Law School Debt Drives Lawyer to Kill

Not once, but twice.  Wait, if you count him--that's thrice.
Anyone who is as obsessed with ID television as I am knows that there are two motivations for murder (1) financial and (2) passion.  In the case of John Wagner from Philadelphia--his reasons were likely both as it's speculated that he was driven to kills his mom and pops and self because of law school debts that prevented him from settling down.  It makes sense to me. I just wish he directed some of that fire at the law school that he attended instead of his poor parents. 

Okay, no condoning what he did at all!  Please don't kill yourself.  If you feel depressed about your financial situation, go teach English in China, go be a nanny is Norway... just leave it all behind and start anew somewhere else.  Don't take it out on anyone or yourself!

All's Good on the Homefront!

Well, not really.  But for my for my purposes, it has been.  Nando called me to let me know that Vermont Law laid off some workers.  I know for a fact that my alma mater decreased it's class size by 1/4.  Good stuff.  We started this ball rollin down the Swiss Alps and it's finally demolishing some brick and mortar law schools at the bottom of the hill.
The reality is that we never sought to fix this situation.  The whole "scam blog" movement has been to save some students the grief of attending.  For those idiots that insist they have been too smart and successful in their lives to be destroyed by a tuition the size of a mortgage, we have been of no assistance whatsoever.  I don't care about those kids anyways.  I will kill those kids when I see them in the courtroom.  They are stupid.  They are dense.  They are failures at life.

Then, there are those of whom that will enter document review hell and, likely, never emerge.  For you guys, I  am posting this delightful piece.  Let me know what you think.

I lost friends who apparently got tired of me saying, "sorry, for the 100th time, I can't go out tonight. I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY."

Gawker published stories from the unemployed and a lawyer's story made the cut.  It's truly a fascinating story to those that don't know that attorneys can be poor, on Medicaid and starving.  Click here and scroll down to "The attorney" and read about her corner of hell.  Honestly, from August of 2010 until August of 2011, her life didn't read much differently than that of an unemployed baby mama from the hood.

Guess Right and Win a Kindle!

And I will always love youuuuuuuuuu.....

Every year, there's some sickos on the web that predict which celebrities will die in the coming year.  There's even a way to earn money by betting on the same--although it feels a little immoral to bet on someone's death.  Don't get me wrong, I do have my own personal list: Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen and K-Fed... Russell Brandt is on my list too.

Here today.

Anyhow, based on this concept, unperson came up with a completely fabulous idea and I am going to push it as hard as my broke ass can: by starting The Law School Death List.

As many of you should know by now unless you're flaming, fucking idiots, the number of LSAT test takers is way down and admissions at law schools are likewise down since the cat is out of the bag.  In most recent news, Texas Wesleyan School of Law is being sold to Texas A&M.  Yah, yah, yah... mutually beneficial, limitless possibilities, joint degrees.  I call bullshit.  

Texas Wesleyan was probably having difficulty filling seats and folded.  So, the question is (drumroll please) which school is next?

Gone tomorrow.

So, this is how the game works, and I certainly need your help to keep track.  In the comments to this post, please guess the name of the next law school that will fold.  Fold, for the purposes of this game, is either (1) being sold to another educational institution or (2) closing altogether.   If you turn out to be correct and first  I will send you a Kindle as a prize.  If you have a profile, I will be able to reach you, but if you decide to do it anonymously--just email me your contact info and your guess as well and I will be in touch.  But you must list it in the comments or I won't count it.  Good luck with The Law School Death List and may the odds be ever in your favor!  That's Hunger Games in case y'all didn't  know.
If you see the next law school closing and I haven't noticed, please tell me about it.  I can't keep track of all the law school news.
Love, hugs and kisses.

