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Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Classes in which I "studied harder" for the exam, it tended not to matter grade-wise.

Classes in which I paid more attention over the course of the semester, it showed every single time. All my As are in classes where I cared about the subject matter enough to show up and listen in every class.

Favorite gunner story was a kid who, at the end of a crimpro lecture, raised his hand. Professor had been talking for a while, looks up at the clock, sees it's about 2 minutes til class ends. He says "OK, but you can only have 2 minutes." Kid gets very offended by this and says, loudly and in a very offended voice, "But you already had 10 minutes!"

Hated both the professor and the kid. Still laugh when I think about that.

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Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Nero posted:

So we still haven't got grades back for one of my classes yet. The professor was an adjunct and it was her first class. She was an awful lecturer. She put everything she was going to say in the class on powerpoints and just read them for an hour and a half. Awful to sit through and since she put the powerpoints online almost nobody came after the second week. It was a graveyard in there.

The rumor is that she got offended/we suck and she tried to give C's/D's/F's to like half the class and the reason for the delay is the administration is trying to convince her to, you know, not do that. I'm a little worried.

For what it's worth, I ran into the opposite situation with another professor. He was an adjunct, we loved him, he loved us, and he gave our class a very high curve. So high the registrar essentially wouldn't allow him to log it in. In the end he folded, several weeks late, and the curve wound up being almost dead on the school recommended curve.

So, if you're lucky, that'll happen to you.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

diospadre posted:

Is he trying to say you got the highest grade? Or that you should have gotten a higher grade? What the hell

It's a mass email - the your would be collective.

In other words "there's a curve I have to abide by and you guys got screwed."

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

CaptainScraps posted:

I've been tossing around the phrase "Law school is deliberately obtuse" but never realized how loving far my first year courses were from actual law until I've taken the bar review.

Property's actually somewhat interesting!

Can't wait til you start working (well, for your sake, I hope you start working) and realize how far bar review is from actual law too.

(Also, my first year property course was awesome.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

methamphetamine posted:

Popping in here to say that this is bad advice endlessly parroted by people who have no experience on the issue. Read the Examples and Explanations on Civpro, Contracts, and Torts if you have time. Read Getting to Maybe, but also read How to Do Your Best on Law School Exams by Delaney. Check out LEEWS if you have time.

Read Planet Law School. It tells you how to study. (hint: dont waste time on casebooks or prepping for cold calls).

This is terrible advice, at least for a T14. You are not expected to memorize rules at a T14. Knowing the rules isn't quite optional, but having the little elements and whatnot is what your outlines are for. You need the in-class discussion of corner cases to do well on exams. On the other hand, wasting time on casebooks and prepping for cold calls might not have helped my grades, but it definitely helped when I needed to ask professors for recommendations and connections - which is when you want to be the person who spoke up in class and whose name they know. If PLS says don't read your casebooks and don't prep for cold call classes, it's wrong. (Within reason: I'm not saying memorize cases, but in classes that cold called, I knew basic facts and could talk the law of every case we were assigned that day.)

So, my advice? (Graduated from a T14, journal, moot court, cum laude, etc. Yeah, gently caress you, I'm a gunner.) Do not under any circumstances read any law (actually, I'd argue that part is true for any law school). Do not read LEEWS - I've skimmed bits of their advice and jesus christ would it have been counterproductive for me on most, but not all, exams. The most but not all is even more of a reason not to do LEEWS - you need to learn how to figure out what a professor wants if you want to do well, and any system asserting "the one true way" will gently caress you on that. E&Es may be helpful (they would have been useless for my contracts/torts courses, but hey, professors vary and mine was a crazy but awesome race crit) but they will be more helpful when you have some clue what you're reading.

Read Above the Law so you know what you got yourself into. Read fun books because it's the last real chance you're going to have to read for fun for the next couple years. And if you absolutely positively MUST read about law, pick up books like Anthony Lewis's Make No Law (or Gideon's Trumpet if you're more interested in criminal law than in defamation) or similar historical works slanted to a non-legal audience. They'll make you excited to be going to law school, which is going to be needed to counterbalance ATL.

