|
|
By Casebook Sherpa, on January 5th, 2010
Today, I’m reading this interesting debate over at the New York Times website, asking the question whether MBA students are “students” or “consumers.” I wouldn’t say the arguments made are earth shattering or particularly insightful. But the question posed is an interesting, albeit purely theoretical, one to me. So pardon the completely impractical discussion, but feel free to opine away with me…
Are law students “students” or “consumers”?
Students who learn or consumers who purchase a good?
Students being trained to join an institution or consumer viewed simply as a cost and profit center?
Students to whom a teacher’s duty is owed or consumers who are simply economic actors and entitled only to having certain material information disclosed?
My gut reaction is to say that we are more student than consumer. In spirit – the very heart of a legal education, the animating spirit behind it – we are most certainly “students” in the classical sense of the word. Learning how to think and reason and question. Of course, we don’t really learn what we need to learn for the real world. We learn, perhaps, how to stay afloat in the “real world” as a lawyer but not how to actually swim. The consumer moniker, in this sense, is helpful to frame law school as a place to serve the law student and provide the very best product possible with the market rewarding innovation, excellence, and return on investment. (However, I think it’s fair to question whether the supply and demand principles of any market have applied to law schools or lawyer salaries at all for decades.)
But I think the fairer metaphor is that we’re more an investor in something. In return for our vast sum of money and sweat equity we are promised a spot in a relatively lucrative, stable, challenging career path. Law school administrators and faculty are officers of this undertaking charged with maximizing profit and reducing costs. Or perhaps they are fiduciaries of a trust we place in “law school,” a risk we absorb by enrolling, and the trustees are, consequently, obligated to ensure the return we expect is relatively likely to be realized. Not guaranteed, but that those in a position to take care of our investment are acting with our best interests in mind and that the information they provide and we rely on is reliable, transparent, and devoid of false (fraudulent?) promises of any future, guaranteed earnings.
On this side of graduation – with roughly 16 months until that glorious day – I have serious misgivings about how this enterprise will turn out. In my more honest moments with myself and others (often after a slug of whiskey or two), I find myself bitterly lamenting the work load, job prospects, and, most of all, the seemingly endless stream of stories about disenchanted attorneys writing about “How to use your J.D. to fix up old cars” or some such alternative career for an attorney.
Yet, I’m hopeful as well. Law school has enabled me to take charge of my career and be challenged in ways that I never have before. Intrinsically, I think it’s been a worthwhile investment. Kind of like hol Whether it yields real world, external returns remains to be seen. But I think they’re far more likely to be realized with a J.D. than without it.
So… are we students or consumers? Or something else, like an investor or stakeholder? Are you bullish or bearish on the long-term prospects of your investment?
By Dr. Bombay, on January 3rd, 2010
Happy New Semester! I’m sure it will be far better than spending time with your family and friends. Here’s some poorly modified verse for motivation.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our transfer students.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a student
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of class blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest Student.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of class-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Cardozas,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their pen for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to study. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in America, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for GPA, Degrees, and Future Employment!’
By Casebook Sherpa, on December 28th, 2009
The Fight the Hypo crew has scattered to various places for the holidays. I’m back from the Philadelphia suburbs after a wonderful trip to see my family. Over the last 2-and-a-half weeks since my last final I have completely forgotten about law school, student loans, and Fight the Hypo. Well, except for the day last week when we got our Criminal Procedure grades. (Seriously. Exam was on 12/7 and we had grades within 10 days. Many kudos to our professor on that one.)
Now the wait for our other grades continues. It has always been strange to me that you start a new semester without having any idea how you did in the previous one. You are paying for a new semester without ever getting an ROI on the semester you just paid for. (Or, rather, the semester you just mortgaged your future on.) So, 1Ls out there wondering when you’ll see grades, just let it go. It might be awhile.
The new year brings new possibilities. This next semester sees yours truly with just one class, the 4-credit Commercial Transactions. The rest of my credit load is taken up by Clinic (6 credits) and Law Journal Editing (1 credit). I’ll have time demands from the journal and from my article, on which I’m STILL working, more than a year later.
In terms of resolutions, I’m always one to have delusions of grandeur that fizzle out by March. For this year, it’s simple – lose 20 pounds. Some more regular exercise and a diet plan are all that I’m counting on this. No “exercise every morning for 90 minutes” or “stop eating all sweets for a year” or “cut out all beer from my diet” or whatever other things. 20 pounds in a year through a more active lifestyle and relatively flexible diet plan that is manageable. That won’t get me all the way back to my athletic peak days. For that I’d need to reverse the clock about 12 years and drop 30 pounds. But it will put me pretty close and I’m sure will make me feel a hell of a lot better about myself. I’ll try to blog about this now and then.
In terms of things I’m thankful for:
- My wonderfully patient wife. Mrs. Sherpa is a remarkable woman and person. I was reminded of this during our car ride to Pennsylvania. It’s easy to forget how long it’s been since you really connected with a spouse as you go through law school. I mean really connected. You know, the kind of talks that are difficult and wonderful and joyful and gut wrenching all at the same time. Her schedule and mine have been so hectic this last year that we haven’t really done that much. This Christmas break has been a great time for that.
