Chuck Newton

Law Schools Are Like Junior High Students

Sometimes law schools these days remind me of junior high school students.  The want to dress like everyone else, act like everyone else, be seen with all of the other cool kids, be accepted, and spend a whole lot of their parents money doing it they do not need to be doing. It is all about the influence the peer group has on an impressionable student to change his or her attitudes, values and behaviors in order to conform to the groups norms.  It is all about the clique.

A person affected by peer pressure may or may not want to belong to a clique, but they do not want to be scorn by their peers either.  And, in trying to belong to the clique, a junior high student will typically recognize dissociative groups in which they would not wish to associate.  As a result, they behave adversely concerning these groups.

What we know is that peer pressure can cause people to do things they would not normally do, such as take drugs and buy expensive things they do not need.

Well, law schools have gravitated in this direction.  The drug is the U.S. News rankings.  The expensive items represent almost everything that are causing tuition to monumentally increase.  The former leads to the latter.  It is a bad combination.

With the U.S. News rankings we are talking about negative peer pressure.  It is the desire for law schools to spend a large amount of time trying to associate with a fixed group regardless of their opinion of that group.  That group is the tier 1 group of law schools.  Then within that group it is the top 10 law schools.  Then within that group there is the top two or three law schools.

The problem with trying to be associated with the popular group or crowd is that research shows there are a number of risk factors that can result in deviant behavior. This deviant behavior is undoubted represented by run away tuition and fees, but it is also represented in the loss of the schools own identity as the lower tier law schools experiment with new identities, experiences and norms that are not always positive and beneficial to their law students.  These law schools want so desperately to be accepted and recognized by, and join, the top, top tier that they ignore the bad aspects.

As reported by The National Law Center, the U.S. News annual rankings profoundly influence the way law schools manage, spend resources, perceive themselves internally, and are perceived by the outside world.  The rankings affect so many aspects of the legal education.  Trying to move up in the rankings nearly consume law schools and determine overwhelmingly how law schools distribute their resources. And, it forces law schools to exhibit the worst behavior in trying to find ways to game the system.

One way they have done this is to classify students as part time or probationary so their LSAT scores will not count in the ranking calculations. Although U.S. News is correcting this, other loopholes are bing sought out.

Law schools also tend to allocate more money toward merit-based scholarships in order to attract students with high LSAT scores, the factor that accounts for one half of the law schools selectivity score.  Yet, the LSAT has never proved an indicator as to how someone will perform in law school.  The students undergraduate GPA, the quality of the applicant, and other more important qualifications do not count as high.

Law schools also spend a significant amount of money on brochures and other marketing for the sole purpose of trying to improve the reputation survey.  This costs, which law students pay for, does not benefit the law student much except to put the student deeper into debt.

And, talk about the dissociative groups.  The study of rankings has found that as a consequence of all of the gaming many law school administrators report becoming distrustful of other law schools, believing that they will do anything to raise their rankings even if those strategies are unethical.

Then, there is another study performed by the Government Accountability Office that found that the race among law schools to boost their U.S. News rankings was the biggest factor in rising tuition.

The fall in print media might eventually take care of the U.S. News rankings and once again allow law schools to control their own reputations.  Rankings can make things more transparent.  They are just statistics after all.  Whether the problem is U.S. News or the law schools, I think all of us are ready for the law schools in this country to just grow up and try to behave themselves.

10 Trends Lawyers Need To Follow In The New Decade

I am not a futurist and I do not have a crystal ball, but here are some of the changes I see in the next decade, of which attorneys need to be tuned into if they wish to thrive.

1.  Death to the desktop.  In fact, probably death to the computer as we know it.  Mobility is everything.  No tether will be acceptable.

2.  Death to the office.  Well, maybe not a communal space or spaces, but untethered we will not need anything but occasional workplaces.  We will be able to work from where we are, everywhere we are, whenever we are.

3.  Unbundled legal services.  As consumers become prosumers, they will custom fit their own legal representation.  Lawyers need to start thinking how their services break down into their component parts.

