Legal Commentary

NYT Dealbook Blog Praises Dean White

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

In Another View: Lock the Law School Doors Dan Slater argues that law schools are admitting too many students, but praises UM Law Dean White's (relatively unsuccessful) attempt to get incoming students to defer for a year.

This summer, in the staid world of legal education, where curriculum is uniform and scholars are trained in the art of like-mindedness, one dean hatched a contrary plan.

In a memo to incoming students, Patricia D. White, the dean of University of Miami School of Law, surmised: “Perhaps many of you are looking to law school as a safe harbor in which you can wait out the current economic storm.” She then urged them to “think hard” about their plans and offered incentives for those willing to defer for one year.

Apparently, though, the tide would not be stemmed:

32 students took Dean White up on her offer to defer, [so] the school is still left with a first-year population of 527 — ­ 35 percent more than last year’s incoming class.

I hope the legal job market has turned around by '12. I think it will be better than it is now, but the question is, how much?

Full post as published by Discourse.net on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).