- Plenty. We have relatively good health, loving families, great friends, a nice home, and stable jobs. It is not lost on us how blessed by abundance we are right now. We only pray that prudence and planning can help us prepare for when the blessings look less like times of plenty and more like times of less – seasons that are no less a blessing, but can be much more difficult to endure.
- My grandparents. I am blessed enough to have three of them still alive. I learn more from them and about them (and, as a result, about myself) every year. I’m thankful for every moment I get to spend with them.
- My summer job. I never reported here that I snagged a Summer Associate position with a firm in the DC area. I’m pretty stoked about it, though have played it down as I figure out scheduling with my current job (to which I intend to return next fall) and to see how things play out with friends who are still looking. We’ll have a few posts about this in the New Year along with some thoughts on spring recruiting and post mortem on fall recruiting.
Anyway, our best to you and yours during this holiday season. We hope that you enjoyed a very merry Christmas and will ring in the new year in true law student style – joined by good friends for more than a few drinks BUT not too much bitching about school.
By Casebook Sherpa, on December 9th, 2009
Catholic University Law School Professor, Robert Destro, was quoted in this New York Times piece about the prospects for e-textbooks in the classroom…
Electronic textbooks may one day offer a convenient way to study, said Ms. Epps, literally lightening a student’s load. That’s already happened at Catholic University of America in Washington, where Robert A. Destro, a professor of law, and his students are testing a version of the eDGe. Professor Destro has 13 textbooks on his device.
“It’s wonderful not to have to lug those books around,” he said.
I’d be all for having an electronic way to store and read my casebooks, so long as it actually reduces overall cost and allows for adequate note-taking or copying and pasting of text into my notes.
By Casebook Sherpa, on December 1st, 2009
Notwithstanding our concerns about exams, we thought we’d drop a quick line about the Tiger situation.
By now you’ve all seen or heard something about the Tiger Woods saga. Early last Friday morning he ran his SUV into a tree in his neighborhood. At first it was reported he was in serious condition. Then he had been treated and released for minor facial lacerations. Originally it looked like his wife, Elin, ran to the SUV smashed the back window with a golf club and pulled the world’s greatest (and semi-conscious) golfer to safety. TMZ subsequently reported that the injuries were caused by Elin in a domestic dispute from which Tiger was fleeing… and, well, you get the idea. Read more here and here (the latter links from TMZ is particularly interesting)
Where we start to care about this story from a legal perspective is the fact that Tiger repeatedly refuses to speak with the police to provide a statement clarifying the events of that evening. He is perfectly within his rights to do that. From all I can tell there is no formal criminal investigation, Tiger has not been detained, no charges have been filed. If he doesn’t want to speak with the police, he doesn’t have to. And even if he does speak to them, he is not under any obligation to answer questions he doesn’t want to answer and would be free to leave (or kick them out) at any time.
The police’s interest is several-fold, I’d imagine. First, Tiger shouldn’t receive special treatment (and is likely being more aggressively pursued given this concern). Second, if this is actually a case of domestic battery (by one or both of them), there could be a threat of death or serious bodily injury to one spouse, to their children, or all of the above. And, third, if we’re looking at a potential divorce, evidence of domestic battery is significant in determining custody and other such issues.
But why wouldn’t he do it just to clear the air? Assuming for a moment that Tiger is not the intensely private, control freak we all know him to be, one big reason could be Florida’s aptly-named sunshine laws.
Continue reading Of Tiger and Florida’s Sunshine Laws
By Casebook Sherpa, on November 30th, 2009
We here at Fight the Hypo, along with most law students across the country, are in the throes of exam preparation. Though our posts have picked up over the last few weeks, expect them to be sporadic until December 12th or so, when we’re done with those damned infernal things (DITs) exams.
For my part, I’m finding my efforts to cut down my 80-page Criminal Procedure outline to a manageable length. I guess it’s not a big deal as the exam is open-book, but I’ve found that those exams are often traps that require even more care in studying and outlining. It’s easy to assume that they will be easy because you have everything in front of you. But if you don’t know precisely where to look and how to fit concepts together, you’ll have a very painful experience.
Anyhow. We wish you the very best on your exams.
By Casebook Sherpa, on November 25th, 2009
This post at Brazen Careerist purported to offer readers “criteria” for evaluating whether to go to law school. It’s a nice read, but it doesn’t offer a single criterion, really. And since there are record numbers of people taking the LSAT, I figured it was worth trying to find some criteria on which to base a sensible decision about attending law school.
The most useful line is: The question I am face (sic) with, which anyone who is introspective and applying to law school is faced with is: is this the best use of my talents?
That’s certainly helpful to consider when faced with any career or life decision. But, in this context, I think a better (though perhaps just as generally unuseful) question is: what do I truly love to do?
Obviously, we need to be more specific. So, if you were giving advice to an undergrad, or someone pondering a second career, who was considering whether law school is the right move, what do you tell them?
Here are a few of my thoughts (criteria?). I’m no career counselor. Heck, I’m not even a lawyer yet. So take them with a grain of salt and add your own in the comments.
Continue reading Criteria for Choosing Law School
|
|
Popular Posts