Chapter 12
Education of Lawyers
1. Admissions
a. Criteria
1. Good grades
2. High LSAT score
3. Extremely competitive
b. Hierarchy of Law Schools
1. Elite, national schools
2. Very good, national schools
3. Regional schools
4. Local schools
c. Student body
1. Trend is toward more diversity
2. About 20% are minority, 40-50% are women
3. Advantages of upper middle class
4. Grutter
v. Bollinger (
Race may be used as a consideration in law schools admissions
to promote diversity.
2. First Year of
a. Methodology
1. Case studies
a. Basic rules
b. Wrongly decided
c. Cutting edge, policy cases
2. Socratic method
a.
b. One more question
c. What am I thinking?
d. Purpose, learn to prepare well, think quickly, toughen up
e. Creates confusion, but then you put it together at the end
b. Subject matter
a. Contracts
b. Criminal law
c. Real property
d. Civil procedure
e. Torts
f. Constitutional law
3. Second and Third
Year of
a. Subject matter
1. Family law
2. Criminal procedure
3. Jurisprudence
4. Trial advocacy
5. Advanced business law subjects, like securities, antitrust, bankruptcy
b. Law review
1. Presitigious
2. Write and edit articles on the law
3. Again, there is a hierarchy (some reviews are better than others)
c. Summer clerkships
1. First year grades are critical (interviews are in the fall of second year)
2. Extended job interview over the summer
3. Social events more important than work
4. Many perks to lure top talent
5. Most firms pay the same salary as first year associates
4. Law Jobs and Hierarchy (figures are from www.nalp.org)
a. Court clerkships
1. The higher the court, the more prestigious
b. Big firm jobs
1. More money at bigger firms (2003, $113k median, 501+ attys)
(2003, $59.5k median, 2-25 attys)
(2003, $80k median, 51-100 attys)
(That's for first year attorneys, it goes up from there)
For comparison, the median salary for a judge is $129k!
2. Bigger cities have bigger firms
3. Big firms tend to represent big companies, with big dollars at stake
4. Associates tend to get more menial tasks, but more training
5. Very hierarchical, senior partners, partners, senior associates,
associates, secretaries, paralegals, other staff
6. Still very male and very white
17.6% of partners are women, 4.32% are from racial minorities (2004)
That is almost the same as in 1993, 12.27% and 2.55 respectively
c. Small and medium firms
1. Prestige many times depends on subject areas
2. Dollars are less
d. Government and Public Interest Law (entry level will be about $28-45k)
1. Prosecutors (federal generally held above state)
2. Defenders
3. Public interest