Basically, enjoy your summer. You won't know a loving thing worth knowing for law school til you actually get there, so stop trying so hard.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

For what it's worth, some professors like a variant on IRAC type format where you *do* lead with the conclusion (CREAC - conclusion rule explanation application conclusion). What's the issue outcome, what's the general rule, how has that rule been applied in various similar situations to generate parallels, how does that rule come down here, restate your conclusion for good measure. Also, on exams, I never found starting with maybe to be helpful - instead I picked the side I wanted to argue and started arguing for and against that side. I found it easier to have a vantage point than to try to write the neutral point, even if the exam asked me to couch the answer in neutrality ("You are a clerk to Chief Justice Fishdog, write a bench memo", for example) - you dress up the answer in neutrality at the end, but advocating throughout can give a better structure (as long as you keep in mind that the answer is nearly always going to be a close question throughout so that you don't give conclusory answers).

And now you know why anyone who claims that they know what professors want without knowing the professor is full of poo poo. You know how to figure out what professors want to see on exams?

Read. Old. Exams. Your professor likely makes them available - go look at best exams and feedback memos and see what they actually liked and learn from that for the exam proper.

And don't do any of this before week 7, especially during 1L. Even during 3L, I refused to think about finals (beyond doing the reading and going to class) until week 7.

Kalman fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jun 22, 2011

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

What is this "articling" thing? Never heard of it (in my rampant US centricism).

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

flog montresor posted:

Wow, I got the crap kicked out of me second semester. My gpa for this semester was about 0.3 lower than my first semester GPA, and I studied harder/smarter in so many ways (or so I thought).

Is this likely to come up during interviews or hurt me at OCI? My overall 1L gpa is still solid (3.65 at CLS).

I had a similar experience (1st->2nd drop of about 0.3, ending up around a 3.65 at a T14). No one asked me a thing about it during OCI. You're likely fine.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Draile posted:

The Harlan Fiske Stone Scholars are the best example of title inflation I can think of. You were in the top 1/3 of your class for one year? Congratulations, you are a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Really though I'm just mad because GULCs equivalent of the Stone scholarship is the "Dean's List." Which sounds like something that goes on a bumper sticker.

My child is on the Dean's List at Georgetown University Law Center.

But you can take Randy Barnett's "I'm on TV guys, I'm on TV ALL THE TIME" Constitutional Law II! It's exciting!

(It's not. Don't take courses with Barnett.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Bathing Jesus posted:

Has anyone published an article--not a note or comment--in a journal or law review before? And if so, any advice/thoughts on the process?

Answer two questions and you'll get better advice and thoughts.

Where in the process are you? (I.e. have you basically finished your article, have a decent draft done, just starting to write, just the germ of an idea, etc.)

What are you? Student, practitioner? (We can safely assume you aren't a prof since you would have published if you were.) It matters which you are. I'm guessing practitioner?

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Bathing Jesus posted:

To respond to everyone's comments at once - there's no plagiarism involved, the article isn't at all preempted, etc. I just graduated and will be working at a firm by the time the article gets published; my coauthor will be clerking on the 9th Circuit. Broadly speaking, the article is about trademark theory, which is the area I'm hoping to work myself into at my firm come this fall, so I'm certainly happy having my name attached to it.

At this point, we've been through about six drafts and are currently in the process of getting comments from professors and our friends (including the last two executive articles editors of our LR). Essentially, I'm just poking around to see if y'all have any advice about submission strategies. And I guess to that end, since most everyone in here is a huge IP nerd, if anyone's heard any broad consensus about which specialty IP journals are worth trying to publish in. Harvard's JOLT, BTLJ and Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts are the three we're shooting for right now, but it's hard to really gauge whether we'd be better off there or in the Utah Law Review or something.

e: Those three plus traditional LRs, obviously.

