New student group for aspiring trial lawyers will host free lunch and magazine giveaway on Monday

Here at U of L Law, we have student groups with all kinds of themes. We have organizations for health law, sports law, international law, and the environment. All of which is great. It is puzzling, however,  that there is no group that seeks to educate students about what it's like to be a trial lawyer, or to represent plaintiffs in the courtroom. This is especially puzzling, at least to me, in light of the huge number of Louisville law students who go on to practice in the areas of personal injury, criminal defense, family law, medical malpractice, etc. Well, puzzle no more. As of Monday, the law school has a new student chapter of the American Association for Justice. I joined the group last fall, and now consider it to be just as indispensable as my student LBA card. I highly encourage everyone to attend Monday's meeting at noon (full disclosure: I'm hugely biased as I am organizing the meeting). Here are the details:

FREE LUNCH in #175

Noon, Monday, Feb. 13

Inaugural meeting: the law school’s new student chapter of the American Association for Justice, a national organization for trial lawyers and plaintiffs’ rights.

Hans Poppe

Q and A: trial lawyer Hans G. Poppe of Louisville

Benefits: learn about the membership benefits of both AAJ and the Kentucky Justice Association

Free copy of Trial magazine: to first 25 students

T-Shirts: free AAJ shirt for anyone who joins today.

Learn: what it takes to practice law in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and more.  

Law school class photo day: time for a moustache?

Today is class photo day for graduating law students here at U of L.  It's an occasion that doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but then again maybe it does. Large framed class photos line the hallways of the law school on its first and second floors, stretching back to the late 1800s. Gazing at the bygone fashions of eager young attorneys is a fascinating way to waste 15 minutes of your life when you really ought to be studying. The class portraits also become a source of attention when a lawyer does something particularly embarrassing, or especially impressive.

The magnificent (and short lived) moustache

For me, photos have always been yet another opportunity to do something eccentric. For example, I have a photo of myself in high school with my eyebrows shaved off. In another, taken in my mid-20s, I'm hanging upside down inside a ski gondola. Which is why, last week, I figured it would be a great idea to take my law school photo with a giant moustache. At home, our family is obsessed with the moustache. The kids wear fake ones, my wife decorates moustache mirrors, and we take notice of moustaches in public. I even went so far as growing a 'stache (see photo, above right) in honor of this under-appreciated form of facial hair. But after careful consideration, I've decided to sport a clean shave, a starched dress shirt and tie, and a dark suit coat for the class photo.
My decision reflects two things that I've learned in law school. First, I've learned to seek advice from those around me before making rash decisions. I am at least two or three times as likely to consult other people for advice today compared to before law school. In this case, everyone I talked to about the moustache class photo told me it was a terrible idea. Second, I've found a new level of appreciation for the art of discretion. It's taken almost three years to drill this concept into my head, but I now hold my tongue way more frequently than at any other time in my life. I still enjoy a good joke, and don't shy away from controversy, but I am keenly aware that reputation is everything in this industry, and if you're going to clown around, you'd better think about the implications carefully. So long moustache.

Welcome to 2012: Resolutions of an almost-finished law student at the University of Louisville

The law school is dead quiet today, and I'm getting tons of work done. Here are a few snippets, resolutions, and random thoughts to start off the new year.

1. Since I now have a job lined up as a lawyer after graduation, I solemnly swear that I will not join the class-action mess involving more than a dozen law schools that allegedly fudge their employment statistics. I'm also grateful that Louisville is not a defendant, and hope it stays that way.

My bar exam application (just kidding)

2. Almost finished with my 25-page Kentucky bar exam application. Got my traffic history, my criminal record, my five character references, and even figured out the day I was married. Most intriguing question on the application so far: "have you ever been known by another name other than a nickname?

3. Really looking forward to my last semester of law school. Part of this is because, well, it's the last one, but it's also shaping up to be filled with great hands-on experiences. I'm working 12 hours a week at the Louisville Public Defender's office, taking a seminar on Obamacare, and doing my second trial practice class - where you practice mock cases and present opening and closing arguments, etc. I'm also looking forward to Negotiation, which will hopefully improve my skill at sending the kids to bed on time, and Criminal Law - Judicial Procedure, which I will hopefully never need for myself.