Tamanaha's Book: Whistleblowing on the Law School Industrial Complex

Professor Tamanaha of Washington University Law School is calling out his comrades in a book entitled "Failing Law Schools."  I just ordered my copy, and I urge all of you to do the same (if you can afford it).  The fallout from this could be huge for Professor Tamanaha and I want righteousness to win out over evil.  Who knows whether he'll be employed or employable after squealing on the Law School Industrial Complex.  He's doing what I never had the guts to do, be frank and put his name on it.
As you know, many of the scam bloggers remain anonymous for fear of being black balled in the community.  That's a real fear.  Fairly recently, an outed scamblogger asked that I take down a post on him because the post ranked high on Google and potential clients were holding it against him.  I feel horribly about it.
Back to Tamanaha... He's been a supporter of the scam blogger movement and I commend him on stating the obvious, no matter how much it hurts:  law schools are pumping out more graduates than the economy needs AND tuition (the very tuition which compensates Professor Tamanaha) is too high and has increased at rate higher than inflation.
Those of you that followed my post on Jack Marshall's blog entitled "Ethics Alarms" shook your heads at his denseness relating to the alleged versatility of the law degree.  Meanwhile, Tamanaha's ground breaking book hits the stores and the issue of overrated and overpriced juris doctorates has been addressed by many esteemed newspapers such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington  Times--and many, many more.  And just this week, the ABA releases statistics that hit you in the gut like the runaway train from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter--only 55% of law graduates have full-time employment.  Please note, that does not speak to the quality of employment, benefits and/or lack thereof and how much of those 55% are employed by their law schools until the 1st day of the 10th month, for the sake of statistics.  In short, if you don't realize by now that law school is as much a gamble as black jack at the Borgata, you must be nuts.  Please don't go.

The American Dream is Dead.

But you know that.  Here's a nice little segment worth listening too while you're at work.  It's nice to know that we're not alone.  We are standing hand in hand with many Americans living the American Nightmare.

Rip this guy a new one!

An anonymous comment pointed me to a post on another blog entitled "Young, Gullible, Lazy, Unimaginative and Unbelievable: I Wonder Why This Lawyer Has Trouble Finding A Job?"  This post is actually calling bullshit on the 99% sign that I posted yesterday (see below).  The author goes as far as to say:

A law degree is the most versatile and useful degree there is. It is just as useful for getting management jobs in business and politics as it is in law. It is considered a credential for consulting, negotiation, public speaking, and lobbying. I once was hired to run a health care organization that required a medical degree: they couldn’t find a doctor they liked, so the Chairman of the Board said, “Eh, a law degree’s just as good,” and hired me. No prospects? None? What’s wrong with this guy?

Look. I'm as unsympathetic as the next when it comes to people relying on social welfare rather than attempting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  I come from a family of immigrants and ALL of my cousins and siblings have managed to go on to the American dream (house, job, kids). I'm actually the most educated of all of them and the poorest.  But the legal profession is something altogether different.  Young lawyers are deserving of sympathy.  After all, they weren't lawyers when they decided to go to law school.  The Legal Industrial Complex actively defrauds our nation's young into spending over $100K for an education that will be worthless, a dead weight, an impediment to our happiness.  That is not a result of our youngs' laziness or stupidity.  It's a crime.  It's a fucking cartel that should be taken down with RICO laws.

And these aren't just any kids that are being bamboozled--its our nation's brightest.  I thought of my readers when I read this line from Zone One by Colson Whitehead.

He'd never had trouble with the American checklist, having successfully executed all the hurdles of his life's stages from preschool to junior high to college, with unwavering competence and nary a wobble into exceptionality or failure.  He possessed a strange facility for the mandatory.

Of course, the book goes on to discuss a zombie apocalypse, but the same line applies to all of those that go to law school.  They aren't losers and should have gotten somewhere accomplishing all the necessary tasks required to succeed in life.  It wasn't that hard, am I right?  But then, law school comes in and weighs them down, sinking them into utter poverty.  We're definitely part of the 99%.

 Please post a comment on HIS blog, not mine, so he knows that the scenario discussed in this sign is common place--and nothing to scoff at.