It was a BAD Week for …
Being a good loser, after a lawyer for a conservative scholar who was passed over for a University of Iowa law school professorship requested a retrial. Teresa Wagner had sued the state school with a claim of discrimination under the 1st Amendment alleging she was passed over because of her conservative views. A jury was deadlocked on all but one count — which found that her 1st Amendment rights were not violated. Her attorney said the judge accepted the verdict without allowing him to poll the jurors to ensure they had not been coerced.
Feeling good about the bar exam, after 28 percent of recent graduates reported in survey that their law school had not prepared them well for passing the bar exam. The survey by Kaplan Test Prep, surveyed 700 of their bar prep students. “Since bar passage rate is one of the factors that affects a law school’s position in the rankings and out of a sense of responsibility for their students’ futures, law schools may be interested to learn that nearly 30 percent of the graduates we surveyed felt that their law schools didn’t prepare them well enough for the bar exam,” said Steven Marietti, vice president and general manager, Kaplan Bar Review. “From the new JD’s perspective, passing the bar is critical because many employers will not consider applicants until they have a license to practice law. ”
It was a GOOD week for …
Prospective black law students, after On Being a Black Lawyer, a legal news stie for black lawyers, reported its first “Black Student’s Guide to Law Schools.” The digital guide includes a ranking of the best 25 National Law Schools of Black Students, with Harvard Law School at No. 1 and Howard University at No. 2.
Diversity, after Touro Law School reported that 37 percent of its incoming class are minority students. That is a record for the Long Island law school. The school credits several factors to the increase – including its Legal Education Access Program, recruitment efforts, and word of mouth about student and alumni success.
