Date: September 7th, 2009 4:48 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
Didn't summer at Susman, but I know a fair amount about the firm and can't recommend against it enough. I would never, ever, ever work there.
I actually liked my DC firm a lot. If I was interested in DC, I would go back. But people worked way longer hours for the exact same pay I would get in Texas. And they get taxed on that pay more and have to live in a more expensive city. It just wasn't my lifestyle, although the work was inarguably of a higher quality than what I'll see in Texas.
Date: September 7th, 2009 4:56 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
The hours alone are enough. You do get substantial work, but you won't do anything but work. You also have to not mind doing dirty plaintiff-side work.
They are also incredibly partisan. E.g., the partners pressure the associates to donate to Democratic candidates. If you are a conservative, I would stay away.
Also, I've heard some pretty egregious stories about them treating people like dirt.
The good things about working at Susman are the great work, ridiculous bonuses, short partnership track, and lavish parties. But they've shrunk bonuses, extended the partnership track, and cut the parties this year. We'll see if any of those perks come back post-ITE.
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:52 PM Author: Razzle elite reading party
Even this is wrong, because your base assumption seems to be that defense is work is generally honorable, but a few might be sleazy; whereas plaintiffs' work is generally sleazy, but a few might be honorable. That's what a first year law student thinks, and has no relation to reality.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:00 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
At least as a summer associate, in DC I got the kind of high-end appellate work with interesting, novel legal issues that attracts gunners like me in law school; by comparison, the Texas work was more your standard grind-through-docs, motion-practice litigation that isn't nearly as intellectually interesting.
(I hope cheating on the one-sentence rule with a semicolon is okay)
Date: September 7th, 2009 4:44 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I couldn't tell you exactly. My judge only hires rising 3Ls, and the lowest ranked school he's ever hired from is Texas. For the most part, the secretary screens out applications from alums and non-T16 (or whatever Texas is now) schools. Further, we do all our hiring totally off plan. So I only saw pre-OSCAR apps that made it through those filters.
We made our last interview invitation in July. I would say prior to that invite, I'd looked through 30-40 applications. I'm sure more came in after that that I didn't bother checking. And I'm also sure OSCAR dumped a ton on Friday that won't get looked at.
Date: September 7th, 2009 4:50 PM Author: Thriller Church Building
i've had a few clerkship interviews. am i likely to get moar? i've spammed teh courts pretty heavily. non-preftigious districts and state supreme courts.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:05 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I don't know about supreme courts, but I have friends who got hired by district court judges at all sorts of random times through the year. One got hired in January. So while I don't have much specific advice, generally, I don't think DCts operate on the same regimented June-Sept time schedule as COAs.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:07 PM Author: Thriller Church Building
ty. so i could get calls in late fall?
do you think i'm likely to get moar interviews since i've had three? i would hope that suggests i have something going for me.
also, i haven't heard back from those judges. am i surely dinged? i wonder why they don't just send me my rejection letters. is it okay for me to send a letter to chambers asking about the status of my application, or would that be annoying?
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:12 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
Correct. And if you have a good enough app to get three interviews, I'd think you'd be competitive for more.
I would wait a bit before sending a letter asking about your status, but maybe do that in late Sept/early Oct. I'm not exactly sure how DCt hiring works, but my impression is that it is more scattershot. It probably would be good to make sure your app doesn't get lost at the bottom of the stack if a judge decides to make some interview phone calls in October.
That said, I'm just guessing here. If I talk to one of my district court friends soon, I'll ask their opinion and update.
I don't mean to out you, but it's pretty damn obvious which CoA judge you clerked for. I won't say his name, just for the sake of the people who haven't figured it out, but if you were hoping to maintain any anonymity, you probably haven't.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:03 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I need to send him an e-mail and see what's up with him. The latest I heard second-hand was neither, but it sounded like he was about to start a pretty cool new job.
Date: September 7th, 2009 4:53 PM Author: excitant aggressive messiness new version
lol@ chicago students on this board. no wonder the school is falling fast; tjhey can't defend themselves, so they fly the MTG bat signal and look for redemption from the last decent grad.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:17 PM Author: Vivacious pale electric furnace fortuitous meteor
To repeat my question from the other thread - what are your guesses about top 10, 15, 25, 33% of the class GPA-wise? I realize the data is sparse but I'd love some rampant MTG speculation.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:24 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
All you're going to get is speculation. So here goes some speculatin'. These are pulled-from-my-ass guesses for GPAs at graduation time:
10% - 179.9
15% - 179.6
20% - 179.3
25% - 179
33% - 178.6
I am open to refinement. The only one I feel particularly confident about is the 25% number—even though the school claims honors is approximately top 19%, you typically see ~50 people out of 200 with honors each year.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:32 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
They are GPAs rather than percentages: 179, 180.5, and 182. The school claims that in an average graduating class, 179 is top 19%, 180.5 is top 3.5% and 182 is top 0.5%.
I think those estimates are off. Just to give you a comparison, my graduating class had 208 people. We had 42 honors, 12 high honors, and one highest honors. I think that is close to normal for a graduating class.
