“Let’s assume the mediator sticks his head into your room with a grin at 8pm after an exhaustive day when your client is still upset he made the 8^th counteroffer and the Mediator says: “Great news! Counter-offer accepted! We have a deal!” Wonderful, right? Even though your client was pushed way past what he came ready to do that day, you have a deal. So what mistakes are made when it comes to confirming the long sought, hard fought deal?” asks David K. Taylor in Buildsmart Mediation.

“This post is a continuation of the 10 most horrible, terrible, no good, “bang your head against the door” mistakes that I have seen lawyers make before, during and after mediations in which I was the mediator. As stated in previous posts, it takes more than throwing together a mediation statement at the last second and showing up at the mediation. Doing it right requires the same kind of due diligence and work that goes into preparing for a key deposition or even trial. Great “mediation” lawyering is essential and is the best way to get to an acceptable deal.”

Read the Top 10 mistakes made in mediations.

“Before the calendar slips too far into the new year, I want to share five important emerging trends or steps for law firm leaders to consider in 2020, each of which will have significant short and long-term implications for your firm.  This little list is not about the macro level industry trends based on historical data with which we all generally agree.  Rather, these are quickly developing micro-trends that are not on many radar screens yet…but need to be,” provides Michael Short in LawVision’s INSIGHTS.

“For your changes to have an impact this year, you need to get your initiatives moving in Q1 and fully implemented before the end of Q2.”

Read the article.

“The beginning of a new year is the perfect time for busy lawyers to take stock of last year’s achievements and to establish plans for being SMART about business development in the coming months. To maximize your business development time, my question to you is: are you being SMART about it? SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Sensitive. A key benefit to the SMART framework is that you are concentrating time on the most essential areas of your business development activities. SMART provides you with focus, so you can actually achieve your goals.” advises Jason Levin in the Above the Law Career Center.

He briefly goes through the SMART framework.

Read the article.

“Teenagers aren’t being imaginative enough with their ambitions as they aspire to a short list of 20th-century occupations in their future careers, according to the OECD.” reports Carolynn Look in Bloomberg.

“Huge changes in the world of work — driven by developments in technology and social media — are having too little impact on the job expectations of young people, according to a report presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos by the Paris-based organization.”

“The report cited a survey of 15-year-olds showing that career ambitions narrowed in the last two decades. Roughly half of boys and girls from 41 countries said they expect to work in one of just 10 jobs by the age of 30. Such roles originate overwhelmingly from the 19th and 20th centuries, such as doctors, teachers, veterinarians, business managers, engineers, police officers, and lawyers.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

A teach-out plan for Thomas Jefferson School of Law, allowing limited accreditation until the end of the spring 2023 term, has been approved by the council of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, according to a report in the ABA Journal.

Under the plan for the San Diego school, ABA accreditation will cover current law students and transient students. The council retains its authority to remove ABA accreditation before the spring 2023 term ends if the school fails to meet obligations.

The school was put on probation in 2017, and the council withdrew its ABA approval last summer.

Read the  ABA Journal article.

Bloomberg Law tells the story of a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education group, Law School Transparency, that has become a key part of a shift in how consumers weigh the benefits versus the substantial costs of law school.

One of the early findings of the 10-year-old nonprofit was that high starting salary salaries often listed for law school graduates were based on a low number of alumni responses.

A  more-effort led to a revision of accreditation standards to require 75 percent of each school’s graduates to pass the bar exam within two years of graduation, in order to ensure schools only admit students equipped for practicing law.

Read the Bloomberg article.

The University of Phoenix — a for-profit college chain that has been under scrutiny for years — has reached a landmark settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission following accusations of unfair and deceptive practices that will result in widespread student loan forgiveness, Forbes reports.

“Too often, students would graduate from the University of Phoenix with dismal career prospects, minimal ongoing support, and a lot of student loan debt that could be impossible to repay,” writes Adams S. Minsky, a Forbes contributor. “The University allegedly specifically targeted people of color and military veterans.”

Under the settlement, the university will pay $191 million, of which $141 million will be used to forgive some student loans for certain borrowers who attended the university.

Read the Forbes article.

The mean scaled score for the July 2019 multistate bar exam increased this year, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners and reported in the ABA Journal.

“But for a small number of schools found to be out of compliance with an ABA accreditation admissions standard, some have concerns that even with bar pass rate improvements, they still may not meet a new standard that requires pass rates of at least 75% for graduates who took a bar exam in the past two years,” writes the Journal‘s Stephanie Francis Ward.

Read the ABA Journal article.

The Princeton Review has released the results of a study designed to rank the top 10 U.S. law schools that provide the best opportunities for women students.

The findings are based on school reported data — the percent of the student body that are women — and student surveys. Students answered a survey question on whether all students are afforded equal treatment by students and faculty regardless of their gender.

Topping the list is Stanford University School of Law in California.

Read the Princeton Review article.

Yale Law School
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Yale University Law School has the toughest admission process in the country, according to a report by The Princeton Review.

Results of the study are part of the Review‘s 2020 Best Law School rankings. The conclusions are based on school reported data. Factors include: median LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs of entering 1L students, the percent of applicants accepted, and the percent of accepted applicants who enroll.

After Yale, the list continues with Stanford, Harvard and the University of Virginia. The complete list includes 10 schools.

Read the Princeton Review article.

Following a storm of controversy over her use of a racial epithet at a free-speech event on the campus of the University of North Texas, university assistant general counsel Caitlin Sewell submitted her resignation.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Sewell used the N-word during a presentation at the event, titled “When Hate Comes to Campus.” She used the word in an example of speech that is offensive but protected.

