Chuck Newton

Grand Theft Law Student?

The law school ranking system created by U.S. News & World Reports is just destructive on so many levels.  No telling how much of the tuition increases over the last 10 years have been a direct result of law schools competing in ways to trump this system instead of actually teaching lawyers to be good lawyers.  It causes law schools to reject students it really wants or believes best for its student population.  Now some law schools have discovered they can hide the lower LSAT and GPA scores by shipping students off to other law schools for a year.

This is the latest flare up among law schools.  According to The ABA Journal,  Northwestern University Law School is offering some rejected applicants a chance to transfer in their second year.  This seems tame enough, but it is the underlying reason and motives on all sides of the transfer issue.

Northwestern is not the only higher tier law school to do this.  It accepted 43 transfers during the 2006-7 academic year, for example; Georgetown University accepted 93 transfers; NYU accepted 38; and the UCLA accepted 31.

Other law schools are accusing Northwestern and others of poaching their best students, while avoiding the hit to their rankings for taking the students that have lower LSAT scores and GPAs than the school advertises.

Northwestern's dean, according to The ABA Journal, does not deny this is true, comparing law schools to Chrysler and General Motors.  (Probably a bad metaphor or comparison to use presently).

Apparently, U.S News does not consider the LSAT scores or the GPAs of transfer students.

David Logan, dean of the Roger Williams University School of Law, says transfer students are being used as “cash cows” by the elite schools that recruit them after the first year, but Northwestern dismisses that argument as “patronizing.”

The ABA Journal initially reported that Northwestern offers about 150 of its 5,000 rejected applicants the chance to reapply for “conditional acceptance” the following year. In order to be admitted at that point, they would have to achieve an unspecified grade-point average or class rank during their first year at another law school. The journal said the law school later clarified that only 15 to 25 students receive such offers.

My general advice to law students?  Stay with the law schools that cared enough about you to give you a chance and which tried to nurture you.  Schools like Northwestern disrespect you when they rejected you in the first place for no better reason than to prevail over other law schools in terms of rankings.  These law schools disrespect you, as a student, when they care more for their rankings than about the students they accept on for the first year.

E-Waste

Law firms are in the information and communication business.  As a result, lawyers and law firms discard large numbers of computers, printers, computers, TVs, cell phones, monitors, smoke detectors and other instruments.  E-waste is the term used to describe these discarded electronics and electrical products on which we, as lawyers, rely.  As the legal markets taste for gadgetry has increased, e-waste from lawyers and law firms has increased.

The question is what happens to this e-waste?   It contains a large quantities of toxic and hazardous components that are currently being thrown into landfills.  Even worse for the lawyers and law firms, much of it is crammed in offices, and storage facilities as law firms try to figure out what to do with it.

Society is just now beginning to realize the consequences of e-waste.  Exposure to the toxins contained in the e-waste is not fully understood, but it believed not to be good.  The good news is that people (including lawyers) have begun taking notice of the environment and human health hazards involved with e-waste.  Governments from around the world are now stepping in and are working to find solutions to this growing problem.

As a general rule it is the inner mechanical organs that are both valuable and so toxic. They contain heavy metals, semimetals and other chemical compounds such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, copper, beryllium, barium, chromium, nickel, zinc, silver and gold. Many of these elements are used in circuit boards and comprise electrical parts such as computer chips, monitors and wiring. Also, many electrical products include various flame-retardant chemicals that might pose potential health risks.  Although these toxins might be safe encased in our computers, laptops, printers, monitors and the like, problems occur once the casings are broken.  This can happen in the office, but it is likely to happen once the product is trashed.  That is a problem for both you and me.

The issue for all of is concerns what is known as "bioaccumulation".  This occurs when people, plants and animals build up levels of toxic substances in their bodies faster than they can get rid of them.  This can happen in our food chain as we continue to simply trash our electronics and electrical components.  Mercury, for example, is a big issue and is absorbed easily by plant life and animals.

When you think about it, the old stored electronics at law firms can represent dangerous electronic graveyards.  There is a need to get rid of the product, but how?

It is a bit more complicated, but you need to see if your device's manufacturer has a take-back program.  Apple, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Toshiba all claim to take back some of your old electronic devices.

If there is not a take-back program, you need to find an e-waste recycler who practices on-site recycling. They have a process that breaks open the electronics.  Then using a conveyor belt with vibrating screens and magnetic fields they extract different elements.

Please, be responsible.  Do not let spaces at your offices and home become electronic graveyards.  And, do not simply dispose of your electronic and electrical waste in landfills.  We will all pay the price.

WARNING -- Lawyers Beware Of This Scam!!!

Tom Kane of Legal Marketing Blog felt compelled to warn of this, and so will I.  Reid Trautz of Reid My Blog reports the scam as follows:

"This new scam is a version of the You-Won-The-Sweepstakes-But-Need-to-Send-Us-Money-to-Claim-It routine. The victim receives a call from the scammer with the "good news" and is given the law firm's website URL for the victim to confirm the lawyer's identity. The web address--often like ABClaw.com--takes the victim to a website that contains some legitimate information about the lawyer and/or law firm, but the phone numbers and addresses are directed to the scammer. (The site is, of course, built off-shore!) Even if the victim is savvy and calls the state bar to confirm the lawyer's name and good-standing, that won't prevent this fraud. 

