Let's see. I am walking down a long hallway in the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. I am wearing a lanyard with a name tag hanging from it. Lots of people want to give me advice. Everybody seems young. Is this a dream? Am I forever cursed to relive the Faculty Recruitment Conference in my dreams the way I do the "unstudied-for exam?"
Interesting article in Lawdragon: Storming the Castle, by Katrina Dewey:
Cross-posted on TaxProf Blog.For 200 years, the pursuit of an education in the law has caused otherwise intelligent people to behave badly. Very, very badly. ...
[H]is bout of affliction at the hands of legal education caused Turow to press for changes so that others would not be similarly afflicted by what we will call Blackstone’s disease, generally identified in Stages 1 through 5, beginning with study for admission to the bar and ending in death. Always death. Over the years, a growing phalanx of practitioners cried ever more loudly that change was needed but were consistently met with a call over the castle wall: Hark, what sullen fellow (who, we might guess is lacking in intelligence and erudition) goes there?
Lawdragon spent the past six months studying the state of legal education in the United States and discovered that a revolution has occurred. Not surprisingly, dollars played a major role, specifically the salaries commanded by fledgling attorneys with no clue how to practice law. “Forget the Harvard and Yale head in the clouds types, give me six good, nonpampered graduates of Loyola or Miami,” had become an all-too-familiar refrain.
Dollars also mattered in the form of donations from alumni, many of whom still bore the marks of the lash. It’s one thing to love the church, another to support the catechism. And thus came reformation, fueled as well by common sense, competition from other disciplines, the oversaturation of ivory tower professors rewarded for arcania rather than teaching and a world of unlimited information that reduces to present time the value of precedent. ...
“The fundamental revolution in legal education is that even the elite law schools are beginning to recognize law schools should be run for the students and not the faculty,” Turow said in a recent interview. “It’s been a hard time coming.” ...
“To the extent that ‘One L’ was the first voice really raised that this can be better for students,” that’s gratifying. The revolution did not just crystallize schools’ primary focus as educating future practicing lawyers, it also changed how the law is taught — and perhaps even the law itself. The revolution found its foothold at schools that needed something instead of a top tier ranking to attract students. Schools established clinics offering real experience with real clients, founded interdisciplinary courses and brought in a range of practitioners who taught under the title adjunct.
Hat Tip to Danny AND WTPRN for the V-Link.
Special Note: A U.S. Marshall by the name of James admitted to Danny Riley that there is no law.
Ruby Ridge Survivor Weaver Now Being StalkedInteresting article in today's Wall Street Journal: Law Schools Also Ranked by Blogs Now, by Amir Efrati:
Since they first began appearing annually in 1990, U.S. News's law-school rankings have been the go-to list for students venturing into the field. While the magazine's business-school rankings face competition from the likes of BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal, the magazine has essentially had a monopoly in the law-school realm. But its list has also been heavily criticized by deans and in scores of law-journal articles. Among the complaints from prospective students: In terms of employment, the survey focuses on whether grads are employed but not where they are employed. Flipping burgers would count. In the last two years, at least a dozen upstart Web sites, academic papers and blogs have stepped in with surveys of their own to feed the hunger for information on everything from the quality of the faculty to what a school's diploma might be worth to future employers.
The WSJ article links to nine alternatives to the U.S. News law school rankings, including the article I co-authored with Bernie Black, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006), and the web site I publish with Brian Leiter and Joe Hodnicki, Leiter's Law School Rankings. The WSJ article contains this nifty chart comparing the Top 10 law schools under these various metrics [click on chart to enlarge]:
[Cross-posted on TaxProf Blog.]
Bill Henderson (Indiana) notes that the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar has, for the first time, posted all of the data from the 2008 ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools on its statistics website in downloadable Excel spreadsheet format. Kudos to Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.) (Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings) and Tom Bell (Chapman) (Reforming the USN&WR Law School Rankings; ABA to Make Law School Data More Accessible), whose advocacy of this long overdue reform apparently convinced tha ABA to take this acton.
Cross-posted on TaxProf Blog.
Irwin Schiff is currently a political prisoner. The criminal Judge presiding over his case; Judge Dawson is on the record saying the following:
Shipment Activity Location Date & TimeIn our article, What Law Schools Can Learn from Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, 82 Texas L. Rev. 1483, 1547 n.335 (2004), we noted that in importing the MoneyBall model to the law school world, "the authority wielded by Billy Beane as general manager is more akin to that of a university provost, with a university president in the role of baseball owner and a law school dean in the role of baseball manager. However, we focus in this Review Essay on deans, both to limit our inquiry to law schools rather than to university administration generally and, frankly, because 'Dean Beane' sounds catchier than 'Provost Beane.'” Gary Becker has some thoughts on what makes a good university provost:
To be sure, that many persons with exceptional analytical abilities fail at top leadership positions in large organizations may largely reflect the fact that failure, or at least mediocrity, is more common than success among heads of large organizations, whether it be government, business, or academic institutions. I am confident of that claim with respect to universities, the organizations I know best, where inspired leadership has not been common. A major reason for this must surely be the great difficulty in predicting how men or women would perform when they get promoted within an organization, or when they move in a lateral way from one organization to another.
