NYLS: Slammed!

David Segal of the New York Times sliced and diced law schools over the weekend, with particular attention to my fave local school to hate:  New York Law School.  His scathing indictment of law schools generally, and Dean Matasar's hypocrisy was as refreshing as a cold Mike's Hard Lemonade on a New York Shitty 95 degree summer day.  Honestly, if he had thrown in the words "commode," "toilets," "steaming pile of cow dung," etc. I would have to think that Nando of Third Tier Reality doubled as a reporter for the esteemed New York Time.  Please read what Mr. Segal, my new crush, had to say about Dean Matasar's schizophrenic attitude towards law school reform:

For a sense, take a look at the strange case of New York Law School and its dean, Richard A. Matasar. For more than a decade, Mr. Matasar has been one of the legal academy’s most dogged and scolding critics, and he has repeatedly urged professors and fellow deans to rethink the basics of the law school business model and put the interests of students first.
“What I’ve said to people in giving talks like this in the past is, we should be ashamed of ourselves,” Mr. Matasar said at a 2009 meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. He ended with a challenge: If a law school can’t help its students achieve their goals, “we should shut the damn place down.”

Given his scathing critiques, you might expect that during Mr. Matasar’s 11 years as dean, he has reshaped New York Law School to conform with his reformist agenda. But he hasn’t. Instead, the school seems to be benefiting from many of legal education’s assorted perversities.

N.Y.L.S. is ranked in the bottom third of all law schools in the country, but with tuition and fees now set at $47,800 a year, it charges more than Harvard. It increased the size of the class that arrived in the fall of 2009 by an astounding 30 percent, even as hiring in the legal profession imploded. It reported in the most recent US News & World Report rankings that the median starting salary of its graduates was the same as for those of the best schools in the nation — even though most of its graduates, in fact, find work at less than half that amount.

Pitter, patter--my heart.  Oh, be still.
Wouldn't you think this bit of common sense, no nonsense would come from a scamblogger?  Dare I say it, is our opinion becoming common place? 

Of course, the rest of the article is quite good as well.  It's what needs to be said.  Law school is a no-lose proposition for the capitalist pigs in higher education.

At this point, with mainstream media covering the law school scam in such a matter-of-fact manner, who is still considering law school?  Can you just imagine the rag-a-tag group of people that are piling into the halls of NYLS next month.
I am presuming that one must be able to read to go to most law schools.  I presume, in the age of the Internet, one should also be able to research.  So, who would still go to law school with the flood of information available on the web?  If you type "law school" into Google, and press "News"--this is what appears:

Add "law school" section to my Google News homepage


Search Results The Times 'Unearths' The Law School Scam, But Still Can't Explain It‎You +1'd this publicly. Undo
Above the Law - Elie Mystal - 1 hour ago

Over the weekend, you may have noticed that the New York Times suddenly figured out that law schools are cash cows despite offering dubious ...

Blog: Law school tuition, in graphic form‎ Minneapolis Star Tribune (blog)
New York Law School Law Dean Hits Legal Ed, But Hikes Class Size 30%‎ ABA Journal
all 3 news articles »

►Pistons' Wallace headed to law school?‎
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Yahoo! Sports - Mark J. Miller - 4 hours ago
For now, Wallace is at his home in Virginia researching law schools, the Detroit News reports. "The thought has been brewing for years, and he even spoke to ...

Highly Cited: Pistons' Ben Wallace has a future in, not on, court‎ The Detroit News

all 6 news articles »

Law School Economics: Ka-Ching!‎
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New York Times - David Segal - 1 day ago
Legal diplomas have such allure that law schools have been able to jack up tuition four times faster than the soaring cost of college. And many law schools ...
Law Schools Pump Up Classes and Tuition, Though Jobs Remain Scarce‎ Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) (blog)

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Cooley Law School sues over online postings‎
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Lansing State Journal - Matthew Miller - 1 day ago
LANSING - The first post on a blog called The Thomas M. Cooley Law School Scam billed itself as a public service for anyone who might have thought about ...
Highly Cited: Thomas Cooley Law School Sues Kurzon Strauss Law Firm Over Job ...‎ Bloomberg
Blog: Law School Sues New York Law Firm For Defamation‎ Wall Street Journal (blog)
Cooley Lawsuit Update: One Of The 'Cooley Four' Responds To The ...‎ Above the Law
The National Law Journal - Inside Higher Ed


A standard no longer applicable to most law students.

 all 26 news articles »

Hmmm. Issue spotting anyone?  The emphasis is all mine.  To an average schmo--shouldn't the first few articles that come up on Google cause a tiny bit of concern?  Law schools are suing for defamation?  Tuitions have increased 4 times faster than college tuitions? Class sizes increase by 30%??? Dubious and Law School in the same thought???! 