Sewell, who had worked at UNT since 2017, apologized during the event, saying she “did not mean to, by any means, offend anyone.” But her earlier statement sparked a firestorm on campus.

Read the Dallas News article.

Above the Law takes a look at the law schools whose recent graduates did the worst on the 2018 exam — 21 law schools where less than 50 percent of first-time takers were able to pass the test.

“For the past few years, bar exam pass rates across the country have plummeted, but there’s hope on the horizon with the news that the average national score on the July 2019 administration of the Multistate Bar Exam climbed to a 141.1, fresh off a 34-year low set in 2018,” writes Above the Law senior editor Staci Zaretsky.

Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California, has the dubious distinction of leading the bottom-up list, with the lowest first-try pass rate: 21.84 percent.

Read the Above the Law article.

Two law schools recently received public notice of being out of compliance with ABA accreditation standards, according to a report by the ABA Journal.

The schools are the Western New England University School of Law and the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.

Deans of the two law schools have said their schools have taken steps to come into compliance with standards, including financial standards in the case of Western New England, and admission standards in the case of Clarke School of Law.

Read the  ABA Journal article.

U.S. News’ list of law schools with the highest tuition reveals that the average tuition and fees for the 2018-2019 academic year was at least $64,000.

Above the Law took a look at the report and noted that all 10 on the short list are private, such as Columbia University, which tops the list.

Senior editor Staci Zaretsky comments: “It’s certainly worth noting that the private law schools that made this list are among the best in the country. At highly ranked schools like these, you get what you pay for, and in the law school world, that usually means a high-paying paid job as an attorney that will allow you to service your enormous debt obligations in a timely fashion — and to be quite frank, with up to six figures of debt to pay off, that’s priceless.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Bloomberg Law reports the California Supreme Court opened an investigation into how law school deans were tipped to subject areas in this week’s bar exam.

“Topics were released in an email last week to deans of 16 law schools invited to observe the California Bar Examination grading process. The bar said it ‘had no evidence’ that leaked information had been shared with students,” explains Bloomberg’s Joyce E. Cutler.

The email listed subject areas of civil procedure, remedies/constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, professional responsibility, and contracts.

The California Bar decided to release the list instead of canceling the exam or changing the topics for the two-day test starting July 30.

Read the Bloomberg article.

The dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Law School has labeled remarks made by controversial professor Amy Wax on race and immigration as “repugnant.”

“During a panel on immigration in Washington last week, Wax reportedly said the United States would benefit if the immigration system favored people from Western countries, which ‘in effect means taking the position that our country will be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites,’” according to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Penn Law dean Ted Ruger said her remarks flirted with racism and white supremacy.

Bloomberg Law reports Wax has said in an email to Bloomberg that she has “no plans” to leave Penn permanently.

Read the Inquirer article.

Above the Law has published the results of its new rankings of law schools, based on current ABA employment data.

Topping the list is the University of Virginia School of Law.

“UVA Law jumped to the pole position this year on the strength of its Biglaw employment score. With our methodology, even a five percent bump in Biglaw employment score can shuffle a school’s position,” writes executive editor Elie Mystal. “This year, UVA’s Biglaw employment score jumped 13 percent.”

The University of Chicago, last year’s number one, dropped to third place. In the top 10, big movers included Northwestern University, which gained six places, Cornell University, up by four, and Harvard and Yale, which dropped by five and three places, respectively.

Read the Above the Law article.

ABA approval for Thomas Jefferson School of Law, which was placed on probation in November 2017, has been withdrawn by the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, reports the ABA Journal.

On its website, the San Diego-based school took issue with the withdrawal: “The Law School is disappointed by this capricious decision and strongly disagrees with the Council’s findings.” The statement says the school plans to appeal the council’s decision, a process that could extend through the fall.

When the school was placed on probation in 2017, it was found to be noncompliant with several standards, including such areas as program resources, maintaining a rigorous program, admissions, academic attrition, and admissions policies, writes the Journal‘s Stephanie Francis Ward.

The law school’s 2018 California bar passage rate for was 23.85 percent, according to ABA data, compared to the California bar passage rate for graduates of ABA-accredited law schools in 2018 of 60.34 percent.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Hugh Culverhouse Jr.,  a lawyer and the University of Alabama’s largest donor, has called for a boycott of Alabama — school and state — over the state’s latest near-total abortion ban law, according to a report on AL.com.

Abbey Crain writes that the UA System and Culverhouse have been in an ongoing dispute over the millions he has donated to the law school unrelated to the abortion legislation, vice chancellor for communications Kellee Reinhart said. In an emailed statement, Reinhart said Culverhouse asked the school to return $10 million, “repeating numerous demands about the operations of the University of Alabama School of Law.”

A university spokesperson said the dispute over Culverhouse donations is unrelated to the recent abortion legislation. But Culverhouse said, “All foreign and U.S. international firms that do business in Alabama should boycott. It would get the law changed quickly.”

Read the AL.com article.

Above the Law takes a look at a U.S. News & World Report survey that ranks law schools with the highest salary-to-debt ratios among 2017 graduates.

“There are several law schools that are not only highly ranked, but whose graduates are very well-compensated after graduation — in fact, they’re so well-compensated that it makes up for the high costs of their education,” explains Above the Law senior editor Staci Zaretsky.

The top 10 list includes Howard University, with a salary-to-debt ratio of 2.35 to 1. On the other end is the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a ratio of 1.51 to 1.

Read the Above the Law article.