Fordham's law review (just their normal law review) tends to publish a number of IP articles, they may not be a bad bet either. Also Michigan's Telecoms Law journal - it's called telecoms, but publishes a lot of IP. GW probably has something too, I forget, it's been a while since I researched IP-specific publishing (though I'll need to hit it again come August).

But honestly, here's the three pieces of correct advice you need:

-You can submit now, but there's no reason to. Article submission windows are March-April (primary) and July-August (secondary). Things submitted in between, at most journals, are just kind of back burnered because they don't need to make offers yet. Also, it's summer and journal staff don't want to work. Keep working on it until July and then get it out the door.

-See where respected IP folks publish to give yourself some ideas. Do au(x) searches for Lemley, Dreyfuss, Tushnet, Merges, Litman, Cohen, Netanel, Eisenberg, Samuelson, etc. - you know who you ought to be looking for here. See where they published recently and use that to build your list.

-Now that you have that list, you're going to basically ignore it. Submit to loving everyone, and bargain up once you get your first offer.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Let me reemphasize: apply EARLY. I didn't, and likely got screwed on admits and financial aid as a result. Despite a 178/3.2 (in engineering at a very good engineering school, plus significant work experience, so it's not as bad a GPA as it might seem) I was still waitlisted at basically all of the T14s and didn't get a ton of money when I did get in.

Apply as early as you can. If you wait til January like me, you will be very sad about yourself.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Lemonus posted:

If any of you are so kind please help a brother out with some advice.

So I am doing a small piece of research comparing and contrasting the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the New Zealand Rules of Conduct and Client Care. The focus is to be on what extent both systems approach "zealous advocacy" i.e. to the extent one can put their duty to the client as opposed to the duty to the court.

I would appreciate if any of ya'll could help me out by pointing me in particular directions of interest regarding the Model Rules or evidence of American legal culture when it comes to this point/ anecdotal experiences.

Trying not to be like 'do my homework' but just 'indicate where to look'. My first cracks at searching so far have not been fruitful.

This post will probably cover far more than you need, but hey, why not. The whole zealous advocacy duty has been fairly heavily covered over the past few years, particularly in the context of the torture memos; you can find some light reading in the area in blog posts on the topic, most likely.

Sourcewise, I will pimp my old journal, for one: the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. There's been quite a bit in there on both the actual and theoretical bases of the zealous advocacy duty over the past few years; basically the entirety of Volume 23 Issue 4 focused on lawyer duties to clients from a theoretical perspective, for example. Some writers you might want to look into (more from the theoretical perspective than the practical) include David Luban, Brad Wendel, Alice Woolley, Katherine Kruse, and Mit Regan (who's written fairly extensively about this area w/r/t corporate law - his book Eat What You Kill is a good read). While I don't recall the Journal having any NZ-related articles lately, there've been a few on law firm culture in Australia; check V24-2 for Parker & Aitken's article on the topic.

Beyond that, I'd also point you to the Legal Ethics Forum and the LEF Blog, both of which have a number of posts you may find useful, and are basically an excellent starting point for any American legal ethics related

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Diplomaticus posted:

I studied about 3-4 hours a day for a week or two, then about an hour a day for the rest of the time, and then about 15 hours a day the week before the bar. Stopped going to barbri and switched to the video lessons after about week 2.

I passed. Maryland owns. 90%+ first time pass rate owns.

A solid half of my friends are taking Maryland. I hate each and every one of them. And, actually, basically everyone who doesn't have 22 subjects to deal with. Thanks, NY.

But yeah, I switched to video after 2 days and the 2-3 up til now and 10-15 for the next week plan is mine as well. Even better choice after figuring out tm++ and watching video at 1.5x. Or 2.0x in the case of Paula. God I hate that woman.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Blakkout posted:

I just mailed out 98 clerkship applications this morning. The people at the post office in the Loop hate me, and I'm $125 further in debt. Here's to hoping someone calls me back. Are most of the judges who accept applications via OSCAR pretty flooded with apps? I'm trying to decide if it's even worth my time.

Are you top 25% at Chicago (you said the loop, so I'm assuming you're UC - if you're HYS you can also enjoy this benefit)? Because if not, hahahahahaah have fun you won't get a callback. You're competing not just with your year, but the last two years of underemployed people who "might as well just apply for a clerkship!"

(This goes for paper apps too, so you already wasted your time.)

edit: Also, there is one sub-specialty of panda law where there are jobs: immigration. Want to do immigration work? DoJ will probably snatch you up right off the bat to go clerk for an immigration judge. They took a solid 10% of my classmates, if I remember right.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Hey, I never said immigration law was rewarding or well paying (it can be one or the other, just not both), just that it is one of the forms of international panda rights law where there are some jobs available.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

MoFauxHawk posted:

Isn't Chicago Law several miles south of the Loop? Northwestern Law's the one at the Loop. I'm moving to Streeterville from DC August 15th!

Does anyone know where I should get a cheap bed? All the graduating 3Ls will probably be done selling their crap by the time I'm in Chicago.

Yeah, but a lot of Chicago students don't live in the neighborhood (because it's kind of lovely, tbh). If he's Northwestern, I'd almost tell him not to bother unless he's top 5% or has a personal relationship with a judge - that seemed to be the necessary qualifications at Georgetown, which is comparable enough to NW.

I know that I, as a graduating 3L, won't be selling a thing off until later in August (nobody is selling stuff from now until after the bar, and very few people are moving August 1, most people who are moving are moving in the second half of the month), so I think you'll do okay on finding a bed - if not, check Craigslist, it's always good for cheap poo poo (might want a new mattress though).

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

MoFauxHawk posted:

Wow mean. :( I'm going to believe HR's advice over yours both because it serves me and because Northwestern is more a Duke-level school than a Georgetown-level school. I hope you're right about the furniture though, thank you for the input.

This was last year. It might have gotten better. (Not counting on it.) I wasn't trying to be mean - I was in the same boat. You know how people say "don't go to law school"? Well, once you're in law school, "don't count on a clerkship if you're not top 5%/HYSC/friends with the judge."

Also, I was talking about offers, not interviews, when I said 5%/know the judge. Plenty of top 1/3 got interviews. Maybe you are that special snowflake that HR talks about (they fed me the same line last year; did not get an offer).

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

MoFauxHawk posted:

I just meant it was mean that you were saying Northwestern was comparable enough to Georgetown and so far below Chicago.

For clerkships? Chicago is a feeder school for clerkships in general, and is generally ranked 4th/5th overall. Northwestern is at the bottom of the top tier along with Georgetown. Had it been a UT student I'd have said the same thing (though UT is in a position where they're at least advantaged for Texas judges - NW isn't because they're competing with Chicago students for local bias, and Georgetown isn't because DC judges don't really exhibit local bias.)

Looking into it a bit more, I was actually wrong - Chicago doesn't do as well as I thought! Nor does Georgetown. Chicago does slightly better than NW, and Georgetown does slightly better overall but places fewer into federal clerkships as opposed to state and Article I clerkships. However, Chicago massively outperforms when it comes to SCOTUS clerkships.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

srsly posted:

Oh wait I forgot I get to "bill" my lunch with summer associates yesterday.

15.8
18.1

Don't go, work 34 hours in 2 days, die alone.

I'm fairly sure the "billing 0 hours per day" group would trade you. (Also, how the hell are you billing lunch with summers? Unless it was lunch with summers who are working on a matter with you?)

Kalman fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Jul 22, 2011

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

CaptainScraps posted:

How do you guys feel about putting references on resumes?

If they wanted your references, they would have asked for them.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

NJ Deac posted:

A good friend of mine's girlfriend is an associate in their Palo Alto office. From his descriptions, it doesn't sound any better or worse than most other Biglaw gigs - crazy hours, exorbitant salary, some of her coworkers/bosses are cool, most are dickbags.

