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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Category Archives: Law schools
Do not ask for whom the bellwether tolls . . .
Washington University (St. Louis) has become the first “highly ranked traditional law school” to offer a fully online LL.M. degree program that will qualify students to sit for the bar exam in a dozen U.S. states. The Wash U program is aimed … Continue reading
Going back to the Langdell law school model
Over at Concurring Opinions, Frank Bowman, who I’m happy to say teaches at my alma mater, has a good post about legal education, well worth reading. Jeff Lipshaw at Legal Whiteboard has some thoughts of his own on the subject. … Continue reading
Defending Elizabeth Warren, undermining diversity
I’ve always admired Elizabeth Warren, if for no other reason than she graduated from a middling state law school and yet managed to make her way to the faculty of the world’s most storied law school. (Last time I checked, … Continue reading
“If you want to help lawyers serve the poor, don’t charge $45,000 a year for law school.”
That’s the comment from “James” in response to an ABA Journal Weekly story about New York’s new “pro bono” requirement for would-be attorneys. I couldn’t agree more. There are lots of people who could use lawyers if those lawyers could … Continue reading
ABA considers making LSAT voluntary
The American Bar Association is apparently the only accrediting body in the U.S. that requires prospective students to take a standardized exam for admission. That may change, as the Standards Review Committee of the Section on Legal Education and Admission … Continue reading
Lawyers and mandatory “pro bono”
A colleage whom I like and respect takes a very different view of New York’s new mandatory pro bono requirement for bar appicants than I did yesterday. In the course of our email exchange, he made this point: I have … Continue reading
Shrinking the law school class
The University of California’s Hastings College of Law is cutting back on its 1L class this year. The school (whose in-state tuition is now apparently a staggering $46,575 a year) will This may be motivated by concern for students, or … Continue reading
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
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