The skills, for example, to succeed as provost of a university involves an ability to deal effectively with professors, to evaluate recommendations for professorial promotions and outside appointments, and to handle related faculty matters. Many provosts use success at that position to become candidates for presidents of universities, but the talents required to succeed as president are quite different. Presidents have to raise money, deal with businessmen, foundations, and legislatures, appoint deans, and make other basic administrative and organizational decisions. How well someone performed as provost gives some but limited insight into how well they would perform at the different tasks required of a president. This is even truer when they become president at a university different from the ones where they were provost.
Cross-posted on TaxProf Blog.
I asked if they would be releasing the full footage of the press conference held at Ed and Elaine Browns house. The response to this question was “I am not sure.” Just so you all understand I’ve seen this press conference in full it was absolutely amazing and chalked full of pertinent information the public must see in order to understand the full ramifications of what Is truly going on here.
What I would like to do now is give out the phone number for WMUR-TV so that you can call them, and help them to be sure of what they will be doing with the full footage of Ed & Elaine Browns press conference. Now, now people lets be civil and respectable, and last but not least you should all be calling. This number is toll free there is no excuse as to why you cannot call and inquire.
WMUR-TV Broadcast Center
100 South Commercial Street
Manchester, NH 03101
1-800-257-5151
FAX: (603) 641-9005
CALL 1-800-257-5151
A couple of things struck me about this story:“If we can get a ballpark the way we’re trying to do it, with the management talent we have,” Lew Wolff said, “we can have a consistent cash flow that would allow us to have a shot at being a little more like a dynasty like they used to have, at least a semidynasty.”
In his third season as owner of the Athletics, Wolff looks forward to the construction of a revenue-producing park in Fremont, Calif., expected to be completed by 2011. Put money in the hands of the team’s general manager, Billy Beane, and it could become a dangerous weapon.
In his 10-year tenure as general manager, Beane has not known what it is like to have money to spend. The prospect of suddenly having money, in fact, raises the question of what effect it could have on Beane. Will he know what to do with it? Will he react to it like a child let loose in a candy store and go wild, snatching one of everything in sight? Or will he shun the money and go on doing his business in his tried-and-true way?
(click to enlarge) Ed Brown Banner at IRS Exit in Boston!Hat Tip to Eric for the Great Activism & Pictures!
Like Son Like Father: An Inseparable Journey
Hat Tip to Pamela's Protest for the V-Link
Jose Gonzalez Stands With His Son!
Casey Lee Cobb | Show Ed The Law | June 15th 2007
Jose Gonzalez, father of Cirino Gonzalez publicly announces to his local news media that he plans to stand by his son’s side. He believes as do we all that the cause is righteous, it appears that he wants to support his son in his patriot efforts in preserving liberty from unjust government tyranny that attempts to enforce laws that do not exist.
If it were not for brave people like Cirino and his father Jose with the physical courage, moral and mental fortitude that it takes to make the stand for what is righteous and just by putting their lives on the line, then the last remnant of remaining hope for restoring liberty would die. If the government chooses to turn these people into martyrs for the cause of truth in taxation, there will be an outcry so large, loud, and persistent that it will reach to the very heavens themselves!
Now is the time folks if you are able, please travel to N.H. and join Ed, Elaine, Reno, Jose, and Randy Weaver among many others in this monumental stand for truth! Remember this is a serious decision to make, if you plan on going down to the home, you must be ready to stand your ground against this government tyranny and corruption. You can be a very important part of history, so if you are both physically and mentally prepared to make the stand, now is the time!
Browns To Hold National Press Conference
about twenty do's and don't's and sent them off in an e-mail to Brad Wendel (Cornell, left), whose essay on dealing with the faculty recruiting process, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, is still, to my mind, the best out there. Then I had lunch with another friend (an academic dean) who encouraged me to write the essay as something for him to be able to give to lawyers who inquired about jumping from the practice to the academy. After showing drafts to several people, I concluded on balance the value would exceed the sense of self-congratulation. Here is the abstract:
(Cross-posted at Legal Profession Blog).Many long-time practitioners muse about what it might be like to "retire and teach," not realizing there is no more galvanizing phrase to their counterparts who have long toiled in the academy, nor one less likely to enhance the prospects of the unfortunate "seasoned" applicant who utters the phrase. I intend this essay not for law professors (though it may either amuse or irritate them), but for those in the practice who aspire, after all these years, to return to the academy. With a good deal of humility acquired along the way, I offer some realistic advice to job seekers, concluding that wistful phrase is precisely the opposite of the true sine qua non of success: demonstrating the capability of, and commitment to, being a productive scholar.
