The Red Velvet Lawyer

A decade after his first “grid” article, described in my last posting  here , Professor Len Riskin looked again at the question of mediator style, orientation, or strategies.  Perhaps influenced by his 20-year experience in mediation, or by his understanding of “living in the moment” derived from his mindfulness meditation practice, or perhaps because of the increasingly shriller debate about which style was “best,”   he took a more nuanced and fresh look at the original grid.   See  Leonard Riskin,  Who Decides What? Rethinking the Grid of Mediator Orientations , 9 No.2 Disp. Resol. J. 22 (2003).     He now suggests, I think, that we mediators should be gentler with each other.  Instead of labeling ourselves and each other (bad, bad evaluator or flakey, inefficient facilitator, or weird transformative mediator), mediators can ask instead what the parties need in the moment.  Mediators can also listen better when the parties ask us for what they need in the moment.  He su

In 1994, Len Riskin, then the C.A. Leedy Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Director of its Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, inadvertently started a great debate about what “style” of mediation was “best.”   When he published the article entitled, Mediator Orientations, Strategies and Techniques , 12 Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation 111 (1994), he described four styles of mediation based on how broadly the mediator defined the problem presented by the parties (and thus the depth of intervention the mediator was likely to take) and the role of the mediator -- either facilitative or evaluative.   According to this analytical scheme, a mediator could be: narrow/facilitative, narrow/evaluative, broad/facilitative or broad/evaluative.   The two-dimensional grid based on this analysis supposedly predicts the strategies each type of mediator is likely to use, and, Riskin thought at the time, the amount of self-determination the parties would

Solo practice, a no doubt terrifying option for most new graduates, still remains an option for lawyers.   Many resources exists to help new solos.  An article published recently, lists a few of them  here . I am also following several blogs focused on solo practice that you can easily access through this blog site.  A much longer list of relevant blogs appears here .  Recently, we offered students a one day workshop on going solo.  It covered: Assessing the Risks and Rewards of Being a Lawyerpreneur  Financing a Solo Practice  Trust Accounts  Income Tax Implications of Solo Practice  Legal Research Resources  Law Office Technology  Ethics  Marketing a Solo Practice, and  Tips from an Alumna For a free scanned copy of these materials, send me an email at pyoung@asl.edu.   Interestingly, the alumna who offered advice to students told me she had turned down a job in the local Commonwealth Attorney's office because she was making more money in private solo pra

Recently, Above the Law decided to develop its own law school ranking system based on employment rates nine months after graduation.  For the list of top ten schools look  here .  I especially like the first comment to that story.  This list clearly fails to recognize that most students will not have the GPA and LSAT scores to get admitted to the law schools Above the Law ranks at the top of its list.  Moreover, the list covers only the top 50 schools, leaving about 150 ABA-accredited schools out of the analysis.  See  here . My last post here  discussed how the reported employment numbers could mislead a prospective student.  This new ranking system reflects only the last category of numbers I discussed:  full-time, long-term, bar-required employment within nine months after graduation. I am not the only law school professor frustrated with the coverage these numbers get.  Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago has lodged his concerns  here  and refers to a post by Northwestern

Yesterday, I posted about the supply and demand for legal services some time in the future as more Baby Boomers retire.  Today, I want to explore the supply-demand gap existing today. Just recently, the ABA released data on employment rates for law school grads nine months after graduation for all ABA-approved law schools.  On average, for 2012 grads, 56.2 percent of grads found long-term, full-time positions that required bar passage.  These jobs include solo practitioners, law firm positions, business and industry positions, government jobs, public interest jobs, clerkships, and jobs in legal education. In 2011, fewer grads found that type of employment -- just 54.9 percent.  Grads who reported they still sought employment increased a bit from 9.2 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2012.  ABA 2012 Law Graduate Employment Data -- All Schools This measure of employment success is narrow, but admittedly reflects the aspirations of most students seeking a law degree.  It does not

Most of the news these days focuses on the alleged over-supply of lawyers.  I say "alleged" because the market considered by these journalists does not cover the needs of our rural populations or anyone who can not afford legal services at current prices. But, I'll leave that topic for another post. Today, I want to focus on the potentially odd likelihood that we will have a lawyer shortage in another five to ten years.  Here's why. The Washington state bar surveyed its lawyers asking about retirement plans.  The survey found that nearly one-quarter of the state's lawyers planned to retire in the next five years or about 1,440 per year.  Another 32 percent of its surveyed lawyers planned to leave the profession or cut back their practices.   See story here. The Washington bar report noted that a whopping 71 percent of the state's lawyers were aged 50 or older, with 21 percent being 61 or older. On the other hand, admissions to the state bar had not k

This summer, I will serve as the Faculty Supervisor for our students working as externs in Kentucky.  I have played this role for our Kentucky students three summers in a row.  One year, I also covered southwest Virginia nearly to the Cumberland Gap. I love exploring the towns and cities in the area we serve as a law school.  I love meeting the prosecutors, attorneys general, public defenders, judges, Legal Service, and other pubic service attorneys that host our students and serve as their site supervisors.  I love talking with these folks about our well-trained rising 2L students who must complete the externship as part of our educational program.  I also love interacting in my Dispute Resolution course with these more savvy, world-tested lawyers-in-training.  I know they bring a level of confidence and experience to the course that elevates our conversations. The Appalachian School of Law recently completed a couple of videos describing the externship program that you can view