So, are we left to think that these students that the class of 2014 are idiots?  Or illiterate or neophytes? 

Well, I have the special privilege of passing by New York Law School at least once a week on my way to Court.  I always take note of who is grabbing a ciggy outside of their newly built, state-of-the-art building and who is loitering in the lobby.  Actually, last week, when I walked in front of it--some construction workers were out front with a banner that read "New York Law School is Bad for New York City."  I flashed them a thumbs up for an entirely different reason than they stood for--but the premise is the same.  So, what's my impression of the students that I see there?  I guess... I would have to say they look like rich kids.  I'm certain they aren't actually rich though--but they are just arrogant enough to think they will be rich one day and spend accordingly.  I pass by their school with the same Kenneth Cole canvas brief case I've carried since 2002 and the girls at NYLS role up to Civ Pro with a Louis Vuitton tote.  Some of the boys appear to be hipster types. Not really sure how that goes down in the courtroom.  In any event, arrogance abounds when I pass this school and make eyes with a few of the students. 

I think they look down their noses at me as a lawyer who is running to Court--rather than cabbing it.  Sometimes I stop and bum a ciggy from one of them.  In any event, it must take a really arrogant bastard to see all the news regarding the future of lawyers in this Country and somehow think that it won't apply to you--because you're special and you'll be the one to make it.  You're better than everyone else.
 
Well, there's one thing the scambloggers cannot do.  We can't change stupid. 

Temporary Jobs, Document Review and a Decent Rate.

Any contract attorney will tell you about the glory days of yesteryear, when food was on the client, car service drove you home and rates were $45/hour plus time and half for OT.  After the crash, rates dropped into the teens, you could walk your butt home and OT was impossible to come by. In fact, your hours were capped at 40.  So, now rates are hovering between 25 and 32, with all sorts of caveats like "big firm experience" and experience in patent litigation.  Temp agencies, and Big Law through them, has their picks of the best, brightest and most experienced to conduct temporary document review projects at bargain basement prices.  It's obviously Big Law's way of getting the associates that used to work for them prior to being laid off, for less than $30/hour.  It's a great deal for the legal industry, and a shitty deal for the associates that are now doing mind numbing document review in the basements of large law firms in notoriously hazardous conditions, shoulder to shoulder with other contract attorneys who are likewise numb to the world.  But at least it doesn't require effort, which is freeing.
So, a BIDER tipster sent in this email, from a temp agency in New York that seemed promising based on the subject line: New Short Term Project - 35/hr.  So, at first, I'm thinking--what's the big deal?  That's actually an improvement over rates that I've seen, heard and read about. But then I continued to read on... and WHOA.  Mind you, this email was sent to contract attorneys in New York:

Hi,

Let me know if you would be interested in this new project.   Please read below. 

Four attorneys needed for approximately two weeks to handle intake matters with the firm's clients. Hands on experience in family law, general litigation matters, immigration and criminal law needed.  Attorneys need to be members of the state bar association in good standing in either California, Florida, Ilinois or Washington.

Responsibilities include consulting with the clients on the phone (from one of the states above), generate a memo and perform initial file management and communication/coordination with the firms managing partners in the respective states.

Pay rate approximately $35 hrly. depending on experience.

Does this strike anyone else as slightly odd?  This sounds pretty substantive, as well as specific as hell as to what your qualifications need to be.  Bizarre to be asking a bunch of New York attorneys to be barred in random other states.  And what do you get if you're this rare needle in a haystack with the perfect combo of being barred in Illinois, living in New York, with experience in immigration and criminal law?  You get to be paid a mere $35/hour (or maybe less) to do real work, i.e. speaking to clients?!  Looks like a law firm should be hiring an associate, rather than hiring a temporary contract attorney.  But the free market dictates that contract attorneys are cheaper to hire, so why hire a permanent attorney?  Well, I have many friends that are contract attorneys and they are very professional, but there are plenty of walking disasters masquerading as contract attorneys out there.  I hope the living incarnation of PigPen from Snoopy comes walking into this firm, so they will rethink taking hiring contract attorneys over a permanent employee--from my fingertips to God's Ears.