Alumni in the News VII - Continued

Matt McReynolds made the front page of the Sacramento Bee for successfully defending a pastor's first amendment right to share his faith.

Alumni in the News VII

Oak Brooker Timmy Teepell is mentioned in Sports Illustrated. Governor Jindal signs into a law a bill to allow homeschoolers to participate in public school athletic activities and says that it should be called the “Timmy Teepell” bill. Take that, Timmy Tebow!

Carrying on the Oak Brookers and sports theme, Mike Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation helps interview Pete Carroll, former USC coach and current coach of the Seattle Seahawks on a local radio show.

Mike Reitz and Jonathan Bechtle discuss, among other things, if free speech applies to honking your horn in their entertaining monthly podcast.

Meredith Turney writes in Townhall on Milton Friedman’s enduring legacy.

Bryan Tyson bravely tries to make boring Georgia Supreme Court cases interesting on the Georgia Supreme Court blog.

Write Mark Bigger at mjbigger@juno.com on interesting stories involving Oak Brook grads or students.

Outsourcing lawyers?

"Where have all the lawyers gone?," Larry Ribstein asks in a recent Forbes article. His answer: "To India." Ribstein predicts that the international competition will force the American bar to change the way it does things.

"The licensing requirement restricts the supply of lawyers in the U.S. and, of course, raises the price. Even lawyers performing the most routine services must pay $100,000 or so for a legal education, plus three years of their time and thousands for a bar exam and bar review course. No wonder legal services are priced out of the reach of much of America even as legal regulation plays an increasing role in our lives.

"In the long run, for better or worse, this regulatory structure will not survive global competition. It is threatened not only by India and other outsourcing venues, but also by loosening restrictions on law practice in the U.K., Europe and Australia, which now has the first publicly traded law firm. Hedge funds already are providing outside financing for litigation. The capital markets offer the legal services industry a glittering pile of cash for remodeling. Even lawyers must see that licensing laws keep them from competing in the world that is rather than protecting them from competition in the world that was."

This has important implications for legal education as well. The legal academy nationwide will be forced to investigate new methodologies that cut costs without sacrificing quality, and I imagine that distance learning will come to play an increasingly important role.

More on the cost of legal education

A recent study sponsored by the ABA raises a number of concerns with the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Their number one concern was the cost in legal education:

The current methodology tends to increase the costs of legal education for students. As a recent study by the United States Government Accountability Office has suggested, the U.S. News methodology arguably punishes a school that provides a high quality education at an affordable cost. Because low-cost law schools report a lower expenditure per student than higher cost schools, it is difficult for low tuition schools to top the rankings. A school that works hard to hold down costs may indeed find itself falling in the rankings relative to a peer that increases tuition above the rate of inflation each year.

U.S. News responded to the criticism by pointing out that rising costs can be blamed on the still-rising demand for legal education: “Concerning law school tuition costs, . . . there's basic economics of demand being greater than supply, which is one key reason why law schools can keep raising their tuition.” U.S. News adds: “[I]t's very easy for the ABA and law school academics to blame U.S. News for many of the negative practices at law schools. Law schools and the ABA need to take far more direct responsibility for these trends.”

Whoever is to blame – and there would seem to be enough for everyone to share – it’s probably beyond controversy that law school in the U.S. is excessively expensive. Many law students who graduate and face the difficult legal job market are tens of thousands of dollars in debt. While I would be the last person to say that you should choose a law school based on cost alone, we have to acknowledge that the cost of law school is an important factor to weigh when evaluating your options. On this point, you would be very hard pressed to top Oak Brook College of Law (see this previous post).

Why Come to Tahoe? (Part 2)

(Check out Part 1 here!)

Registrations are beginning to roll in for our Alumni weekend in gorgeous South Lake Tahoe on September 10-12, 2010. I'm excited to see so many that are planning to come, but I can't help but think that some of you are still on the fence. So - why would you come to Tahoe?

Here are a few answers from those that have experienced Tahoe:

The value of spending time with other Christians who have similar goals is immeasurable. The annual Alumni Association meetings have provided the opportunity to invest in an organization dedicated to supporting and continuing the mission of OBCL in the lives of alumni and current students, and the fellowship of Christians who are lawyers (and among whom you do not have to explain why you went to OBCL). There is a camaraderie among the OBCL family of alumni that you will find nowhere else. - Anita P.

My wife and I both found the 2009 Alumni Association meeting to be extremely edifying. We had just left our extensive network of friends on the east coast and had moved to California about 3 months before the meeting. It was a real encouragement to get together and fellowship with other Oak Brook graduates and their families....I highly recommend attending the Alumni Association meeting. It is a great time of fellowship, refreshment, and a great way to make sure that the school will be around for decades to come. - John O.

So don't delay! Register online today!

Taking Scholarship to the Next Level

Lots of lawyers and law students have good ideas. It's a much harder task to take those good ideas and put them on paper. It's harder even than that to take your paper, fine-tune and polish it, and get it published in a legal journal.

OBCL Alumni Lael Weinberger and Bob Renaud did just that with their article entitled "Spheres of Sovereignty: Church Autonomy Doctrine and the Theological Heritage of the Separation of Church and State." As if that wasn't good enough, their article is now going to the next level - the citation.

Getting cited in any article is an achievement, but getting cited by a noted constitutional scholar is above and beyond that. And getting cited by former 10th Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell, who fits all of the above categories - well, you just don't get too much higher than that. So with that in mind, check out footnote 1 to Judge McConnell's paper entitled "Non-State Governance."

Congrats, Bob and Lael!

Board Update

Even with the craziness of summer upon us, the OBCLAA Board is steadily moving forward with preparations for the upcoming Annual Meeting in lovely Lake Tahoe -- and a slew of other projects!

Here are some highlights from the last Board meeting on June 15:

* Preparations for the 2010 Annual Meeting in Tahoe are in full swing. Brandon Stallings has set up a Facebook event page dedicated to the meeting. If you have any pictures from last year's meeting that you would like to contribute to the page, message Brandon. And be sure to RSVP!

For the first time ever, a hard copy of the announcement has been mailed out to all alumni, and online registration is available here. Now would be a great time to RSVP!!

As always, this conference will be a memorable time of refreshing, refocusing, and reconnecting with the OBCL community. If you've never made it to an Alumni Association event, coming to Tahoe would be a great first step! Don't forget to RSVP!!!

* Congratulations are in order to Charissa Sonntag, who will be getting married later this summer. Sadly for the Board, however, Charissa will be not be seeking reelection as the National Association and Accreditation Committee chairman. If you are interested or know someone who would be interested in serving in this position, please let the Board know.

* Adam York reported that the Student Relations Committee is working to supply mentors to all students preparing for the Bar exam. The Committee is also in the planning stages of establishing regional coordinators to get the word about OBCL out to local homeschool groups, debate clubs, and other potential sources for future lawyers.

* Paralegal Liaison Crystal Kinz asked for the Board's input on a plan to publish contributions from Paralegal Program graduates on the Alumni blog. The Board enthusiastically approved, and hopes to be adding additional paralegal content soon.

* The Board approved issuing funding to cover publication of new publicity brochures for the school. The old brochures had become outdated, most notably with their listing of old amounts for tuition.

This year promises to be the OBCLAA's most productive year yet! If you're not already, make 2010 your year to become involved.

(Oh, and remember to RSVP.)