4.  Death to downloads.  Content will be streamed to computers, phones, slates and many other kinds of technologies.  Content will be there when you need it online, but likely not consumed by and on our hard drive.  It all speaks to the trend that these crappy legal template driven websites, that do not have a lot of thought in them, are not going to make it.  Websites and data from attorneys will have to become more available and easier to access and use.  Information will have to be made available to clients on demand, and not just marketing materials.

5.  The cloud rather than the hard drive.  Bookkeeping, research, document templates and drafted pleadings will not be local.  Pictures, videos, evidence, and anything that can be digitized will be available to everybody (at least in your group) all of the time, full time, and not on your hard drive.

6.  High bandwidth.  Look at an increase by a hundred fold by 2020.  Or, at least that is what I have read.  And, it makes sense.  You are not going to leave the hard drive behind and do the things that need to be done with the bandwidth we have now.  It will increase to the point where lossless digital files makes sense.

7.  Extras will become standard.  Concerns about storage will gradually disappear and apps will become standard.  Attorneys will be expected to give away those things that are not time intensive.  Things like simple wills, and legal forms will become free.  These are commodities and it is wrong to think of them as intellectual property.  Attorneys will not be able to hoard boilerplate and pretend it is valuable.

8.  Production rather than consumption.  This falls in line with consumers turning into prosumers, unbundled services and extras.  As modeling software and rapid import software become added to high bandwidth, people and companies will spend much more time creating legal documents for themselves, to be reviewed by attorneys, that reading those drafted by attorneys.  More things will follow the free tax prep software model.

9.  Suggestions rather than searches.  As bandwidth, the cloud, and streaming become more important, searches will become king.  But just like my new DROID, visual and audio searches will become important.  Think then about a lawyer who does not have a long term logo, display pictures of themselves, have video or audio featuring themselves on their websites.  Potential clients will likely not find them in lieu of their colleagues.  And, then with apps, think of the Pandora, Slacker and MOG phenomena, where searches will more often than not be replaced by personalized recommendation services.  You will tell an algorithm what you want, and it will seek to find you the right match.

10.  Personal connection.  Lawyers will need to personally connect with their potential client base.  Social media will be key.  No longer will a static web page do. No kind of occasional blogging will work.  Attorneys will have to blog, Tweet, and maintain active sites on things like Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and whatever else appears. Self-promotion will eventually dissipate and will be replaced by old-fashion word or mouth, only that will be amplified online.

Are you ready?

Move Your Money

It is not secret that Big Banks are one of the main causes for the fall of our economic system, which has affected so many, including attorneys.  Then they had to be bailed out, while so many smaller banks are being allowed to fail. The Big Banks are now paying their executives obscene bonuses made possible by the government's help, either directly or indirectly.  And, to make profits and pay back this money they have created speed-trap type changes in their policies to rip literally tens of billions of dollars out of our bank accounts.  It does not take a lot of math skills to find that if they are making approximately $36 billion in overdraft fees this year in the U.S. alone, and there are approximately 300 million of us, that they are taking the equivalent of $1,200.00 for every man woman and child in this country.  Forget all other fears, this is the outrage.

I bank at a Big Bank.  I change to it years ago because I do not borrow a lot of money, and do not keep a lot of money (unfortunately), but I needed convenience.  I did not want ATM charges that result when I have to pull money out of other institution's ATMs and that meant my institution needed to have multiple locations where I am and where I travel.  I did not want fees for maintaining my account, and my Big Bank was advertising that would not be the case.  I wanted to bank online.  Most importantly, when my kids started college I wanted to be able to transfer money to their accounts online and have it immediately available.  The smaller bank at which I banked would not credit any transfer until midnight if made before 4:00 p.m.  So, locations and tech were the reason I changed so many years ago.  And, all in all I have been satisfied until recently.

Today, however, community banks have learned.  They have all of these tech needs. Some even stay open seven days a week.  And, it is the Big Banks that are not now keeping up.  For example, I want to add online deposits by using a scanner or my smart phone to make deposits from where I am.  My Big Bank does not know when it might add such a feature.

Ultimately, moving our money out of Big Banks - these banks that are "too big to fail" - is the only control that we have in determining the direction of our financial system, and limit the power of Big Banks.  It is the thing we can realistically do to help bring sanity and stability to our financial system.

