Victory for Oak Brook College graduates in Minnesota Supreme Court

Oak Brook graduates will now have the ability to take the bar exam and practice law in Minnesota under the newly amended rules issued by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday.  Read the press release here; background information is available here.  Bravo to the group of petitioners, including Oak Brook alumni Micah Stanley and Valarie Wallin, who worked long and hard for this excellent new rule in Minnesota! 

Ribstein: "Law schools as borscht"

A recent report on the "lawyer surplus" has generated a lot of discussion on the blogosphere.  I think the most interesting commentary on this report is from Larry Ribstein:

The problem isn’t that we have too many law trained people and so should train fewer.  In fact, in our increasingly regulated economy, there is probably a gross undersupply of law-trained people. 

The problem is that regulation has fixed the nature of the product so it hasn’t adequately responded to shifts in demand.  The downward demand shifts have been produced by, most importantly, technology.  But demand is increasing for new kinds of law-trained people both at the low-cost end of service to the poor and middle class and the potentially high-profit end of producing new kinds of products and services (see Law’s Information Revolution).  Yet regulation has locked law schools into models that don’t serve these new needs.
In a real market, the supply side would change. As discussed in yesterday’s WSJ, if nobody’s buying borscht, make more horseradish.  

Read the whole post here. It seems that there is a never ending stream of articles on the need for law schools to innovate and adapt to changing markets.  Oak Brook College is a law school that thinks outside the box already and should be in a good place to respond to these developments. 

CA law school alternatives

This month's California Lawyer is running a feature story on the little-used option of Bar eligibility by reading the law:

The Path Rarely Taken

It is interesting, among other things, for what it says about law school debt, the realities of practice (v. academic preparation), and the potential success of an alternative approach.

The new world of legal practice: a second track for associates

Big law is changing the way it does business. Outsourcing is here - only this time, it's not to India, but to out-of-the-way cities in the U.S.

The New York Times reports on the trend for major law firms to have a second track for associates, a "non-partner" track.

The nation’s biggest law firms are creating a second tier of workers, stripping pay and prestige from one of the most coveted jobs in the business world.

Make no mistake: These are full-fledged lawyers, not paralegals, and they do the same work traditional legal associates do. But they earn less than half the pay of their counterparts — usually around $60,000 — and they know from the outset they will never make partner.

These career associates are being moved out from the major metropolitan centers of big law.

Orrick moved its back-office operations to a former metal-stamping factory here in 2002, and in late 2009 began hiring career associates. Costs of living are much cheaper in Wheeling than in San Francisco, Tokyo or its 21 other locations, saving $6 million to $10 million annually, according to Will A. Turani, Wheeling’s director of operations.

“It’s our version of outsourcing,” said Ralph Baxter, Orrick’s chief executive. “Except we’re staying within the United States.”

This is not necessarily a bad thing except in the sense that a lot of attorneys who hoped for big law jobs aren't getting what they planned on. But this new efficiency helps employ people; it's the market at work.

As I noted before on this blog, these changes in the legal profession will increase the pressure on law schools to take measures that will increase the value they offer to students. I believe this will lead to more schools explore non-traditional methods of education - like that which OBCL is pursuing.

SAVE THE DATE! Tahoe scheduled for Sept. 9-11, 2011

The Board of the OBCL Alumni Association is happy to announce the dates for this year's annual General Meeting and Retreat Friday-Sunday, September 9-11, 2011. All alumni and students—along with their families—are invited to attend.

Once again, the retreat will take place in scenic South Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada.

Here is a tentative schedule for the weekend:
Fri., Sept. 9: evening open house in alumni cabin
Sat., Sept. 10 (morning): 2011 General Meeting at Forest Suites Resort
Sat., Sept. 10 (afternoon): fellowship, site-seeing, and enjoying the beauty of Tahoe
Sat., Sept. 10 (evening): BBQ and fellowship in alumni cabin
Sun., Sept. 11: morning worship and fellowship time

Be on the lookout for further details and registration in the next few weeks!

Each year, the annual retreat proves a wonderful opportunity to be refreshed and encouraged—and informed about how to impact the future success of Oak Brook College and its alumni. Whether you've never missed a meeting or are debating coming for the first time, come out and help make the 2011 retreat our best yet!

Questions? We are happy to help! Email any questions to Emily Younger (obclaasecretary@gmail.com) or Mark Bigger (mjbigger@gmail.com).

See you there!

(photos courtesy of Heidi Miller)

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.