinical courses and bar passage. He notes that Erica Moeser, President of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, suggested in print that declining bar passage rates might stem in part from the rise of experiential learning in law schools. NCBE’s Director of Testing and Research has made the same claim, noting that: “There has also been a trend toward incorporating non-core courses and clinical experiences into the law school curriculum. These, too, can take students’ time away from learning the core concepts that are tested on the bar examination.”
When Kuehn contacted Moeser to ask if she knew about any empirical research supporting this purported connection, she admitted that she knew of none. Nor did her testing staff. (more…)
» Read the full text for Experiential Education and Bar Passage
An Influential Person
January 21st, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
I’m proud to announce that my co-moderator, Kyle McEntee, has been named to the National Jurist‘s list of the twenty-five most influential people in legal education. Kyle has appeared on the list every year since the list debuted in 2012. He also remains the only person ever named to the list without holding a position as dean or professor at a law school. That’s quite a run!
Congratulations to Kyle, along with the others named to this list.
“Little Staff Attorneys”
January 21st, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
At the AALS meeting, a friend of mine (and tenured professor) stood chatting with a few tenured colleagues from other schools. Conversation turned to work that another professor had done in a clinic. “Yeah,” said one of the professors, impressed, “and they didn’t even have a little staff attorney to do all the work.” My friend protested this derogatory reference to staff attorneys, and the professor apologized, but the remark was telling.
This is how all too many tenured professors think of clinical work, clinical professors, and staff attorneys; the same attitude applies to legal writing professors. This work, we assume, is simplistic and doesn’t merit our full attention. It can be done by “little” people. (more…)
Peking University
January 18th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
In August 2012, the ABA’s Council of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar decided not to accredit any law schools located outside the United States. Many observers assumed that action would put an end to Peking University’s upstart enterprise, a School of Transnational Law. Instead, the school, popularly known as “STL,” is thriving.
Philip McConnaughay and Colleen Toomey, STL’s Dean and Associate Dean, explain the school’s success in a recent paper. Their insights are important for anyone seeking to understand the globalization of law practice and legal education. The story of Peking University and STL also offers a cautionary tale about American protectionism.
Harvard for Free?
January 17th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
I rarely vote my ballot for the Harvard Board of Overseers but I may have to do so this year. A group of candidates is running on a two-plank platform: (1) make tuition free for all undergraduates, and (2) disclose information about admissions decisions that would reveal (among other things) the role of race and legacy status in admissions.
Whoa, those are two goals rarely paired. The candidates are similarly diverse. One member of the slate is Ralph Nader, who is known for his far-left views. The other four publicly oppose affirmative action. What should we make of this?
AALS Internships
January 17th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt
The Association of American Law Schools wants to employ several law students, who will “work on research and writing projects related to [the Association’s] mission of improving legal education.” In particular, students will have the opportunity to work on projects related to “the value of a U.S. legal education” and “financial aid for law students.” There’s just one catch: These are unpaid internships.
There’s something deeply sad about unpaid student interns working to showcase the value of their education. Even law schools pay their research assistants. H/t to Outside the Law School Scam.
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