Fed Informer Infiltrates Brown House
ED CALLS FOR SUPPORT FROM SERIOUS PEOPLE ONLY!!! THEY NEED SERIOUS PEOPLE WILLING TO FIGHT TO COME TO THEIR AID -- RIGHT NOW!!! THIS IS TUESDAY, JUNE 12th -- ED AND ELAINE AND OTHERS NEED YOUR HELP!!!
It appears that Ed and Elaine Brown are under attack for the second time in a week. Ed Brown reported earlier today that his electricity and internet are cut off, and that there were men prowling around in his woods. His phone is now disconnected.
Hat Tip to Reno @ Ed & Elaines MySpace
P.S. This is not Reno’s voice; I narrated his letter posted on MySpace.
I understand that not every student attending a private school takes the highest paying job offer but, a clean ranking by starting salary, adjusted for cost of living, would at least isolate what many students are after. Plus, if the graduates are really that good, presumably they would be made private sectors job offers they can not refuse.
I know the subsidization varies from school to school so we would work out some kind of ratio.
A Life Saving Dog Walk
Casey Lee Cobb | Show Ed The Law | June 7th 2007
Danny Riley friend of Ed Brown reveals what really happened when he was walking the dog this morning at the Browns. This is an amazing interview I recommend that you all watch it from start to finish. Danny Riley a true patriot and friend of the Browns, was doing them a favor by walking their dog when he realized that there were infiltrators close by camouflaged in ghillie suits preparing to unlawfully raid the property of Ed and Elaine Brown.
He confronted one of the infiltrators by yelling out “What are you doing turkey hunting!” only to be assaulted with attempts on his life, two sniper rounds whizzed by his person. He was then tazed and taken into custody by our criminal government.
At which point he was strip searched and interrogated when all was said and done they finally released him under the condition that he not reveal the true events of what happened. Being a real patriot with fellow patriots in danger, guided by his conscience Danny is disclosing to the world what really happened at the Browns house.
This clears the air and establishes a public record that the intent of the local government all along has been to infiltrate the browns with excessive force, all the while local law enforcement in the area has been deceiving the local news media by saying that the armored vehicles and men in black ski masks were merely there to serve a warrant.
This man choosing to walk Ed’s dog at the time that he did may have inadvertently prevented a tragedy from happening today. Whether you believe in god or not, one must admit that today was a very fortunate day for the Brown family. Thank you Danny Riley.
Casey Lee Cobb | ShowEdTheLaw.com | June 7th 2007
Ed Brown Educates Kevin Flynn a reporter from WMUR News 9 in New Hampshire. He asked the reporter to Show him the law which requires him to pay an income tax.
He then proceeded to gift the reporter with Aaron Russo’s new movie “America: From Freedom to Fascism”, which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the IRS’s enforcement actions are implemented fraudulently with the assistance of the lower courts which are not submitting to the decisions of the Supreme Court.
Let us measure this journalist’s integrity and see if he watch’s the video and actually pursues real answers as to why the law enforcement officials in New Hampshire are attempting to persecute Ed and Elaine Brown by criminally enforcing court orders that directly violate Supreme Court decisions with respects to the application of the so called “income tax”.
This is not only an attack on tax honesty, this is an attack on 911 Truth!
Typically, in the context of Moneylaw, the discussion is more about scholarship than teaching. I suppose that is because it is easier to qualify scholarship and the national rankings of law schools seem unattached to teaching quality other than a possible connection to bar passage and placement rates.Taylor Mali, "the spokesman for teaching's nobility, the poet laureate of passion in the classroom," does a wonderful bit on What Teachers Make:
For more on Mr. Mali, see TaxProf Blog. (Hat Tip: John Mayer.)
FEATURING 'POKER FACE' SATURDAY JULY 14, 2007
I understand this is all old news. Increasingly law school operations are designed to ensure that the schools perform well in the USN&WR rankings whether or not it means improving or even maintaining the substantive quality of the school. (Was it Billy Crystal who used to say, "It's not how you feel, it's how you look."?) I raise the issue again because of the superb way Jeffrey Stake captures the problem in this excerpt from the abstract to his article on what I have referred to as another example of the tail wagging the dog:
