Law School - Noto Law School

Law Schools Rankings Malpractice?

May 11, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

Did he even have to ask? The Taxprof blog is asking if law schools committed rankings malpractice by not reporting their employment statistics for nine months after graduation. Everything a law school does is suspect if you ask me. He explains:

As U.S. News rankings aficionados know, the methodology used in the 2011 U.S. News Law School Rankings gives 18% weight to employment statistics: 14% to the percentage of the Class of 2008 employed nine months after graduation (which is reported to the ABA as well), and 4% to the percentage of the class employed at graduation (which is not reported to the ABA).

74 schools did not supply U.S. News with the percentage of the class employed at graduation. Well, that’s about as shocking as finding out it’s easy for George Clooney to get laid.

The 74 nonreporting schools presumably had an employed at graduation number more than 30 percentage points below their employed at nine months number and thus benefited in the rankings by not reporting their employed at graduation number to U.S. News.

Oh yes, they benefit by not reporting their employment numbers to U.S. News. Prospective students read that, do you think the schools want to advertise that none of their graduates find work after shelling out over $100,000? Not so much.

Access Tried To Compound Student Woes

March 5, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

his came out back in May 2008, but I am putting it up because it goes to show what we can accomplish if we stand up to these greedy scumbag bankers.

Jill Savedoff, a law student at American University Washington College of Law, sued Access for violating its loan agreement for charging her additional interest of $650 that accrued during the first two years of her loan. Access didn’t bother to notify her that her interest rate had gone up and didn’t raise her monthly payments to reflect the new interest rate. Instead, they simply added the amount to her principal and then charged her interest on the whole thing.

In May 2008, the 6th Circuit affirmed a district court decision that found Access liable for charging borrowers additional interest and then adding the interest to the principal. The class action included around 7000 students from law and medical schools who had loans in 1993-2006 from Access.

The case was sent back to the US District Court in Ohio to determine if Access Group acted in bad faith. You think? Access settled, and because of this brave law student, Access had to undo over $400,000 in compound interest charges and:

The District Court entered judgment determining that Access Group’s compounding of Additional Interest breached the Class Members’ loan agreements and enjoined Access Group from compounding Additional Interest again in the future.

Way to stick it to them Jill! Well done.

Drug Crazed Lawyer Attacks Client

March 4, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

A Minneapolis lawyer is on trial for raping a client, and not with his fees. This lawyer actually raped the client in his office, telling her that no one could hear her scream as he snorted coke.

The lascivious lawyer first tried to woo her with this classic line, “Girl, you fine as hell.” Smooth talker! Foreplay consisted of him grabbing her breast and saying, “Relax, girl, I’m the man. I’m plugged.” Well, what woman wouldn’t be in the mood after hearing that?

When she finally escaped, telling him a friend was waiting for her downstairs, he hid under his desk with his pants around his ankles. His defense? The victim stopped for cigarettes on the way to the hospital. Guess he figures if she wanted to smoke, she must have enjoyed it.

Student Loan Investigation

February 28, 2010 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

The following was on the Huffington Post last week – they are doing an investigation about student loan abuses. Send them your horror story.

Huffington Post Investigative Fund–Stabile Partnership: We at the Investigative Fund are partnering with a team of graduate students at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. The topic of their investigation is the student lending and debt collection industry, and they are asking for your help:

We’re interested in hearing if you – or someone you know – have had problems dealing with your debt collector. We’re also interested in your dealings with the government’s mediator, known as the Department of Education’s Ombudsman office. Your stories and tips will help us investigate.

Leave a comment Student Loan Investigation

Is Law School a Good Investment?

November 19, 2009 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

There are a lot of pissed off JDs out there, see the link to the article below. The world was a different place a few years ago, but still, is a third tier law school ever a good idea? I think not.If all you can get into is a third tier school, wait, take the LSATs again, and go to a decent school, or don’t go at all. Maybe it’s ok to try law school for a semester at a third tier if you couldn’t get in any place else. However, if you don’t place in the top 5%, the best idea is to drop out. If the bottom 95% dropped after first semester, it would have the added benefit of putting third tier diploma mills out of business. Go to this site for a great discussion on law school as an investment:(http://www.abajournal.com/news/is_law_school_a_good_investment_no_law_profs_say_for_many_typical_students/)