The Red Velvet Lawyer

"Folks, the change is here.  We’re living it." Jordan Furlong, a partner in Edge International, a leading management consultancy, describes the "revolution" that is ongoing in the legal field and in legal education in a recent posting he calls: You say you want a revolution?  He opens his posting this way: If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m convinced of a couple of things: (1) Fundamental shifts in the legal services environment will spawn a diverse population of new providers that will expand access to those services while destroying lawyers’ market exclusivity; and, (2) This is, on balance, a good thing. I’ve never been more certain than I am today, at the close of 2013, about the first — but I’ve never been less certain about the second. After summarizing evidence of the revolution, he offers some predictions for the future, and asks regulators, bar associations,  law schools, courts, and lawyers to take action n

Appalachian School of Law  Offers Two Courses  Over the Winter Holiday Break  January Intersession Introduction to Natural Resources Law ASL will offer this 2-credit hour course on its campus the week prior to the resumption of January classes (January 6-10, 2014). This intensive course will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 9:00 a.m. to noon on Friday.  The course will familiarize students with the legal, business, and environmental aspects of the natural resources law. Although broadly covering natural resources, the course will include a basic introduction to the U.S. legal and governmental system relating to environmental, natural resource, and energy laws, including hard mineral law, oil and gas law, water law, environmental law, energy policy, land use law, renewable energy law, and issues related to climate change and sustainability.  Four faculty members will co-teach the course. More specifically, they have designed the c

Robin, Launch, & Wealth During the past month, I've talked about goal setting twice: here and embedded here .  I just found this interesting discussion on how one successful entrepreneur works with goal setting.  Among other things, he picks three words to guide him over the next year.  They help keep him focused on his priorities. Take a look here .  I'll wait. For 2014: My three words for 2014 are these: Robin :  I am referring to Robin Wright Penn, the actress who plays the wife, Claire Underwood, to Kevin Spacey's character, U.S. House Majority Whip Frank Underwood, in the TV series, House of Cards .  As Claire, she portrays a strong, independent, ambitious, powerful, effective, kind-hearted, stylish, and fit woman who is trying to change the world through her non-profit foundation.  This, folks, is what we all want "50" to look like (even if she is actually 47).  Robin, the actress, has been choosy about the projects she will do and t

And, a Decade of Added Capacity  No Longer Needed? Yesterday, I linked to the ABA report showing the drop in applicants who actually enrolled in law school in 2013. By one blogger's  calculation , enrollment (average per law school) has not been this low since the late 1960s. The ABA Journal  reported: Law school enrollments nationwide are down 11 percent this year from last year and 24 percent from 2010, new figures show.  The nation’s 202 ABA-accredited schools reported that 39,675 full- and part-time students were enrolled in a first-year J.D. program this fall, according to figures released Tuesday by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.  That’s a decrease of 4,806 students from the fall of 2012, when 44,481 students began their law school studies, and a decrease of 12,813 students from 2010, when an all-time high of 52,488 first-year students were enrolled in an ABA-accredited school. (Emphasis added.)  In a more recent article, t

Distinguished Alumni  of the  Appalachian School of Law: Commonwealth's Attorney  Andrew Nester Andrew Nester graduated from the Appalachian School of Law in 2005,  suma cum laude , and, in a mere eight years, assumed leadership of the Commonwealth's Attorney Office for Henry County, Virginia.  The county is located on the southern border in the middle of the state.  He works out of an office in Henry County, where he supervises a staff of eleven, including four Assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys, an office administrator, three support staff, and three members of the victim-witness program. As the Commonwealth's Attorney, he prosecutes felonies and misdemeanors in the Circuit and District Courts.  The cases include complex financial crimes, arson, robberies, vehicular manslaughters, and larcenies.  He also serves on the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Voters elected him to the position in a spec

Big Drop in Law School  Enrollees So the big story this week is the significant drop in enrollees in law school. In other postings here and here , I've tracked the drop in applicants and applications. The ABA has finally released a report showing the drop in the number of applicants who actually enrolled in law school for the year beginning in Fall 2013.  The ABA explains that:  "The last time enrollment was so low was in 1975, when 39,038 students were enrolled. And, at the time, there were only 163 ABA-accredited schools." By one blogger's calculation , enrollment (average per law school) has not been this low since the late 1960s. And, with applications to law school expected to drop this year compared to last, we could expect further erosion of the number of law school enrollees for Fall 2014. This new data allows us to better predict job equilibrium, which I have discussed here , here , and here .  It is good news for graduates and student

The Bell Curve  and  The Spike First, forgive the look of this blog posting.  I have reproduced the chart from the NALP website , and this blogging platform makes me keep the original formatting (in this instance). Now, I saw this chart for the first time at the conference of the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors (MAPLA).  LSAC General Counsel, Joan Van Tol, included it in her slides along with data on applications to law school.  She explained that the chart showed two salary patterns.  The bell curve on the left hand side of the chart shows the starting salary for most (reportng) law school graduates 9-months after graduation.  Most of the jobs held by new grads pay $40,000 to $65,000.   The second pattern appears on the right side of the chart and reflects starting salaries of graduates who land jobs with BigLaw.  Van Toll called this part of the chart "the spike."  The spike moved away from the bell curve during the dot.com era