The only thing that stuck out for me from his description is that they have an "up or out" system which I'm not sure is standard or not - either you get promoted every 3 years (associate -> senior associate -> of counsel -> partner, or whatever their progression is) or you're looking for a new job; that may be standard for most large firms, though.

That was standard; it's mixed now whether any given firm is a true up and out (make partner or leave - e.g. Cravath, classically, and I believe still) or whether they allow some alternative to partner.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

qwertyman posted:

New York Bar? Give me something hard to pass.

NEVER AGAIN

Never. Ever. Again. (I passed, it's pretty exciting.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Sulecrist posted:

I wonder if there's any chance of it dropping behind Boalt and UVA now

Penn is not Penn State.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

blar posted:

David Segal is making a career out of law school hatchet jobs. I love how he interviews law professors and then uses the titles of their "scholarship" to show how worthless the whole system really is.


:lol:

I like how one of his examples of worthless scholarship in the legal academy is a philosophy article title, written by a philosophy professor and placed in a philosophy journal (“What Is Wrong With Kamm’s and Scanlon’s Arguments Against Taurek” from The Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy).

Not saying he doesn't have some points, but that article is sloppy as gently caress.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Tetrix posted:

I'll be working in DC for the federal government next year and don't know what bar to take. Most people in the office took either MD or VA. I guess the biggest plus for MD is that there is no annual CLE requirement. I don't have any long term plans to relocate to another state either.

If you're working in DC for the government, take whatever the hell bar you want. No one will care. MD/VA are more common mostly because of people who want a little more flexibility within the region. I took NY and work in DC (also with no plans to relocate). Others in the office are actually mostly NY bar, with a couple randoms (I think we have a FL bar?)

Basically, you're going to waive into DC anyway, so as long as you take the MBE whatever bar you want is going to be fine. Pick based on price, difficulty, potential to move, and CLE requirements.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

CaptainScraps posted:

My cousin wants to go into the FBI and recently told me he took the LSAT because all they're taking is lawyers.

How hard should I hit him?

P.S. He also says FBI agents don't need to be in shape, so it's cool if he's fat.

Very, very hard. DoJ entry level lawyer hiring is down more than almost anywhere else. If he's going for the law entry path to the special agent track, I don't know how down hiring is, but:

quote:

Serving as an FBI Special Agent is a demanding job. A Special Agent is often placed in situations that make great demands on his/her physical capacity. In these instances, physical fitness is often the factor that spells the difference between success and failure — even life and death. Therefore, all candidates for the position must be in excellent physical condition with no disabilities which would interfere in firearm use, raids, or defensive tactics. For more information on the physical fitness requirements, please see the Special Agent Physical Requirements portion of this site.

So, smack him til he's in shape, then smack him some more because that is an incredibly stupid reason to spend 3 years of your life and 200k on law school. (I *liked* law school, and I'd still kill myself if that had been my reason.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Big Slammu posted:

Here's my explanation, but before you guys jump all over me I want to preface it: please please PLEASE realize that I am not going to jump into law school unless I'm getting into a school where 1) debt isn't a terribly overwhelming consideration (HYS) or 2) a T14 with a very good scholly. I've turned down law school before (following your advice), and I'll do it again if need be. I am terribly debt adverse.

So having said that here's the explanation: (a really good) law school strikes me a good place to hedge my bets.

If not for the even more abysmal placement rates in academia, I probably would have gone the PhD route for History (although I've found myself enjoying legal scholarship more than historical scholarship recently). If I can graduate from a top 3 law school or a top 14 law school with little to no debt, I could look at doing one a few things:

Plan A: Clerkship --> Firm Job --> Academia (I know the odds are against me big time here, but they would be against me at a PhD program too, and with law school at least I have a somewhat palatable fallback rather than become a freelance writer/high school teacher as a failed PhD student)

Plan B #1: With a lower debt load, I'd be really interested in public interest practice. I interned at a non-profit legal services clinic, and I really respect that side of the legal field.

