The Red Velvet Lawyer

But, Boy,  Is that a  Pretty Picture! When it snows here in Grundy, the flakes cling to every tree twig, limb, and leaf.  They stick to the rock crevices on all the mountain outcroppings.  They cap the fence pickets, bird feeders, and flower pots.   As you look out, you swear you are living in a white cloud. Few things are quite as lovely as snow in the Appalachian Mountains.  I've talked about the surrounding mountain beauty in several postings, my favorite appearing  here .    ASL alumni, I know this makes you feel a little nostalgic. 

Claim Your  Well-Deserved  Prize! An ASL grad posted this Facebook comment in response to one of my blog postings in July 2013 about claiming your right to success, abundance, love, and creative energy found  here . Prof. Young, last year you recommended bar takers to do affirmations to boost our confidence and success rates.  It felt hokey and certainly could never take the place of diligent studying[.]  [B]ut, it definitely helped me relax before the exam and helped reduce my stress during it.  A very belated thank you and a recommendation to bar takers that you give wonderful advice!   To make it easier for you to find some affirmations that may work for you, I am providing them below. Find the affirmation that deals with a specific challenge you face right now in connection with the bar exam.  Also, find an affirmation you plan to use shortly before the exam date, and as you sit to take the exam.  Write the af...

More on my Favorite Topic these Days --  Content Marketing When I was looking for  Gary Vaynerchuck's Wine Library  and Daily Grapes videos (so I can model them in my own marketing), I found this TEDtalk  that tells us what we need to be doing.  Be happy.   Do what your love.   Share your passion.   Work VERY hard.   Build your personal brand.  Be authentic; and, Use the new social media platforms to really connect with your tribe .  Here's what I said in an earlier  posting  about his books on the use of social media, content-based, marketing. Gary Vaynerchuk,  Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World  (2013). Explains how to use the existing and developing social media platforms by describing each platform, explaining its “native” communication style, describing its primary audience, and offering good and bad examples of the use of each platform. ...

Drop in Applicants to Law School Generating Another Kind of Equilibrium In December 2013,  I reported on the law schools cutting tuition, especially in highly competitive markets, like Pennsylvania.    Another blogger has updated the list and suggested law schools use Groupon to offer tuition discounts.   As I noted in my earlier posting, ASL has been and continues to be one of the most affordable private law schools east of the Mississippi River.  And, we held tuition stable this last year.  With scholarships, ASL can be as good a value as adjacent state-sponsored law schools, like University of Kentucky. Yes, unmitigated plug.  Feb. 11, 2014 Update:   More law schools drop tuition.     Feb. 27, 2014 Update: Tulsa , on scholarships and tuition.

Syfy Reality Show Will Feature ASL Alumnus JR Cook An alumnus of the Appalachian School of Law, JR Cook, will play the role of "Johnnie Rocket" on the new Syfy reality show Opposite Worlds .  See his introductory i nterview .  Episodes here .  Fan page here . He mentions his recent engagement to Jessica Taylor, also an ASL alumnus.   Follow him on Facebook here . But, he may not be making any postings until he can earn his way into "the future." For an interview with fiance, Jessica, see here .  Fan page for JR Cook  here . If you tweet to support him, be sure to include #AppalachainSchoolOfLaw. Twitter handle is @TeamJRsyfy Thanks!

        Appalachian School of Law  in the News In a recent article, The Bristol Herald Courier quoted  Appalachian  School of Law Professor Stewart Harris on the case involving Virginia’s Attorney General and his decision on a controversial same-sex marriage statute. Good job, Stewart! AG’s announcement met with sharply divided reactions BY ALLIE ROBINSON GIBSON BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Thursday’s news that Virginia At­torney General Mark Herring de­clared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional shows how elections are important, a lo­cal law professor said. “Elections matter,” said Stewart Harris, who teaches constitutional law at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. “That is what this tells us.” The announcement was met by sharply divided reactions, as some applauded Herring’s move to join other states in supporting same­ sex marriage and some said he was going against his duty to uphold ...

They are Dying for Stories One of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey, gave a speech that has run through the content marketing world with great enthusiasm.  In fact, he will now be a keynote speaker at the Content Marketing Institute's World 2014 conference in Cleveland, Ohio on September 8-11, 2014.  I'm going! If you have not watched this video, you can find it here . It's really great, especially if you're a House of Cards fan, like I am. Spacey explains the experience he had with marketing the series to the major networks before Netflix backed the project.  He then argues: The audience has spoken.  They want stories.  They are dying for them.  They are routing for us to give them the right thing.  And they will talk about it; binge on it; carry it with them on the bus and to the hairdresser; force it on their friends; Facebook; tweet; blog; make fan pages; make silly GIFs; and God knows what else about it. Engage with it with ...