4. Entering law students at U of L are now looking at a schedule with fewer classroom commitments in their first semester under a new plan approved by the school. Looks like they're ditching Property for the fall, and starting Civ Pro a bit later. Details:

Fall Semester:

Basic Legal Skills

Legal Research

Torts I

Contracts I

Criminal Law

Civil Procedure (starting approximately September 24th)

Spring Semester:

Basic Legal Skills

Torts II

Contracts II

Property

Civil Procedure II

5. Getting back to resolutions, I am going to start 2012 with a cheesy pledge to be a nicer guy (Alex, you catch more flies with honey, an associate at work recently told me), to help someone else at least once a day, to not dwell on past mistakes (including that wretched Negotiable Instruments exam), and to stop eating four times as much food as I should at every meal. Good luck to everyone this semester. If you are applying to U of L Law this year and have questions or concerns about anything, email me at acdavi07@louisville.edu and you'll allow me to knock out one of my daily resolutions!

Ranking: Best (and Worst) Law Classes at U of L

Registration for my final semester of law school is just a few days away. With that in mind, here is a completely unscientific ranking of classes I have taken at U of L Law over the last two and a half years. Just for fun, I am adopting the tiered approach of another arbitrary legal ranking system.

Tier 1 
1. Torts
2. Civil Procedure
3. Trial Practice
4. Criminal Procedure - Constitutional Issues
5. Professional Responsibility

Tier 2
6. Law Review

Warning: potential tort case!

7. Property
8. Constitutional Law
9. Contracts
10. Decedents' Estates

Tier 3
11. Selected Problems in Civil Procedure
12. Criminal Law (first-year)
13. Evidence
14. Negotiable Instruments
15. Legal Research

Tier 4 (in alphabetical order)
Bar Review
Basic Income Tax

Basic Legal Skills

Business Organizations
Secured Transactions

In creating this list, I was tempted to give high marks to classes taught by terrific professors, or classes where I earned the best grades. I tried to avoid doing so, but in some cases this was unavoidable. Example: first-year Torts and first-year Civil Procedure, taught by David Leibson and Leslie Abramson respectively, were both incredible experiences. Then again, the material in Secured Transactions has been so awful that even Richard Nowka, a fantastic professor, could not rescue it from Tier 4. My preferences for classes are mostly based on how interesting the material is to me, and how much I grew as a person. Many students groan about Professional Responsibility,  but I loved reading about all of the ways in which attorneys can get themselves disbarred. I also think everyone should take Trial Practice. I loved learning how to argue in court, and battle butterflies in a mock setting. If you are thinking about law school, or preparing to sign up for another semester of punishment at your existing school, it's also worth mentioning that many of these classes must be taken whether you like them or not, either as graduation requirements, for bar prep, or both (and yes, Bar Review is not technically a class, but I am predicting it will be a Tier 4 experience). Another thing that struck me in ranking law school classes is that many of the top courses are designed for 1L students. This may be because...

1) excitement about law school peaks in the first year, followed by a steady decline for the next two years, at which point you are happy to be finished and don't want think about any classes ever again.
2) all of the best classes and best professors are loaded into the first year, after which most of your poker chips are in the game and you can't back out.
3) first-year classes were actually just as awful as Tier 4 classes, but after the passage of two years of time they seem better.

My last semester of law school may shuffle the rankings. I'm taking Domestic Relations, Negotiation, Criminal Procedure - Judicial Process, maybe Bankruptcy, and hopefully an externship at the Jefferson County Public Defender's Office, which I predict will be in Tier 2, and possibly Tier 1. How can that be? Hey, I said the list was arbitrary. Just trying to be like the big boys.

