Graduation: A Time for New Beginnings

We have a number of graduations to celebrate in our family this month, and there is a lot of excitement about the future. The buzz surrounding the start of a new and exciting chapter in the graduate’s life causes me to ask: Why don’t we join them and embrace the new and exciting things that could occur in our lives? I’m not talking about the concrete changes that we will see our graduates make — going off to a new school or starting a new job. I’m talking about creating our own changes to pave the way for a better professional future.

It’s not a bad idea to reflect upon our work as lawyers with an eye toward positive change. That change may be in the way we relate to our co-workers. That change may be in a new commitment to volunteer in the legal community. That change may be a commitment to incorporate a greater level of organization into our practice. That change may be a new routine to stay informed about recent developments in the law. That change may be taking time to become a better listener. That change may be setting aside time to appreciate how rewarding and stimulating our work is. It doesn’t really matter what the change is. The important thing is that we take this opportunity to reassess how we, like new graduates, can take affirmative action that will provide us with a new and fulfilling future.

I recently read a great quote from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did.”  This is the type of statement hundreds of graduates will hear over the next few weeks. It’s time for all of us, new graduates and seasoned practitioners, to embrace this time of new beginnings.

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Merit Scholarships and Training for Hierarchy

When the Critical Legal Studies movement was still vibrant during the 1980s, Harvard Law Professor Duncan Kennedy frequently argued that, beyond exploring the cases and rules, legal education offered training in hierarchy.  Students (and many professors as well) came to appreciate the steps on our social ladders and how to climb or, at least, remain balanced on those steps.  Recent developments involving law schools’ use of merit scholarships with stipulations (“stips,” as some students call them) teach lessons in hierarchy in ways Kennedy never imagined.

The New York Times reported on May 1, 2011, that 80 percent of law schools are now awarding merit scholarships with stipulations and that these scholarships are gradually replacing conventional need-based scholarships.  The University of Florida Law School, for example, requires students to maintain a 3.2 grade-point average to keep their merit scholarships, as does Wayne State University Law School.  At Chicago-Kent Law School, merit scholarship recipients have a choice: They can receive $9000 annually for three years with no stipulations or $15,000 annually if they maintain a 3.25 or higher.  Ninety percent opt for the latter, perhaps unaware that most students earn nothing near a 3.25.

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Ponderings of a Law Professor: Where Are Women’s Voices?

I hated the silence.  In law school classes where the professor relied solely on volunteers, I hated the silence and ended up raising my hand more often than not.  I found I was most interested and engaged in class not when there was lecture but when there was some sort of dialogue, and there needs to be more than one voice to dialogue.  I didn’t really want to hear my own voice all the time (and I’m certain my classmates didn’t want to hear it all the time, either), but I would offer it if no one else spoke up.

Maybe I’m remembering myself speaking more than I actually did.  Or maybe I was an anomaly.  A female law student quoted in a recent National Jurist postsaid that “it feels like men do most of the talking during class discussions.” And indeed they might.  Data from the 2010 Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) suggest that women do not speak up as much as men in law school classes.  The National Jurist reports that according to the LSSSE, which for 2010 surveyed 25,000 law students at 77 law schools, 47% of women students frequently ask questions in class, while 56% of male students do.  This, LSSSE notes, is an area “that needs attention.”

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