Harvard Law Tuition Refund a Joke

General

The Harvard Law Record ran an April Fool’s article promising a full refund to those law graduates who didn’t receive job offers. Although it was a joke, I think the article made a valid argument for tuition refund:

“Its really only fair,” said Mark Weber, HLS’ Assistant Dean for Career Services. “When HLS makes each student an offer to enroll in the J.D. program, that offer carries the implied promise of a $160K starting salary at a prestigious law firm immediately following a lavish post-bar exam trip. HLS is under a contractual obligation to refund the tuition of students who find themselves in the unprecedented ‘no-offer’ situation.”

Law schools promise to train students to become a lawyers in exchange for exorbitant tuition and if their graduates are not employed as attorneys, the schools have not fulfilled their end of the bargain.

Most law schools use false employment statistics to lure in students, and they should be held accountable and be required to refund tuition to any law graduate who does not have a job in the legal profession one year after graduation. Unemployed law graduates should get a refund, and not just on April 1.

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Access Tried To Compound Student Woes

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.

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Drug Crazed Lawyer Attacks Client

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.

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Not Child’s Play

General

If only the plane had crashed, some unemployed TTT grads could have gotten some temp work. An irresponsible parent brought his kid to work and let him clear the planes for takeoff. I’m sure the parent found it “cute” and that he was doing no harm. What if the kid had screwed up? Is it still cute?

How about the parents in Brooklyn who insist on bringing their toddlers to bars? That’s right. Bars, the place you go to forget about the world and relax and maybe to get lucky. One bar, the Windsor Terrace, had the balls to ban babies in the bar. I couldn’t agree more, if I see puke in a bar, I’d like it to be mine, not some baby spitting up milk.

While kids annoying other customers in a bar simply ruins an evening, bringing them to work is something else. I saw them often at my law school, when the overpaid professors thought it would be fun to let the mini-lemmings run around the library, usually during exam period, completely unaware that someone paying over 40k a year in tuition has no desire to hear, “Mommy, look, everyone’s reading!”

Simple solution: just leave them at home.

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The Numbers Don’t Lie: Offer Rate Lowest in 17 Years

General

Everyone has been complaining about the job market, and the National Association for Law Placement has finally confirmed our worst fears. The offer rate for 2010 summer associate positions is the lowest they have reported in 17 years. Of course, acceptance rates have hit a new high. But wait, there’s more fun:

“This represents an enormous interruption in the usual recruiting and employment patterns that we have come to expect,” said NALP Executive Director Jim Leipold. “I don’t think anyone expects recruiting volumes to pick up significantly during 2010, though the worst does seem, we hope, to be behind us.

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