Frank Snyder
I'm a law professor who has taught at law schools in each quartile of the USNews rankings, been a partner at an AmLaw 20 firm, and owned a couple of independent minor league baseball teams.
You can find my current school on a Google search, but I'm not putting it here because I want to emphasize that this blog reflects my personal observations on legal education, the profession of law, and the vast changes (the "Apocalypse") that are looming on the horizon for each. I claim no special expertise in these topics, except for having practiced law for nearly 15 years and taught in law schools nearly as long.
Unlike some other critics, I believe that the law is the greatest of the secular professions It has played a critical role in American life. Law school is not a scam. Law has offered, and continues to offer, incredibly rewarding careers to thousands of new lawyers. My view of the American law school is like that of reforming 15th-century Catholics to abuses in the Church -- a deep love for an institution but a strong concern that it has fallen under some very bad influences.
Unless attributed and linked to specific others, all of the thoughts here are mine, unless I unconsciously stole them, in which case I apologize. None of them should be taken as the opinions of my employer, my publishers, my students, or any other person or institution.
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Author Archives: Frank
Encouraging (i.e., forcing) student participation
Some students like to talk in class. Some don’t. There seems to be little correlation between talking in class and performance in class. But I suspect there’s a correlation between talking in class and succeeding in law practice, as I … Continue reading
Women speaking up in law school
Students at Yale Law School have a new report out on gender at America’s most exclusive law school. It’s called Speak Up about Gender: Ten Years Later. One of its findings is that adjusted for the relative populations, women at Yale … Continue reading
The are NOT too many lawyers
A piece in the ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter, relying on a BloombergBusiness.com news story, makes a fairly common claim in these recessionary days: there are too many lawyers in America. Boomberg writer Paul Barrett relies heavily on the fact that in 1950 there … Continue reading
More on “practice-ready” students
Over at Pryor Thoughts, Regent’s Scott Pryor responds to my earlier post that in turn responded to a thoughtful piece by Suffolk’s Jeff Lipshaw. I agree with much that he says, but I want to clarify my point, which I’m … Continue reading
Heck, they might be even more deluded than us
In case you were wondering whether any group in America is more completely out of touch with the economic disaster facing them than law professors at ABA-accredited schools, there may actually be one: the editorial staff of the New York Times. It … Continue reading
Advice from good mentors
Michael Maslanka, a veteran employment lawyer with a great reputation in Texas, posted an odd column the other day, sharing mentoring advice he got when he was a whippersnapper. It’s called Five Lessons From Mentors Who Cared. Some of the advice … Continue reading
Signs of change at the ABA
Barry Currier (left) has been named the interim Consultant on Legal Education to the American Bar Association, replacing Bucky Askew, who has held the job for the last six years. Mr. Askew has presided over some substantial changes in the ABA’s … Continue reading
“Worst law school in five states”
I was in the law school faculty/staff staff kitchen the other day, making a cup of coffee and overhearing a conversation. Seems some anonymous person on some blog or other called the school that employs me “the worst law school in … Continue reading
Chen steps down at Louisville
One of the few law school deans who has some sense of the coming Apocalypse is stepping down. Jim Chen of Louisville is calling it quits after five years. With any luck, he’ll have time now to do more of the … Continue reading
Making lawyers “practice-ready”?
“If you want law school to be practical, and you want it to do more than train litigators (whose orientation is the enforcement or opposition of legal rights and duties – and where some practitioners get to be appropriately tunnel-visioned), … Continue reading