And, the Number of Applicants Tends to Track the Number of LSAT Takers.   So . . . .  LSAC has now posted data on the number of LSATs administered at the December 2013 sitting.  As a commenter to a Faculty Lounge posting here , known as  "Former Law Review Editor,"  notes:   "Only 28,363 people took the December 2013 LSAT." I blogged about the historical data here .   For another summary of the historical data, by LSATs administered, look here . The recap: Date of Administration/Number of Takers Dec. 2013/28,363 Dec. 2012/30,226 Dec. 2011/35,825 Dec. 2010/42,096 Dec. 2009/50,444 (highest since 1987 when LSAC began keeping these records) Dec. 2008/43,646 You have to go back to 1997 to see this low level of Dec. LSAT takers (then, 29,879 takers).  It has never been lower since LSAC began keeping (or at least publishing) data on LSAT takers in 1987.   Jan.13, 2014 Update:  From the same comment thread by...

Content, Permission, and Social Media Marketing:  What You Need to Know  to  Market Your Legal Services More Effectively As promised in an earlier posting , here is my list of recommended reading on content marketing.   Chris Brogan, Google+ for Business: How Google’s SocialNetworking Changes Everything (2013). Brogan explores this newer platform that allows you to follow influences (unlike Facebook where people must give you permission to follow them).   I joined it because I figure the Google bots were paying attention to the content (like my blog postings) that I reposted there.  I also follow Brogan through his website, http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ , which is very stylishly designed and includes an example of a “Valuable Free Offer” opt-in page.  By opting in, you get on his “list,” which then serves as permission for him to continue to engage with you.  He also has a podcast (available in iTunes) and blog...

Content Marketing,  the "Long Tail,"  and  Your Legal "Tribe" Last spring, I helped teach our law students about starting a solo practice.  I taught the session on marketing a law practice.  One thing I tried to do was update the so-called "old-fashioned" legal marketing techniques for a more web-based/technology-based strategy. Christine Kane, Gold Mastermind, and Up Level Your Business If we offer it again this spring, I could provide even more valuable advice for 3Ls because of the path I've been on this past year as a member of the Gold Mastermind training offered by Christine Kane through her Up Level Your Business coaching programs. One thing I said last year, that I would repeat this year is this.  We now have cheap ways to find our "tribe" and then provide members of that tribe with high quality content that does several things: Positions you as an expert in an area of law; Let's you tell your story in a mean...

Refining the Data Analysis Further  and  Adding Assumptions The National Jurist , as promised, has followed up its December 2013 article (apparently no longer available if you don't have a subscription) with the data on which it relied to predict that an equilibrium between new legal jobs and new law grads would come in 2015.   Here is the link. This article also predicts jobs will exceed law graduates for the graduating class of 2016, but reaches that conclusion by applying an historic average for full-time employment in "bar-passage required" jobs of 69 percent. It says: The analysis by both [Profs. Young and Merritt] assumes that the number of [new] jobs remains flat and that the balance point between supply and demand is 100 percent full-time legal employment by graduates within nine months of graduation.  But since NALP began tracking data in 1985, the percentage of recent graduates who were employed in full-time legal jobs has never exceeded 8...

Understanding and Solving Complex Environmental Issues This Cold Morning Schools and offices closed as the temperatures dipped to lows not seen in decades. Experts explained what was happening here and here .  A deep dip in the jet stream allowed the frigid cold and winds of the North Pole to descend far south.   This morning, my little micro-climate in the central Appalachian Mountains registered a temperature of nearly six degrees below zero.  My home town of St. Louis, inundated with a large snow fall and even colder temperatures, is reportedly "closed" today.  The entire city. As I write this post, I am bundled in a fleece robe, long underwear, yoga pants, a hat, and my pink, fluffy, finger-less gloves.  I've got a lap blanket wrapped around my legs and mid-section, but I'm about to crawl inside my down sleeping bag so I can continue to work at the computer comfortably. Boo Boo, my littlest dog, is wearing two layers of dog clothes and h...

Distinguished Alumni  of the  Appalachian School of Law: Magistrate Nicole Lawson Legal Career Nicole A. Lawson is another ASL graduate serving as a Magistrate for the Supreme Court of Virginia, along with Elisabeth Griffith and Zack Stoots .    She works in the Norfolk Magistrate's Office. (Lis Griffith, fellow ASL alum works in the same office.)    Lawson and her husband, Robert Wnukowski, moved from Stafford, Virginia to Virginia Beach, Virginia the week after they returned from their honeymoon in August 2012.   She was hired the following month as a Magistrate.  After the two-month certification school process, she began holding bond hearings and issuing arrest warrants, search warrants, temporary detention orders for mental health crises, and emergency protective orders. Robert works as an 8th grade Civics and Economics teacher at Kempsville Middle School located in Virginia Beach.    The  ...