Now a group of people have gotten together and created MoveYourMoney.Info.  They have created this video, above, based on the movie, It's A Wonderful Life.  The bottom line is that Mr. Potter is back in the form of Big Banks, and the only salvation from them is the equivalent of George Bailey's little building and loan.

In the coming year, it is one of my goals to do my part and move my accounts to a community or online bank that meets all of my needs and will not strive to find ways to continually rip me off.

Home Office Tech Should Be Easy Or Trashed

As most everyone knows I work from home and I work in collaboration with other attorneys online.  I do not have any staff much less an IT person.  And, I am not a techie myself.

So, how do I survive?

First and foremost all I do and all I have ever done as a home office attorney is look for cheap and easy, and often online, solutions to my needs.  It does not have to be complicated. You see how you work, or how you need to improve on what you do, and then look online for the things that can make life better.  What will respond to your needs, or at least most of your needs cheaply and effectively.

And then, I am a blog reader.  I always read futurelawyer.com because Rick Georges approaches these things from a practical basis.  But, there are also other great sites as well.

If there are little gaps in understanding of how to make things work, I admit that I am a little slow, and I will reasonably reach out to others for help in making me see the light. Lawyers, by the way, are generally good at answering these questions.

But second, if I cannot figure it out easily enough, or if what I am using ceases to work or work the way I need it, I chunk it and I do not think twice about it.  It is in the trash.  That is good for me, and it is good for the marketplace for the reason that tech has to be user friendly.  It has to work for dumb nuts like me.  It has to work properly with other applications.  If it does not, then the tech does not deserve to survive in the marketplace.  Cumulatively trashing it, and not using software that does not work or properly meet your needs is the only way to communicate to companies that they do not have it right.  Most software and hardware providers fail because they do not read the tea leaves.

It helps if you do not spend any great money on tech.  I generally do not.  Maybe the exception is certain basic types of hardware such as my laptop or my new DROID. But, even then, I shop, shop, shop (online usually) for the best deal.  I shopped around recently, for example, for a cheaper price for Windows 7.

Just today I downloaded and started using Google's Chrome browser.  I like it.  It is FREE.  I like FREE.  It is pretty sophisticated and it has a minimal design, which I like. It is fast both in terms of loading pages and my web applications seem to run faster as well.

Chrome is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  It seems like I have always used Firefox, in that I gave up, as most people have, on Explorer a long time ago. And, Firefox has always worked well for me.  Recently, however, it has become buggy, and it seems as if each new update screws with my computer system.  For the last month or so FireFox keeps crashing.  I have tried a few things, read a bit about it, make some adjustments, reloaded it, but it continues to crash.  I am not going to waste any more time on it.  It is gone.

I continue to have problems with my headset, which I use for Skype.  Now, maybe it is because I tend to buy cheap headsets, but I think how complicated can a headset be? My next to last one was made by Dynex.  It had great overall sound but people would tell me it sounded like I was popping bubble wrap next to the mic when I typed. Apparently, it has no background sound reduction capability.  So, now I have one by Logitech. Now I am getting complaints that sound like I am in a well when I talk.  That was not a problem with Dynex.  Skype can be a little quirky itself, but my intent is to pick up one of more headsets until I find one that works well.

Such is the life of a home office, connected non-techie.  Try it.  Do not like it. Trash it.  It is how we vote on the tech we like and do not like.

Higher Education Is Mortgaging The Future Of Our Children And The Price Is Too High

I know there are those that proclaim that a private education is fiscally more promising than a public one, but the statistics would not indicate this is true.  The war is not necessarily one for or against public options as it is a war by our education systems against those they actually represent, with private institutions acting out a little worse.