This type of scam is particularly nefarious because it uses much of the public's remaining trust of the legal system to hook the victim. The best thing real lawyers can do is to join together in an effort to educate the public about these scams. Adding information to client newsletters, law firm blogs and web sites is a good start. A note in each client's bill next month would be helpful too. Such efforts will help reduce further incidents, and also assure the public lawyers are doing their part to keep down Internet fraud. Further, state bars should look at additional safeguards to see if the public can be protected against scams when they contact the bar for information."

I Use Google Earth

I am not a scientist.  And, I am not traveling salesman.  I am a simple attorney who works out of my home.  You might not think that I have any reason to use Google Earth or Google Maps in the work that I do, but you would be wrong.

I like Google because the company offer services that are functional, useful and FREE.  I like the power of FREE.

If you have ever visited my practice blog (StayViolation.Com), you know that I defend the rights of debtors gained in filing bankruptcy.  What I primarily do is prosecute automatic stay and discharge injunction violations.

Google Earth and Google Maps might not be the most important app that I use.  Admittedly, it did not replicate what the apps provide before they were available.  But, they do come in handy.

Many of the cases that I prosecute involve a debtor's home.  They involve value issues in determining how badly the automatic stay might have been violated in a case, for example.  Even though I rarely meet a client other than over the telephone, I want to know -- I need to know -- things about them.  I want to see where they live, and the neighborhood in which they live.  If I do need to meet with them, I want to see what location might be convenient for my client.  Visual images provide a better understanding of what and whom I must deal.

Also, a big part of my job is serving lawsuits (adversary proceedings) my law firm has drafted.  We do this by certified mail.  This task of serving the correct party at a correct address is not always as easy as it sounds.  This is especially so in serving smaller creditors that forget to update their registered agent information.  When there is confusion it helps to get online and take a look at the location suggested.  You need more than a map to make these judgments.  Google Maps might actually give you a street level picture of the building, can tell you if the address is a private home, is it a car lot, is it an empty field?  If it is a multi-tenant commercial building it matters in making these decisions?  It helps you understand often whether or not you need to look deeper.

Whittier Might Well Be My New Favorite Law School

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times (thank you for that one Mom), the primary obligation of a law school is to get you to pass the bar exam.  Forget all of the ranking crap, if you do not pass the bar exam, you have an expensive piece of paper, and almost nothing else, with your diploma.  Yet, many (if not most) law schools ignore the most crucial element.  Too many law school now play lip service to this fact, but look at how almost all fail to inculcate this objective into every aspect of the law school.

Whittier Law School has had some well document scrapes with the ABA over bar results.  It does not help that the law school is based in California where it seems even the best students have trouble reaching a passing grade on the state's bar exam.

According to the Orange County Register, the Costa Mesa law school is now offering its students a final push of motivation with t-shirts, but do not let this distract you from the real and systematic efforts of the law school to build practice ready lawyers. 

Now, when students from Whittier Law sit for the California bar exam, some wear the school's T-shirt, which read -- "Do it once. Do it right. Never do it again."  The T-shirts are handed out to all students and the slogan attempts to summarize for them publicly the law school's goal to get their graduates to succeed at passing the bar so they may be ready to actually practice law.

The goal is apparently placed everywhere at the law school.  It is on binders and pencils among most places.  So, why not place it on the bar exam takers themselves?

Whittier is obviously serious about improving its test scores, but the overall goal seems to be to produce practice ready lawyers, which is an admirable goal and one neglected by most law schools.  A practice ready lawyer must first pass the bar.  To help, Whittier reduced the number of students it accepts from an entering class of 220 to 160, limiting the class size to those most likely to actually pass the exam and become practicing lawyers.  When faculty members departed as a result, the school used the savings  to hire faculty whose sole purpose was to help students learn to think and write like lawyers.  Instead of just concentrating solely on teaching about the law, Whittier began to focus more on turning out graduates who have the practical preparation to go to work immediately as attorneys.

One way the school is now preparing practice ready lawyers to take the exam is it has its students research and write weekly essays on legal topics before taking the bar exam – practicing the kind of legal writing that is on the exam and that they will use every day as lawyers.

Also, the law school created an academic support team to teach students to assume they will succeed in passing the bar on their first try, beginning from the first orientation they attend until the moment they take the bar.  This includes special classes divided into small groups, personal counseling  and a drop-in center available six days a week.

Further still, after graduation graduates generally take a commercial course designed to help them cram for the bar exam, during which they study eight to 12 hours a day before taking the test in July.  The law school also offers additionally even more services to those students who wish to have the help, including more practice essays that are graded within 72 hours and sent back for feedback.

