The NYTimes Epic Article on the Law School Scam

We've made it to the big leagues! This article is probably the most comprehensive piece on the law scam movement that I've seen since I started blogging a year ago. It's seven pages long so you just have to click over to the New York Times and read all of it.

The only issue I have with the article is that BIDER and The Jobless Juris Doctor aren't listed and we've been a part of the scam movement from the start. Well, I'll forgive the author this time since the piece was so well-written. I hope these articles in the mainstream media forces the archaic law school system to change for the better, but I'm not holding my breath. At the very least these articles are helping us spread our warning to prospective law students.

On an added note, BIDER reader Jess sent me a link to Bloomberg's list of 20 colleges with high tuition and low return on investment (ROI). It would be interesting to see a list of the top 20 law schools with high tuition and low ROI. However, I've always wanted this blog to be more than just a warning about law school. The majority of colleges and graduate schools in the United States are overpriced bad investments. Paying over $100k for a college degree is a travesty. Parents and students should take note of the scam at all levels to save themselves from our fate since the scam blogs and mainstream media articles weren't around when Angel and I were applying to college and law school.

Apologies for not blogging recently. I've been busy, so personally it's not exactly a bad thing that I'm not sitting on my ass venting and reading blogs all day like I was earlier last year. I wish everyone a busy and successful new year. I love our readers but my greatest wish would be for each of our readers to be busy working, traveling, or dating. Hope your new year is off to a good start.

University of Miami Law School Pays Unemployed Grads $2500 Each Month to Work at ShitLaw Firms

Several days ago, Angel wrote about Georgetown Law manipulating its employment statistics by providing $4,000 stipends to unemployed graduates to participate in law-related volunteer programs. TTT schools such as University of Miami are also getting into the act to boost its employment numbers. Firms and courts will get free labor in the form of unemployed UM grads who in return will receive a $2500 monthly stipend from UM.

Is UM Law doing this out of the goodness of their heart or is it another way of boosting employment stats to match Cooley Law's 100% employment rate? You decide. After all, a few hundred thousand dollars spent on temporary employment for doomed graduates is a small investment for fake employment statistics that will surely fool thousands more into taking the LSAT and borrowing $150k for a useless degree. The article also mentions fellow law school scam blog Shilling Me Softly and the now defunct Big Debt, Small Law written by Seton Hall graduate Scott Bullock:

A righteous anger has been seething from the most unlikely and urbane of American institutions. Inside ivy-shaded law schools from Columbia to Berkeley, students facing six-figure debts and zero job prospects are howling that JDs aren't much more than university-approved scams.

Dozens of blogs such as Shilling Me Softly have stirred the wrath, and last month a Boston College student earned headlines by begging his chancellor to give him back his tuition. "It's really just a Ponzi scheme," a Seton Hall law student and blogger named Scott Bullock told the New Jersey Star-Ledger this summer.

The latest sign of law grads' dire straits comes from Coral Gables, where the University of Miami is trying to bolster the grim market for the 350 new lawyers set to graduate next spring by offering their services — for free.

The program, called the Legal Corps, will place graduating students without job offers at public interest organizations or judicial chambers. The firms and courts will pay nada, while UM will pick up a $2,500 monthly stipend.

"It's great to know that we've got this as a fallback option," says Irma Khoja, a 26-year-old South Florida native who will graduate next spring.

UM's program has earned accolades for its realistic approach. In 2009, the school asked incoming students to consider deferring enrollment for a year and asked would-be lawyers to check their motivations before committing.

Now, UM is perhaps the first school in the nation to offer its new grads' talents for free to public service-minded firms. The pragmatic message might be tough to stomach, but most law students appreciate it, Khoja says.

"What's great about UM is they're very practical and realistic compared to other schools who see this as just an opportunity to get more applications and more revenue," she says.

Like the vast majority of her classmates, Khoja doesn't have any offers lined up. She won't apply to the Legal Corps unless nothing else materializes — but at least it's there, forestalling any urge to join the ranks of enraged law school bloggers.

"I'm just trying to stay as positive as I can," she says, "because it's the only way to get through the semester."

Isn't it sad to see this UM student believe her school is starting this program because they actually care about her job prospects after graduation, not because they want more applications and revenue? Our colleges and universities have become corporations that only care about making a profit at any and all costs. I hope more students begin to realize this so they can stop depending on their schools and career services to find them jobs.

Will You be Disbarred if You are a Criminal?

Yes.  But no fear, you can still teach in a prestigious Law School.  No joke.  I was rather shocked to read about all of the criminals that are filtered into academia.  I thought it was wrong to use academics, rather than practitioners, to teach lawyers--but it's so much worse to use felons and legal misfits.  Professional Responsibility anyone?  MPRE?  I don't get it.

Lerach joins the Ranks of Ex-Cons and Disgraced Lawyers Teaching Law
by Kai Falkenberg

Bill Lerach the former class action lawyer released from prison last month may soon be teaching at UC-Irvine law school.  Lerach, who served a two year sentence for paying kickbacks to lead plaintiffs, is apparently developing a course called "Regulation of Free Market Capitalism -- Why Have We Failed?"  He won't be the only ex-con or disgraced lawyer among the nation's law school faculty. It seems, they're a sought after bunch.

• Bernadine Dohrn.  The former member of the Weather Underground, has been on the law faculty at Northwestern for decades.  She was once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List and served seven months in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating a robbery.

• Lynne Stewart. The radical lawyer, convicted in 2005 of assisting terrorism, was invited by Hofstra Law School to lecture on legal ethics during an October 2007 legal conference.  She is now incarcerated at the MCC in Manhattan, awaiting re-sentencing this summer.

• Eliot Spitzer. The disgraced former NY governor taught a class called "Law and Public Policy" at City College during the fall 2009 term.

• Jim McGreevey. The ex-NJ governor who resigned after admitting to an affair with a male staffer taught a course on ethics, law and leadership at Kean University back in 2007.  He's now in training to become an Episcopal priest at a church in Hoboken, NJ.

• Rod Blagojevich. The indicted former Illinois governor was invited toNorthwestern last month to give a lecture on "ethics in government".  His trial on corruption charges is slated to begin in June. You can watch a video of the lecture here.