Since the early 1980's, the cost of an education at American universities has been rising steadily, at two to three times the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Since 1980, through 2005, after adjusting for inflation, the average cost of tuition plus room and board at a four year public university has increased by over 120%. For the private 4-year institutions, tuition prices have increased by over 140%. The College Board reports that private college tuition rose most sharply in the early and mid 1980's, while public tuition increased the most in the late 1980's and early 1990's. If a gallon of milk in 1980 had sustained this level of increase, it would now run just over $15.00; if a gallon of gas in 1980 had sustained this level of increase, it would now run over $9.50. While the cost of a college education has more than doubled, median income in the United States has risen by 18 percent.  And, this does not even count the untold billions raised by universities (public and private) from private sources.

Whether private or public, most of this increase is simply unjustified on any basis.  For example, all universities scream the cause is a decline in public support, but in Texas, as in most states, public support has not decreased.  It has only increased over this period of time.  It just has not increased as fast as universities have been increasing tuition, fees and costs.

Another problem was illustrated in a recent Washington Post article.  The rising tuition, fees and costs have made it nearly impossible for any middle class family to pay for the educational needs of their children outright.  Therefore, students and families have to incur an ever increasingly staggering amount of debt.  Debt is bad in that it diminishes the future of most people.  It makes you think that universities were simply increasing their tuition, much like the housing bubble, because they thought students, buying into a brand, could continue to borrow any amount the university set.  But, that is not so any longer.  With the current economy tuition continues to zoom.  College saving plans, known as 529, have suffered acute losses. Effective February 22nd a new law will bar students younger than 21 from getting credit cards on their own.  Most private students loans have dried up, and most federally backed loans have a limit of $5,500.00 per year, which is not enough for most four-year institutions.

Law schools have been worse.  The level of increase in tuition and fees, and the inability of universities to control costs is truly astounding.  Just like the financial crises there are no real statistics that justify what has happened except for greed, much like our housing crises.  But, unlike the housing crises student loans are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.  No matter the charm of a single university or law school professor or staff, or the quality of the law school, cumulatively this inability to control costs demonstrates a profound disrespect for their students, to the community, to the country, and the objectives these institutions claims to meet.  They treat students and their families like opportunists and predators and they have no actual regard for the monumental damage they are doing to the future of these people and the fabric of our country.

We are prosecuting at least some symbols of Wall Street greed, but where are the Elliot Spitzers, Andrew Cuomos, and other state attorneys general, who need to go into each institute of higher education in every state (public by virtue of their status, and private by virtue of their non-profit status) and root out the greed, excesses and abuses of these institutions.  Just with the student loan investigations we know these exist.  But, until such issues as high end salaries, luxury excesses, sweetheart deals are uncovered, will this stop.

The University Of Texas Football Program Makes Most Valuable In The Country List

How does this apply the Third Wave practice of law?  Well, I guess it does not, but carpet commuters, shingle hangers, connected attorneys, future lawyers, and home office warriors also like football.  We also like the concept for money, marketing and business.  We just look at it all a little differently.

According to Forbes, the University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish is the most valuable, but The University of Texas' Longhorns is the most valuable public university team.  The business magazine pegs the value of the UT franchise at $92 million.  It earned a profit of $46 million, and $12 million of that comes annual from premium seating, which will rise as UT adds 44 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats before next season.

Texas A&M University Aggies are also on the list, but near the bottom at a value of $50 million and profits of $20.5 million.

Hook 'Em!

Google Goggles - Visual Search Engine

We certainly live in the age of Google.  I use it in everyday life.  I now use it every day with my DROID.  Although not yet perfect, Google Goggles is pretty amazing.  A visual search engine in the making.  It is the way of the future.  View this video.  By the way, this video is from YouTube, Google's video search engine.

The Third Wave Continues To Revolutionize The World

HuffPo had a great slide show on those things that became obsolete in their opinion this decade.  No matter what the list or opinions, it demonstrates more than anything the vision of Alvin Toffler and the challenges, from our perspective, of the practice of law in this new era (or wave).

It can be a problem because innovation is happening so fast, and now new tech is gobbling up old tech at an amazing pace.  The new innovations do not even last a decade.

I was at a family get together this season and speaking with lawyers who, for whatever reason, are just now discovering the Internet and smart phones.  This is problematic because, at their pace, what might in the past represent a generation of innovation behind, these lawyers are running multiple generations behind and risk, themselves, of becoming obsolete.  They need to not only advance more quickly, but they need to get past the point where these tools are not just novelties.  These tools need to be included in their practices, but their practices need to be integrated around the cheap tech.  If for no other reason, cheap tech is liberating.

