The debate over law school scholarships

The legal blogosphere has been buzzing with discussion of a recent New York Times article about the use and abuse of law school scholarships. A good roundup of the discussions is available here.

The Costs of Legal Education: How Much Does a Law Review Article Cost?

A recurring theme in discussions of legal education is the excessive cost associated with the traditional law school model. Here's the latest example:

What is the total cost of a law review article written by a tenured professor at a top-flight law school?

It's in the neighborhood of $100,000, according to Hofstra University School of Law professor Richard Neumann. His estimate factors in the salary and benefits for a tenured professor at a high-paying school who spends between 30% and 50% of his or her time on scholarship and publishes one article per year.

....

Neumann also pointed to research suggesting that 43% of law review articles are never cited by anyone. "At least a third of these things have no value," he said. "Who is paying for that? Students who will graduate with six figures of debt."

....

New York Law School Dean Rick Matasar urged legal educators to consider the possibility of new, lower-cost law schools that rely heavily on untenured faculty and adjuncts to teach rather than write law review articles.

"Students are saying, ‘I don't want to pay for it anymore,' " he said.

Of course, I am not about to discount the value of good scholarship (see here and here). I think it's essential, and should be part of the mission of a Christian law school, of Christian law professors, and yes, of Christian attorneys. (See, for example, David Skeel's plea for Christian legal scholarship here.) Should professors be paid enough to be able to pursue scholarship? Yes. But should students have to cover the cost of $100,000 law review articles that no one reads? That just isn't a sustainable economic model.

Judicial Clerkship Applications: A Brief Guide

What It Is

Most judges employ one or more law clerks who act as their research assistants, proof readers, sometimes opinion-drafters, and sometimes play other roles in assisting the judge. Clerkships are often one or two year positions, although some judges hire “career clerks.” Clerkships are commonly filled by recent law school graduates, and many judges see this as an opportunity to mentor young attorneys at the beginning of their careers (although attorneys who have been in practice for a while have been known to take time off from practice to spend a year or two clerking). As a current law clerk, I can personally affirm what I have heard from so many people before me: clerking is great experience, allowing the clerk to see the legal field from the other side of the bench, observe a lot of practitioners, deal with a wide variety of cases, hone research and writing skills, and learn from an experienced judge. It also looks great on a resume.

Clerkships are desirable, meaning that they are also highly competitive. There are always a lot of applicants for each position. Lately, it has only gotten worse. (See some of the reports from the last couple of years here, here, here, and here.) Given the current state of the legal job market, a lot of law school graduates as well as practicing attorneys are finding that t a year on a state or federal payroll, without worrying about billing hours, looks pretty appealing.

Application Procedures

So, what does it take to get a clerkship? There are tons of resources available on this subject, so in this post, I will give the bare-bones outline.

Good research and writing abilities are an absolute must. Good grades are usually a make-0r-break. And good recommendations, especially from people who the judge knows, are extremely helpful.

To apply for the job, the standard application requirements are:

• Cover letter;
• Resume;
• Law school transcripts;
• Legal writing sample showing your writing and research abilities and ability to craft an argument—for example, a law review article or comment, a sample brief from a legal writing class, or actual brief from an internship (but make sure to check with your boss first, to see if you can use the brief and if anything needs redacted);
• Letters of recommendation (most judges require three letters of recommendation).

This webpage from Indiana University School of Law has good advice on what you should have in your cover letter, writing sample, recommendation letters and other application materials. See also this site from George Mason.

Of course, it’s always good to double-check when you are ready to apply to see if the judge has any unique or different requirements.

Select where you are going to apply.

Timing

Be aware that you have to apply about one year in advance.

Federal Clerkships

The place to apply for federal clerkships is http://oscar.uscourts.gov/. Federal clerkships are by far the most competitive field (see here).

Many federal courts follow a hiring plan (see here), supposed to keep the hiring on a schedule so that the “hiring of law clerks will be done no sooner than the Fall of the third year of law school.” (Or, for those in part time programs like Oak Brook College, that would be the fall of the final year of law school.) Law school graduates may apply and be hired at any time. The key dates this year are:

Event	Fall 2011
First date when applications may be received [actually, this is the day that judges start looking at applications, which means you should have your applications on the OSCAR website by that date]:	Tuesday, September 6, 2011 (OSCAR release: 10:00 a.m. (EDT))
First date and time when judges may contact applicants to schedule interviews:	10:00 a.m. (EDT), Friday, September 9, 2011
First date and time when interviews may be held and offers made:	10:00 a.m. (EDT) Thursday, September 15, 2011

Remember, if you’re hired in September 2011, that means you start your job in August 2012.

Not all federal judges follow the hiring plan, however (it’s only “binding” on those who choose to participate). So try to double-check on the judges you’re applying with. The most well-known judges often hire earlier than the plan, on the theory that then they get the “top” clerk applicants before other judges start making offers (and more and more judges seem to be doing this – see here). This has created a lot of controversy and discussion, and searching online will turn up some information. See here, here, and here.

State Courts

State courts have quite a bit more variety in hiring timing than the federal courts. Most commonly, the judges at state courts hire before the federal courts do. That means that if you apply in state courts, you generally should have your applications in by June or July for the positions that would start over a year later (usually August or September). For information on state courts, visit www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS. For slightly dated but still useful reference on state hiring practices, see http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/judclerkguide2009.pdf.

Further Resources

Law Clerk Addict

The Vermont Law School Guide to Judicial Clerkships

Indiana University Clerkship Resources

George Mason Clerkship Guide

University of Virgina Clerkship Information

UVA Clerkship Blog

Slaves of some defunct...law professor?

