Practice of Law

Harvard and Yale's law schools announced this week that they will no longer submit themselves for ranking by U.S. News & World Report. Both schools say that one of the most troubling outcomes triggered by law school rankings is the barriers they create for lower-income students.

Love your lawyer day is upon us. But if Love Your Lawyer Day is news to you, you might ask: Do people even know Love Your Lawyer Day exists? Do lawyers even know if it exists? By all odds, most people probably don't. It was created in 2001 by legal marketers as a campaign to soften the appearance of lawyers in the public's eyes. The idea is to provide a day where people can share positive experiences with lawyers. And if you think that one day a year isn't enough, there's also "Be Kind to Lawyers Day" and "Love Litigating Lawyers Day." (Leave it to lawyers to come up with more than one day.)

With all the sangria red, canary yellow, and marmalade orange-colored leaves falling onto a world pining for Halloween, the time is now to turn off your inner scaredy-cat and ask yourself a pointed question. Will you be prepared to represent the next vampire who stakes out your office, the werewolf clawing its way into your courtroom, or the witch in need of a lawyer for a spell? Before you answer in the affirmative and give yourself a full-size candy bar, you might want to consider that other trick-or-treaters have boldly gone before you. Consider the gauntlet they must have walked for these bite-sized treats.

Every year, the last full week of October is the time for the National Celebration of Pro Bono. Whether it's recognizing the excellent work of other pro bono attorneys or finding new ways to donate your time, this week is dedicated to the positive impact lawyers can have on their community. We're kicking of Pro Bono Week with a list of ways you can get involved. 1. Check Out Events Near You The ABA's event calendar includes Pro Bono Week events going on in every jurisdiction.

Classes are finally over, and you've got a week to get it together before finals. But without the structure and regular schedule you're used to during the semester, how do you make the most of your time? Here are some do's and don'ts to have a productive and rejuvenating reading week in law school: DO Edit Your Outline First things first: Let's clean up that outline. Ideally, you'd have your outlines more or less complete by the time classes end.

I didn’t sleep the night before my bar exam results came out. My thoughts raced, my stomach churned - I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would tell people if I had failed. Then I finally realized: The world would not stop turning if I didn’t pass. I would still have a job and a roof over my head. Luckily for me, I had already started down the path of an alternative legal career, so the stakes were different.