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Back to School: ASL's Award Winning Moot Court, Mock Trial, and ADR Teams

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As noted in prior posts, I am using this week to brag about the Appalachian School of Law.  Today, I want to focus on our championship competition teams. Moot Court Program Students from the Appalachian School of Law routinely excel in nationally-known moot court competitions. These appellate advocacy competitions pit ASL students against teams from the top 50 schools.   At the Wechsler National Criminal Law Competition , ASL has won more awards than any other school in the history of the competition -- including two national championships, two final-round appearances, five Best Advocate awards, four semi-final round appearances, and two brief writing awards.    In the spring 2013 National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC), the ASL team advanced all the way to the final round -- out of 76 teams.  After three preliminary rounds, ASL was one of 27 teams that advanced to the quarterfinals.  One team member was honored as a Top Oralist for the preliminary ro

Back To School: Nicest People I've Ever Met Live in Grundy

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Here's another thing I want to remind faculty, students, alumni, and potential students about.  The nicest people you will ever meet live here. Yesterday, Matt Hardin, a student at Appalachian School of Law, posted this unsolicited comment to my morning blog: "My personal experience is that all of the world's nicest people live in Grundy." The people in southwest Virginia combine Southern hospitality with a heapin' dose of mountain hospitality to create a very open-hearted and supportive community.  They welcome students into their churches, civic organizations, charitable enterprises, and homes. This place and the people who live here embrace you with their beauty, calm determination, work ethic, generous spirits, and loving kindness.  Many have so little and yet they share so much.

Back to School: Mission of the Appalachian School of Law

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A Mission Tied to Its Locality As I noted in an earlier blog, I am using this week to remind faculty, students, alumni, and entering students why the Appalachian School of Law is so special.  Let's move to its unique mission. The Mission Appalachian School of Law (ASL) is a mission-driven school created by local business, legal, and political leaders concerned about the well-being of people living in the central Appalachian Mountains.   ASL’s founders hoped to create an opportunity for central Appalachians to see beyond their own mountain valleys and, having done so, to return home with greater insight, effective legal skills, leadership ambitions, high ethical standards, and a commitment to community service.    A 2008 student survey, conducted in conjunction with the strategic planning process, revealed that on average the parents of ASL students only had “some college” or a “2-year degree.”  Thirty-four percent of our students reported that their mothers obtai

Back To School: Some Thoughts About the Unique Location of the Appalachian School of Law

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Unique Location of the Appalachian School of law Classes for our incoming 1L students start this coming Friday.  I plan to use this week to remind faculty, students, alumni,and incoming students about what makes the Appalachian School of Law so special. Yes, this is a shameless plug.  But, in a southeastern market where students can choose between being a name at a mission-driven school and being a number at a for-profit school, I want to remind us all why ASL stands out. Unique Location: Located in the  Central Appalachian Mountains  of Virginia; Quiet small town of Grundy is enhanced by recent addition of new stores and restaurants; During 2013, work will begin on the River Walk Project that will create additional green spaces along the Levisa River that flows through town and northwest (that's right!) to Pikeville, KY; Pikeville, Ky, in turn, played an important role in the famous Hatfield and McCoys  feud; Unique local history is tied to coal production an

Success as a Law Student: Two Mindset Tricks

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What do you say to new law students about being successful in law school? We will welcome our incoming law school class at the end of this week. For the first time in many years, I will play a role in our week-long Introduction to Law course.  At the end of the week, I will give a presentation on test-taking skills and strategies.  I gave this talk for the first time earlier this summer during our LSAT prep course. This week-end I updated it with several helpful tips based on a couple of blog postings. The first blog posting  -- Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals -- suggests that fundamental changes must happen at our level of identity.  If you seek change by focusing on your appearance or your performance, the change will likely be short-lived. So, for example, if I want to lose 40 pounds by Christmas (as I do), I can focus on how my body looks in the mirror or to my friends. But, as all dieters know, it takes at least 8 weeks before anyone will no

Debate Continues About the Value of a Law Degree

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As you know, I have followed the debate between the authors of the report -- The Economic Value of a Law Degree -- and the author of a book -- Failing Law Schools (FLS) . I thought we were about done with the back and forth, but now it seems the author of FLS , the Law Professor at Washington University School of Law, Brian Tamanaha, has gotten help from a member of his faculty.  The story appears  here . Tamanaha has targeted a group of expensive ($40,000+/per year), mostly California law schools, that also have low employment stats when you look only at the category of  full-time jobs requiring bar passage.  I've discussed how to understand the reported employment numbers  here . In the end, I agree that prospective students should carefully consider the decision to go to law school.  They should carefully adopt a strategy that gets them the best education possible at a reasonable cost.  I discuss one possible strategy here .  And yes, they should consider whether they

$100,000 in Debt? Would I go to Law School Today?

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Appalachian School of Law is one of the most affordable private law schools in the U.S.  Based on the data I have, it is one of the most affordable private law schools east of the Mississippi River.  Even so, our tuition this coming year is about $31,000 per year. Living expenses in excess of tuition -- of about $20,000 per year -- make law school a significant investment in a student's future. If a college graduate asked me whether to go to law school today, I'd say "yes."  But, here's how to do it. Do not apply to a school that is likely to admit you to fill the bottom of the class. You will pay full tuition to claim that spot. Instead, apply to law schools that will happily admit you to fill the top ten percent of their classes -- they will be one or two tiers lower than your stretch school.  Look at the LSAT quartiles for each school for a hint at how you fit in each school's entering class profile.  Disclose the admission package offered by the be