Plan B #2: Take my shiny law degree and head back to the government, use the degree as an in, work my way up more, and maybe become a lobbyist? (This is why I'm unsure if I want to stay in politics: the end game here to me is probably more unsavory than big firm lawyer to me)

Plan C: BigLaw, MidLaw, Scatlaw (I know BigLaw is a rather uncertain backup plan, but again I'm probably only going to law school if I'm either getting into a school where debt isn't an overwhelming consideration (HYS) or a T14 w/ $.

http://leiterrankings.com/new/2011_LawTeachers.shtml. If you get into Yale, and think you'll be top 10% (hint: 172/3.85? You probably won't be top 10%), AND like to write, a lot, then you might, might, MIGHT be able to wind up a teacher.

(No one in government gives a gently caress about your law degree unless you want to work in one of the legal policy areas - if you're interested in doing econ work, or health, or anything outside of judiciary issues, a law degree ain't that helpful.)

If you get into HYS, yeah, okay, consider it, you'll probably get a job (in a field you have no interest in working in according to your post). If you get into a T14 and a full ride, I suppose you can consider it even though you're still going to walk out owing 50-70k between living expenses and bar costs. But you keep saying things that amount to "I don't want to be a lawyer", so, I'd take your own advice.

(In my gov't office there are two different grads of T14s who don't have jobs and are on 6 month fellowships from their schools. Don't assume a T14 is a good plan right now - it might be better by the time you get out, but it also really might not.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Just for a comparability thing: if you want to teach, you basically want to get an appellate clerkship AND a Ph.D. If you do that, you're a reasonable candidate. If not, hope you get a SCOTUS clerkship. That's not an exaggeration - go look at the number of professors under age 40, even at lower tier schools, who did not clerk and do not have a Ph.D. and did not go to Yale. It's essentially zero. You need two of those three markers, and even then you have a better shot at finding a job with a history Ph.D. as compared to being a law prof.

(Jobs with state reps, assuming he's currently a staff assistant, go: staff assistant, legislative correspondent, legislative aide, sr legislative aide, legislative director, chief of staff. If you have a law degree, you can be a counsel/chief counsel instead of an LA/LD. At any point after LA, you can usually break off and go into government affairs/lobbying for either private practice or non-profits, though that's more common for national positions. Titles may vary from chamber to chamber - those titles are the ones I'm familiar with from the US Senate.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Kudaros posted:

Would a PhD be very helpful? Or only marginally so?

It will be helpful in getting hired as a patent attorney. Patent prosecution firms in particular love to swing their "we have THIIIIIIS MANY PHDs" dick around and love recruiting people with advanced degrees in scientific disciplines.

(But an MS is almost as good.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Baruch Obamawitz posted:

We're desperate for people who can speak english and have good technical skills and an applicable bachelors. A PhD won't hurt.

You're not currently hiring, as far as I can tell.

http://usptocareers.gov/Pages/PEPositions/Jobs.aspx - "Currently, we have no available vacancies for Patent Examiner positions."

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Baruch Obamawitz posted:

I could be a judge (although I don't know if the judges are still just hired by the director or if they "fixed" it so that you have to get nominated and go through the Senate; let's just say that if it's the latter, I hope my facebook page doesn't see the light of day)

Last I checked, administrative patent judges aren't advise and consent (thank loving god, I hate nominations work). There are actually a few APJ openings up on USAJOBS right now.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

diospadre posted:

It's really a June + July thing. If you cram in June you will forget everything by the end of July. Don't expect to do zero prep during July and pass.

That said, lots of people work while doing bar prep. It's doable but tough and you will hate your life.

I worked pretty much full time in June, then took July off and passed without any problems. It wasn't really that hard.

(Doing the reverse would have been terrible though.)

VVVVVV: this was critical to my successful bar preparation.