Staring at a "lousy" job market: 3Ls at Louisville Law looking at grim employment picture

When I started law school in 2009, I figured my timing was perfect. By the time three years was over, the recession would be a distant memory and I would have my pick of places to begin a shining new career as a lawyer. Today, my prediction is not looking so hot. Popular legal blogs such as Above The Law continue to describe the job market for law graduates as lousy. Heck, even top law review editors at prestigious schools can't find jobs.
Here at U of L, I know of a handful of people with permanent jobs lined up. But there are far more of us who have been turned down by employers, or told that there just isn't room next year, despite the terrific job you did as a clerk. This is hardly surprising, considering how big law firms in town are trimming their ranks by laying off associates, hiring fewer graduates, and down-sizing their summer programs. It's not time to hit the panic button yet, of course. We're still just one month into our final year. In some respects, I think Louisville graduates are in a better position than their peers at higher-ranked schools, where student debt is often in the six figures. In this month's edition of Bar Briefs, for example, LBA president K. Gregory Haynes points out that law school tuition increased 317 percent from 1989 to 2009, making a law degree an increasingly "risky" investment. Haynes also makes good points about the  manipulation of employment numbers by law schools, quoting a recent ABA resolution that discusses the "disconnect between law students' perception of their employment prospects upon completion of their law school education and the reality of what law students will realistically achieve."
Elsewhere in the same publication, our own law school's dean, Jim Chen, makes the case for Louisville Law as a value school where the debt numbers are far more favorable. At the same time, he points out that even at a value school like U of L, many students are leaving school with roughly $75,000 in debt, compared to average starting salaries in the private sector of $69,400. That last figure is not from Chen, but from the school's 2009 employment report, which also indicates that 77 percent of students received job offers before graduation and more than 95 percent were employed within nine months of graduation. Those stats seem overly rosy to me, although I don't believe the school is cooking the numbers. It's simply following the established system. Even so, it's not hard to find critics of law school employment stats. Depending on what you read, law schools "completely misrepresent" the numbers, or there are at least "ongoing questions" about the validity of jobs stats.
One excellent resource, Law School Transparency, puts the median private sector salary for Louisville at $55,000. I actually would be quite happy to find a job at that level, especially considering the low cost of living in Louisville. And while I do not have a job locked down yet, I know that no matter where I land, my long-term prospects will be considerably brighter than they were in my former profession. In journalism, just hanging on to the job you have is a victory.

Photo of the Week: first day of law school at U of L

Some of my fellow 3Ls are posting comments on Facebook about today being their last first day of school ever. That's hard to believe, but I'll take it. A year ago, I published a photo of myself wearing a new pair of shoes, along with a post about the mixed feelings I had about the start of the 2L year. There are no mixed emotions this time around. My mantra heading into 3L: get 'er done. But not everyone is in the same boat. To the new 1Ls, I offer you a hearty welcome to U of L Law, personified by the "welcome" sign drawn in chalk in the above photo. To the 2Ls, I offer a reminder that things could be worse, i.e. you could be pushing a broom on a construction site. Actually, for all I know, this guy is probably happier than 90 percent of law students. Either way, keep working, you'll get there.

Final exams just around the corner at U of L

My fourth round of final exams in law school is just around the corner. On Saturday, I'll be an attorney in a three--hour mock trial that is worth half of the grade for my Trial Practice class. A few days later, I'll sit for a four-hour monster exam about wills and trusts. Then it's on to Con Law (see my weird Con Law video) and Basic Income Tax (see my weird tax video). I'm not sure if my experience with three previous semesters of exams makes the process more comfortable or more anxious. On one hand, I know what's coming. On the other hand, I know what's coming.

There are few in-class exercises or volunteer participation points to pad my grade heading into finals. A student's performance on final exams is pretty much their performance in the entire course. Some people do really well on final exams. Others, despite being hard working and intelligent, are more likely to struggle. But there's not much you can do about it. Final exams are part of the process of law school. I take solace in the idea that after each batch of finals, I have cleared another hurdle on the way to graduation. In a few weeks, barring some major disaster, I will be a rising 3L. Good luck to everyone on their exams this spring. If you need a break and like weird English humor, check out the Mr. Bean video above.

Blog by 1L Details Agony of Oral Argument

For a fantastic description of one of the toughest parts of the 1L year at the University of Louisville, check out Sharon Wright's blog at this link. Sharon is a great writer, and, like myself, a former journalist who is now attending law school at U of L. Speaking of which, I'm curious about the backgrounds of the folks who read this blog. Got a second? Click on the appropriate field in the survey at right.

