{"id":7752,"date":"2011-09-28T14:19:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T19:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/?p=7752"},"modified":"2011-09-29T16:02:31","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T21:02:31","slug":"deans-blog-september-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/2011\/09\/28\/deans-blog-september-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean’s Blog – September, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure many of you have been reading the series of articles talking about the lack of jobs for law school graduates and also the games that some law schools are playing in exaggerating their employment numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 This topic, as you can imagine, has also been a source of numerous conversations by law school deans across the country.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, let me try to put this issue in some perspective.\u00a0 Of the 134 members of the class that graduated in 2010, 91.8 percent reported that they were employed 9 months after graduation.\u00a0 Of those 123, thirty percent went into solo or small firm practice.\u00a0 Twenty three percent went to work in government (including judicial clerkships).\u00a0\u00a0 One- fourth worked in business and industry.\u00a0 A few are working in academic settings ( 5%).\u00a0 A few more are employed in public interest work (6%) and some got jobs in larger firms (6.5%).<\/span><\/p>\n

So the bottom line is that our students got jobs. They did not necessarily get the jobs they wanted\u00a0 but they are working and, with a few exceptions, using their legal skills and training.\u00a0 The average salary for those who reported their salaries is $55,980.\u00a0 Only about 40% in fact report their salary, so this number may be higher or lower but it does give us a base for comparison with other schools.\u00a0 And because of our affordable tuition,\u00a0 our class of 2010 students had a relatively low law school loan debt of $60,149, substantially below the national public law school loan debt for that class of $69,687 and way, way below the national private law school loan debt of $106,249.<\/span><\/p>\n

These numbers are decent, but we want to do even better.\u00a0 We have developed great bar prep programs to maintain our status as a school with a top bar passage rate. We believe our community service mandate will allow more networking for future jobs.\u00a0 I also make a pitch every time I talk to alums and other lawyers that they should be hiring our students.\u00a0 Our new per hour student research program is also providing needed experience and again networking.\u00a0 And as we implement our increasingly skills based curriculum, we believe our students will be even more competitive in the law and law-related marketplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

We do not play games in reporting our statistics on employment.\u00a0 For example, we do not hire students at specific times to build up our employment numbers.\u00a0 We push as hard as we can for\u00a0 full disclosure by our students of their job status.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But now comes my shocking statement. I do not believe we have too many lawyers.<\/strong> The American people are under-lawyered.\u00a0 I\u2019m not talking about those lawyers who specialize in boutique practices or serve business or work in government.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about servicing the rest of us.\u00a0 If one is poor or even middle class, one only goes to a lawyer when they have a problem.\u00a0 They seldom seek a lawyer\u2019s assistance to avoid or prevent a problem.\u00a0 We must find better ways to make routine legal services both affordable and available.\u00a0 Have a lawyer check your credit card agreement!\u00a0 Have a lawyer read your closing documents for your house and then attend the closing!\u00a0 Have a lawyer prepare your will!\u00a0 Have a lawyer write that letter to the store owner or government official who is non-responsive or worse!<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was younger [yes, I was once young], people went to a doctor when they were sick.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t go for a checkup or diet assistance or even for scrapes, minor injuries or a cold.\u00a0 But now most people have medical plans and they do.\u00a0 The concern now is that we do not have enough doctors.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a recent article in the Economist [September 3, 2011], the editors talked about a recent books that argued that the number of lawyers has been kept artificially low for decades.\u00a0 Barriers should be lifted; prices for services should go down; alternatives to traditional fee paying must be explored.<\/span><\/p>\n

I agree. And I believe that present students will fill the gap and provide for the delivery of legal services to the majority and not, as now, the tiny majority.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure many of you have been reading the series of articles talking about the lack of jobs for law school graduates and also the games that some law schools are playing in exaggerating their employment numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 This topic, as you can imagine, has also been a source of numerous conversations by law school deans … Continue reading “Dean’s Blog – September, 2011”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4120,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deans-blog","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7768,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7752\/revisions\/7768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}