Kalman fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Jan 11, 2012

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Feces Starship posted:

1.) in the interests of DEPRESSION what kind of student loan situations do we have in this thread? i owe 160K after law school and undergrad and I went a public undergrad and got a partial scholarship to law school. played out my repayment scenarios last night and i will owe 2K a month for 10 years, welp

2.) hey did anybody work part time whilst studying for the bar? cause i have to somehow stay alive until starting work in september

1) A lot. At least nearly all of it is public! (Whatever, I'm never paying it off anyway, it'll either be IBRed out in 25 years or PILR in 10.)

2) I worked full time during June bar study. Took July off from work entirely, though. It's not that bad, just download the videos while you're at work and watch them sped up when you get home.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Lilosh posted:

I go to one of the most expensive schools, so take this with a grain of salt, but:

$70k per year "cost of attendance" (including room, board, books, etc) times three years will be a bit over $210k (assuming tuition goes up a bit every year).

According to http://www.ibrinfo.org/calculator.php , I (a single guy with no dependants) could, if I work in BigLaw and make 160k:
"Based on the information you have provided, you would probably qualify for IBR. Your monthly payment would be around $1,800. If your income rises in the future, then your payments might too."

This is ignoring my undergrad debt and any interest accrued while in school. I typed in 210k debt and 160k salary. If you work in BigLaw though, you'd be idiotic to do IBR though because you can actually pay off your loans and not just accrue interest.

You forgot interest accrued while you're still in school, which will add a solid chunk of change to that 210k.

I am right at the breakpoint where if I was working in biglaw, I would make just enough to have IBR and 10 year repayment break even.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Roger_Mudd posted:

I think there should be term limits for SCOTUS judges. Justice Thomas couldn't stay awake during the inauguration, Justice Ginsberg's chin is on her chest at the State of the Union.

That or make them drink some coffee.

Let's not penalize them for being no different than 90% of the people watching.

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

It doesn't matter where you go, you're still going to wind up on a short term fellowship sponsored by your school so they can pump up their employed at 9 months numbers.*

(*Statement may not be true of HYS. Statement is also probably not true of terrible law schools, because they're not even bothering to fund short term fellowships.)

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

MrMojoJak posted:

Am I wrong in thinking, that going to an ok school for free and returning to my small town is the best option if I wish to practice? Thanks.

What would you be doing after returning to your small town? Is this actually a realistic option (i.e. do they need another lawyer in an area you think you want to practice in)? Is anyone in your small town going to give a gently caress about your degree from Indiana, Bloomington (which is a loving boring town, by the way) or are they just going to hire people from the lovely law schools near them because they know the dude who taught Property to their new hire and he said "hey, this guy's alright, hire him would ya"?

And, after all is said and done, are you sure you want to sacrifice three years of your life (and your income) on the chance - which, as I've noted above, ain't that great - that you can find a law job in your small town?

Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

joat mon posted:



"No license is granted to use this record when sold below [$14 in today's dollars]"

For a single of "Give My Regards to Broadway."

Although the Supreme Court stopped this type of licensing in 1908, I'm sure the idea warms the cockles of the RIAA's and Garth Brooks' hearts.

The more things change...

You should probably read White-Smith before you get on a high horse here. You know. The case that made it eminently clear that there was no copyright protection at the time (prior to 1909) for sound recordings, and that copyright in musical compositions extended only to reproductions of the sheet music?

It's almost like someone out there wanted to get copies of records without paying the artist. I bet they justified it by saying more people would go to the artist's shows, too.

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Kalman
Jan 17, 2010

Agesilaus posted:

Are you joking? IUB is on that list, and has far better job prospects than what you said. It's ranked in the mid 20s last time I checked, the career resources were genuinely helpful in my experience, and the people I knew in law school seem to be work at a variety of firms and government positions. I myself am working at the government office I spent my summers at, and at the end of 3L I was strictly an average student, if not worse (very high 1L grades, then very steep decline 2L and 3L).

You graduated before things went to poo poo, didn't you. The only reason MSU is worth going to* is because it's free. IUB isn't worth going to if you're paying sticker for it, or even close to sticker.

*still not worth going.

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