Cautionary tales: big Louisville law firm facing lawsuit from former client for alleged negligence

A story on the front page of today's C-J offers a fascinating look at one of the most dreaded experiences a lawyer can face: a lawsuit from his own client. Frost Brown Todd, one of Louisville's largest and most prestigious law firms, is being asked to fork over $93 million to a former client who alleges the firm bungled his case. The details are complicated, but they go straight to the heart of two core law school classes: Contracts, and Professional Responsibility. I won't repeat all of the gory details. To read the story, click here. The link will expire in a few weeks, so check it out now. Note: one of the only things that a Louisville lawyer dreads more than a malpractice suit is a phone call from Jason Riley or Andrew Wolfson, the reporters who did the article. Both are veteran legal writers for the city's largest newspaper, and they've spent much of their careers feasting on the misdeeds of local attorneys.

For the most part, law school is a serious endeavor. At times, it can be downright dreary. But this posting from U of L's daily newsletter proves that every cloud has a silver lining. Or, in this case, that even at some law schools, "every silver lining's got a touch of grey."

"Prof. Tomain is accepting applications for a research assistant to start working ASAP.  The project involves reviewing, analyzing and organizing approximately 377 law review and journal articles into five categories.  The commonality of these articles: they all mention the “Grateful Dead.”  Up to 58 hours / $500.00 are available for this project.  If interested in this project, please email a resume and statement of 400 words or less explaining: (1) your interest and (2) availability in February and the first week of March."

Schedule of a 2L: classes I am taking in 2011

When I decided to go to law school at the University of Louisville two years ago, I filled my head with fanciful visions of elective courses that focused on esoteric subjects such as water rights and international legal history. Halfway into my three-year tour of duty, I can say that my course lineup is interesting, but my goal is much more single-minded. I need to pass the bar. There are no majors in law school, and while it's OK to focus on a favorite area, it's also important (more important, in my view) to select classes that will help you pass the bar when you graduate. With that in mind, here is my schedule for the spring.

• Constitutional Law (the second half of a year-long course)
• Decedents' Estates (the study of what to do with grandma's piano when she dies, i.e., wills, estates, fiduciary administration, etc. I see this as a class that every law student should take; at the very least, I want to be able to prepare a simple will for a friend or family member) 
• Basic Income Tax (the bane of law school for most students, and not a topic that I want to try to learn while cramming for the bar)
• Trial Practice (my most anticipated class so far; offers actual experience in preparing for and presenting all phases of civil and criminal litigation, from voir dire -- the fancy name for questioning the jury pool -- to examining witnesses and handling opening and closing statements) 
• Law Review (second half of a year-long commitment; worth one credit hour; great way to take care of the writing requirement for graduation)

Prospective law students should keep in mind that, at U of L and at most law schools, you can't pick your classes until your second year. After that, you can swing for the fences, as long as you cover your core subject areas, fulfill the writing requirement, and take at least one "perspective" class. Want to see what other courses are available for upper-level law students at Louisville? You can click here to check out the full schedule.

Law firm targeted for 'trading' clients

In our Torts class this morning, our professor gave us an interesting question about damages: if you help a client recover $750,000 in a settlement, but work only two hours on the case, should you still be able to collect one-third of the damages based on a valid contingent fee agreement? His answer, essentially, was that yes, the attorney could collect the full one-third, but that no, the attorney should not try to collect the full amount because it would be bad business. Clients should always walk out of the office satisfied, he argued, and paying $250,000 for two hours of work is typically not a good way to make a customer happy.

Law school teaches us a lot about theory, and a decent amount about practice, but business is something else. Which brings to mind a fascinating story in The Courier-Journal this past Sunday about a law firm and a medical clinic that allegedly have a cozy relationship with each other. The author, Andy Wolfson, is a former colleague and a reporter who some lawyers love to hate. His byline has appeared over some of the most sensational cases of legal malpractice in Kentucky over the last few decades. His articles are required reading for someone planning to practice in Louisville. I'm eager to see how this story plays out over the coming months. Your thoughts?