Letter to the ABA
For the past few weeks I’ve been involved with an effort to submit a letter to the ABA’s Task Force on Legal Education, signed by a broad array of legal academics. Spearheaded originally by former Duke dean Paul Carrington and Deborah Rhode of Stanford, I’m pleased to say we put together a group that includes the incoming president of the Association of American Law Schools, seven former presidents of the AALS, and federal judge Richard Posner. The Wall Street Journal has a story on the letter here (most of the story is behind a pay wall).
The letter, including the complete list of signatories, can be read here.
Great to see that one of the signatories is Jesse Choper, best law professor I ever had and the absolute master of teaching through the Socratic method.
I see Prof. Leiter has not gotten around to signing yet . . .
I’d click the link. but I can’t read Swedish.
…oh, sorry, ABA?
I wonder how Leiter feels about Posner signing that letter?
Very happy to see Jim Chen on the side of the righteous.
But, wait, I thought you were the pariah of the legal profession? How is it that so many people cosigned a letter with you? Shouldn’t they have fled once they realized you were associated with the project? At least, that’s what I understand from Leiter’s last update…
A give a lot of credit to Posner in particular. I wonder if he’s planning to write a longform piece about the legal education crisis.
That’ll be one of the five books he cranks out this year.
It’s interesting to see how this concern transcends the political divide.
he did make a post about it on Slate.
you mean this accusation isn’t true???
” it’s the same reason almost no one signed his petition for law school transparency: his colleagues consider him a creep and untrustworthy, and so they just steer clear. “
Oh, you know, it’s just that quest for a transgressive frisson that keeps some people coming back again and again to untrustworthy creeps. Nostalgie de boue, kind of thing.
Meanwhile Nice Guys like Leiter just can’t get any play. It’s so unfair!
BitchesLaw professors just prefer bad boys, at least until they turn 30, at which point they become old and disgusting and expect the Brian Leiters of the world toraise their kidsmake weirdly specific lists abut them.“Almost no one” is any set of individuals without Brian Leiter.
Incorrect. “Almost no one” is any set that was close to getting Leiter, but missed the mark.
Would it be fair to assume anything in particular about the names not on this list? I see (almost) none from my own school.
So, something I’ve been pondering… Is there any connection between the end of ITLSS and the fact that it ended a few days after the VAP post? I recall that there were a lot of vitriolic attacks against LawProf in the comments and now there’s good evidence that something was afoot at TFL with comments.
The end of ITLSS seems to abrupt.
In my opinion, most lawyers will never earn their full value in income working for an employer. I don’t know of any studies or surveys confirming this, but, from my observation and experience, most self employed lawyers make more money, and live a higher quality of life, than employed lawyers. The hurdle to becoming sufficiently competent to be self employed is not that high. A year of full time apprenticeship would be sufficient for most lawyers, in my opinion.
It seems to me that the revival of a robust apprenticeship tradition in the legal profession, coupled with a penalty free student loan abatement option long enough to afford a self employed lawyer to establish an economically viable practice, is one way to make a legal education and the choice of the law as a profession, more economically feasible.
Steve Diamond just can’t stop:
http://stephen-diamond.com/?p=4676
His thoughts about your letter…