So, what has died, is dying or changing:

1.  Social media is overtaking communication, ahead of calling.  On top of texting, Tweeter, the Google Wave, Facebook, My Space, Linkedin, and the like, Americans sent more than 110 billion text messages in December 2008 alone, and that number is increasing.

2.  Classified Ads in Newspapers.  Dying.  Craigslist now cover 500 cities.

3.  Dial up internet.  I know some rural-based people are still stuck with this, but it is on the verge of being nostalgic.

4.  Encyclopedias.  Oh, I miss the days of pulling a volume of our encyclopedias off the shelf to do a report for school.  NOT!  But, it is important to note that Microsoft just killed its online pay-for encyclopedia business.  Whatever the problems, Wikipedia we love you.  Increasingly, I am figuring out who to serve and the correct names of companies included in lawsuits with Wikipedia.

Redemption

And no, I am not talking about an economic transaction like redeeming something at a pawn shop, a coupon, or cashing in a certificate of deposit.

I am talking about deliverance from past sins, to use a theological term.  Absolution from damnation.  Or, redemptive suffering where you are absolved from past sins.

I doing so, however, I am not necessarily talking about sin in a religious sense or a thought crime.  No, am I not necessarily talking about shame.  Although, you might feel as if you are stuck in a form of damnation in your current law practice.  You might feel the need for deliverance.

After all, the way that you practice law is not the violation of a divine commandment.  It does represent lawlessness.  In a secular sense I am talking more about a code of conduct, which you could have followed but were not mandated to do so.  That is not an actual sin.  The damnation is not eternal, although if you are stuck in a law practice that you do not like it can seem that way.

What I want you to know, especially during this season and as we face the new year, is that if you feel stuck or trapped in a practice area that does not suit you well, or if you are practicing in a way that eats up all of your rewards, then one of the beautiful things in law is that redemption is always near.  We as lawyers have the ability to change our past.

To often we feel helpless and hapless to do anything about our situation.  But, you need to know this is too often just inside our heads.  In fact, we can change and we can do so radically.  It just requires a decision to go, to move, and change.

Change is scary sometimes.  I understand this.  I have been there.  I have made the decision to scrap it all at once and to start over differently.  Often we stay were we are because we are more secure with the devil we know than the devil we do not.  It is hard to take a leap of faith, but I am here to tell you there is nothing worse than staying with a practice area or practice system that is not working for you.

There is a grace, or maybe you call it a freedom, in change.  There is redemption in change.  Deliverance from your present ills can often feel so rewarding and euphoric despite the challenges ahead of you.

If you are stuck practicing family law, for example, and it is not working for you, for whatever reason, then know there is redemption.  Know you can change practice areas starting tomorrow.  It does not have to be all at once, but it can be immediate.

If you have come to the conclusion that running a transitional law firm is not right for you, know too that redemption is at hand.  It can start immediately by making plans to move your office home, getting rid of the unprofitable cases or those that cannot be handled alone or with a virtual staff.  You can let the lease expire, sell the office furniture you cannot use, let people go and cut back to those cases you want to handle.

There is just something redemptive in feeling that you are in charge of your practice and practice area, and that it is not in charge of you.  The is deliverance in knowing you can make it so.

Seasons Blogging To You And Yours

To everyone who follows Chuck Newton Rides The Third Wave, I want to wish you a very wonderful holiday season.  To those that celebrate Christmas, please have a Merry Christmas.  This is a very profound time, and yet one that we spend cherishing the ones we love and for those we care.  It is a time in which we can reflect on our lot in life and determine to do better, to be better, and improve upon what we have.  The gifts are a great symbol of our love and affection.  But, we all know it is the spirit that counts.  It is a time to put away all of our pettiness and embrace everyone around us.  It is a time to decide to be a person greater than we are, not for ourselves but for all of the people and family that rely on us.  So, as you celebrate today, hug and kiss everyone for me, and know -- truly know -- that each of you are in my heart.