At the OBCL Alumni Association Meeting, I did a short presentation encouraging OBCL students and alumni to pursue the writing and publishing of legal scholarship. Trying to make the point that scholars and scholarship have an important impact on the world, I quoted Keynes' old line that even those who think of themselves as eminently practical men are actually the slaves of some defunct economist - and, I added, the same applies to law schools and legal scholars. I was pleased to see the same point being made, with the same quote from Keynes, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal:

The British economist John Maynard Keynes famously observed, 75 years ago, that statesmen who think that they are pursuing policies of their own devise are really showing themselves to be "the slaves of some defunct economist." In America today statesmen are more likely to be the slaves of some defunct legal theorist. Our litigation-prone culture and complex legal structure—not least the matrix of overlapping state and federal powers—regularly translate questions of policy into questions of law. As a result, American law schools wield more social influence than any other part of the American university.

Read the rest here.

Alumni in the News IX

99A Oak Brook alum Sean Sangree receives Porterville’s Prosecutor of the Year Award.

Mike Reitz talking on the Dave Boze Show about the top ten reform ideas for public employee unions. Writing for the Freedom Foundation, Mike invokes the ghost of Democrat icon FDR for confirmation that public employees unions are bad public policy. Mike speaks to a loud crowd on the steps of the Washington Capitol in support of Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to limit collective bargaining by public employees.

99B Alum Chris Walsh is elected Chairman of the Fresno County Republican Party. This Fresno Bee article talks about his successful prosecution of a Fresno gang member resulting of a term of 60 to life.

Lael Weinberger recently wrote a law review article entitled "The Business Judgment Rule and Sphere Sovereignty" for Cooley Law Review. He also has a book chapter entitled, "Enforcing the Bill of Rights in the United States" which is being published in Jurisprudence of Liberty (LexisNexis 2011).

Professor Rucker to Testify in Ethics Hearing

Guest post by Rebekah Millard (03B)

Some OBCLers may recall Professor Rucker telling the story of a prosecutor, Phill Kline, who was unafraid to stand for the rule of law, paid dearly for his stand, but was blessed by God despite the best efforts of his political enemies. That story continues this week in Topeka, Kansas, where Kline is the subject of a state ethics investigation.

In a Kansas State Ethics Committee hearing that began earlier this week, state Disciplinary Administrator Stanton Hazlett has (at the direction of the Kansas Supreme Court) targeted Former Attorney General Phill Kline for potential ethical misconduct concerning his prosecution of late-term abortion providers in Kansas. It appears that Professor Rucker, formerly Kline's chief of staff, will be playing a continuing part in this story as he testifies this week at the hearing.

Here is a little background:

Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General (2002-2006), was the first and only prosecutor ever to succeed in obtaining abortion records from Planned Parenthood and late term abortionist George Tiller. Despite having one of the strictest late-term abortion laws in the U.S. (drafted and enacted thanks in part to Kline's previous tenure in the Kansas House of Representatives), due to a lack of prosecutions, Kansas had remained the nation’s capital for late-term abortions.

When Kline’s investigation of Planned Parenthood became public, Kansas Governor Sebelius (now head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) and the President of Planned Parenthood announced a new political initiative to spend massive amounts of money to defeat Kline. Governor Sebelius also used her authority over two Kansas agencies to thwart Kline’s investigation and used her appointment authority to pack the Kansas Supreme Court with justices who would work to block the investigation.

With this political machine in play, Phill Kline was defeated in his bid for re-election as Attorney General in 2006, but was elected as Johnson County District Attorney, which allowed him to retain jurisdiction over the Planned Parenthood investigation. As a result, a district court judge found probable cause that crimes were committed at Planned Parenthood. In October 2007 Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri was charged with 107 criminal charges, including 23 felonies.

In 2008, Kline lost his bid for reelection as Johnson County DA (some would say due to the fact that his exoneration in an ethics investigation was never reported).

The current ethics investigations could result in censure or loss of law license for Mr. Kline, and, certainly might lead to the derailing of the case against Planned Parenthood.

Among the “ethics” violations with which Kline has been charged is the accusation that Mr. Kline’s strong personal anti-abortion beliefs interfered with his judgment. (Are we to gather that if a prosecutor is adamantly opposed to rape, for instance, his prosecution of rape would present a conflict?)

How to help:

Pray for God to bring justice and vindication to a man who has faithfully and professionally fulfilled his calling to uphold and enforce the law. Pray for wisdom and protection for Professor Rucker as he engages in this ongoing controversy. Pray that other state prosecutors will be emboldened to enforce the law—that the rule of law may be strengthened throughout our land.

_____________________

Find out more at Phill Kline's web site, Planned Parenthood Corruption.

Bakersfield Bar Prep

12 graduates of OBCL are in Bakersfield doing bar prep for next week's bar exam. Most of them have been putting in long days as they went through two simulated full bar exams and hours of discussion and private study.

Paul Johnson is caught looking at his cell phone during essays. He is likely to face censure from the group during a lunch hour meeting at Moo's Creamery. Luke Bowman studies on with a Bible verse from his namesake in the background as Josiah Heagy and Christiana Holcomb demonstrate the concentration that makes Bakersfield OBCL Bar Passage rates second to none.

Justin Kelly, Ryan Bedford, and Jason Lau have come from all over the world to study in the Oak Brook Mecca of Bakersfield, California.

Please keep bar takers in your prayers this week as they get ready to increase our bar passage rate.