Then lastly, graduates are provided and are encouraged to wear at the bar exam their Whittier T-shirts so they can recognize each other.

And, all of the attention and effort is paying off.  Whittier graduates achieved an astonishing an 84.3% bar pass rate on what is considered by most to the hardest bar exam in the country.

Whittier might well be my new favorite law school because, for whatever reason, it has decided to focus on growing practice ready lawyers, and is actually following through on this goals in real, practical and achievable ways.

Frank Sinatra - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

You need a little bit of Frank for Christmas.

Diana Krall-Jingle Bells

I just love Diana Krall's music and style.  So you know her Christmas music is good.

Bah, Humbug!!

There is no surprise that Christmas brings out our inner curmudgeon.  It must be especially true among lawyers.  No matter what religion or upbringing or background, Christmas is suppose to inspire at least a short period of time in which charity and love prevail.  But does it in the practice of law?

Let me see.  It is Christmas Eve.  Most lawyers will mainly be out of their offices until New Years.  At least most lawyer will be primarily focusing on family and friends.  So, why would you not expect discovery demands and written discovery requests to hit on New Years eve?

Today, I received a discovery request wanting to take the depositions of my clients as early as the 29th of this month.  Of course, if I do not respond within 48 hours the lawyer might just set the depositions as he sees fit.  You will be happy to know that the lawyer ended his letter with "have a Merry Christmas".  What sarcasm.  What a jackass.  I emailed him and told him how uncharacteristically Christ-like his request was at this crucial time, and that I would not think about contacting my clients until next week.  I explained it is Christmas eve, that he needed to get his uncharitable and uncaring ass out of the office, go home and be with his family, leave the billable hours alone, and stop trying to be so damned tactical.

I also received two separate sets of interrogatories, admissions and production today.  There is nothing like getting a jump on the objection periods.  It is important to note that the deadlines in these were not pending as to either set.  Discovery just reminds us that Scrooge has a law degree.

A few years ago I had an attorney issue subpoenas to my clients two days before Christmas, requiring them to appear the day after Christmas for depositions, which included a huge list of mostly inappropriate documents my clients needed to bring with them.  He also issued a subpoena for me requesting that I bring all of my supporting case law and files to substantiate the lawsuit pending against his client.  I remember calling him up and requesting out of courtesy that he moderate his tactics so that we could enter into an agreement after the Christmas holiday or allow the judge to decide in the New Year.  He just said he was Jewish and Christmas meant nothing to him.  I tried to remind him that the judge was Jewish as well, but it was a holiday and I did not think the judge would be impressed with his tactics.  He refused, and so we had our motions to quash on Christmas eve, and a follow up hearing the following Monday.  The Jewish judge was absolutely livid at the attorney.  More importantly, how could one think a judge would not be outraged.

But, every year it happens in varying degrees.  Most often it happens with lawyers who profess to be Christians.  I know because when I complain they seem compelled to tell me they are Christians as if that somehow vindicates them from being unmitigated assholes.

And, believe this tactic is not left to discovery requests alone.  In most Texas bankruptcy court jurisdictions, a creditor's attorney has to notify the debtor's attorney two to three days before filing a motion for relief from stay.  Of course if you do so, and the problem is resolved, no motion seeking relief from the stay is necessary, and the creditor will not pay its attorney for the effort.  When I practiced bankruptcy law, we always had to turn off our fax machines (the primary technology at the time to document that such a request was made) on Christmas eve to hold back the literal barrage of such notifications.

A suicide bombing in a public place is probably the most egregious thing imaginable.  Yet, worse it seems to me, is the fact that some person always attempts such a thing on Passover every year.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  It is an act intended to cause personal destruction and it is also represents the utmost insult.  In short, it is not logical.  It is tactical.  It is horrific.  Yet, it is on Passover so that it will cause even more derision, and it is to stand as a mockery of the Jewish faith.

That is really the point here as well.  No, I am not saying that a lawyer trying to take tactical advantage of the Christmas holiday is as bad as a suicide bombing during Passover, but the point is that the intent is the same.  It is meant to be contemptuous, a put-down, a taunt, offensive, discourteous, and imprudent.  It is meant to be a snub, a slap in the face, and a slight.

There are too many lawyers these days that are so disagreeable, so offensive, so abhorrent, so repugnant, that I think it is important for none of us to let this type of conduct pass.  They can stand up in Court all they want and say "What?  What?  I was just doing what I was allowed."  However, we know, and most often the Court knows, this is a loathsome practices.

So, now I have received what will hopefully be the last of the discovery requests today.  I am through writing about the practice.  And now, hopefully, I can go back to my family.

Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad

You cannot, and I mean cannot, fully enjoy Christmas, at least in terms of music, without a little Jose Feliciano.

The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride

The Ronettes provide for me one of the best versions of Sleigh Ride.  The Ronettes were the only Girl Group to tour with the Beatles.  I am not sure why I like this holiday song so well.  First, I am not fond of the cold.  Second, I do not think I have ever been on a sleigh ride.  But, imagery is everything.