So the 179 estimate seems wrong, it looks closer to top 25%. The 180.5 might be a bit generous, I think a better estimate would be top 5%. And I think the 182 0.5% is about right; there are occassionally years where nobody gets highest honors, and I haven't heard of a year where two people got it.
EDIT: Just to give you complete info, the school does an order of the coif award for top 10%. In my class, 7 people got coif with only honors; 12 people got coif with high honors; and 1 person got coif with highest.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:40 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
Tough for me to tell. I've never been on a traditional A+, A, A-, B+ curve. Undergrad was straight A, B, and C letter grades.
I've looked at a lot of UT law transcripts though, and it seems like there are a handful of people in each class that have a 4.0 or better. So if UT is representative, I'd say harder than a flat A, because only one person per year does it at Chicago.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:26 PM Author: Vivacious pale electric furnace fortuitous meteor
That's good to know, I didn't realize that many people actually graduated at 179.
I had a judge ask me during a clerkship interview my class rank and despite going through all of the "we don't rank" etc... he still wanted a guess. I ended up saying b/t top 25 and top 33 and it seems as though I was about right.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:47 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
The number moves, too. You have some regression to the mean post-1L, but you also get some inflated grades from uncurved seminar classes 2/3L year. My guess is that the overall class GPA is at its lowest point at the end of 2L year. Then 3L year, people do a lot of paper classes/seminars, and that number ticks up.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:35 AM Author: hairraiser kitchen crotch Subject: I've looked at the grade distributions
For an unrelated issue and it's not nearly as tight as this. Using .5's or whatever can be problematic since what rank a student has w/r/t a particular number like 177.8 or 178.2 varies greatly.
It's generally true that the top 20 percent comes in right around 179. Another 30 percent fall in between that and 178-177. Another 30 percent hit at 175-176. Another 20 percent falls around 174 or below. The actual decimal points in between the ranges varies a lot from graduating class to class, etc.
Date: September 9th, 2009 3:20 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I think most of what you said is consistent with most of my guesses. The only thing I'd add is that graduation data indicates 179 is more like top 25% than top 20%.
As I explained to my old judge, when you're comparing a student with a 177.56 to one with a 178.04, you're splitting hairs. It's one of the things I cannot stand about the grading system there. It encourages hair splitting among candidates that are basically interchangeable (within whole numbers, of course). A 176 and 177 grad is pretty interchangeable. A 178 and 179 grad is also pretty much interchangeable (unless the 179'er has honors). In light of the pass fail at pretty much every higher ranked school, I find the whole system to be a bit too much.
Date: September 9th, 2009 3:44 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I agree with almost all of that, but I don't think I can blame the grade system. I've seen firsthand that you get the same type of irrelevant hairsplitting between a 3.2 and a 3.3 GPA under a more traditional approach.
The pass/fail stuff is weak sauce. I would be sad to see Chicago embrace it.
Date: September 9th, 2009 4:59 PM Author: hairraiser kitchen crotch Subject: For being such a market oriented place
I always found its retarded attempts to buck demand somewhat endearing, if not utterly hapless (blocking wifi in the classroom. really?). IS HYSCNB all adopt these pass fail systems, Chicago is going to have to figure out whether the demand for its current system is worth losing out on students from these schools who want to the assurance of some grade based obstructionism (which any risk adverse law student is going to want to do). If it continues being stupid, I could actually see it swapping places with Northwestern.
Date: September 7th, 2009 5:51 PM Author: deranged contagious gas station
If one wants to clerk for both distrcit and COA the following 2 years after law school, is it stupid to apply to both district and COA for the first year? would the better route be to do district first since it's generally easier to get, then apply COA later because the district clerkship will make you more competitive for COA?
Date: September 7th, 2009 6:01 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
So if I'm understanding the question right, you want to do COA and DCt, but don't care what order? If so, I can't think of a reason not to apply to both. Yes, DCt first might help you get COA second, but I can't imagine that COA first would hurt your chances for DCt second. And COA is a roll-the-dice process whenever you apply, so I have to imagine getting two shots at it can only help.
And, on the other side, at least my judge doesn't hire except straight out of school, so if you do DCt first, you have zero shot with him. Not sure if other COA judges do the same.
Date: September 7th, 2009 6:05 PM Author: deranged contagious gas station
if you apply to judges in SF and DC and you're going to be travedling from chicago, do you basically have to pick one city to interview in when calls start coming in because there's not enough time to interview in both cities and the spots will be gone by the time you fly out to the other city?
Date: September 7th, 2009 6:08 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I got my job off-plan and skipped out on that madness, so I'm not a good person to ask. But I heard that a couple of folks in my class came up with nothing because of city travel, so I guess my advice is just pick one city? I'm not very informed on the subject.
I think the conventional wisdom is to do DC first, as they are hardest core about the plan and filling up on slots early. Maybe SF is more laid back, West Coast-style?
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:43 AM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I don't know the exact number, but probably something like that. Law review takes ~30, and the other journals take ~20 each, I believe. So that means 70 slots, and the number I heard was that there are usually around 100 competition entries submitted. So if all of that is right, maybe 30% try but don't get one?
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:18 AM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I wouldn't have any reason to lie about it at this point. I just decided if I didn't get law review, I'd rather do moot court than waste my time on a secondary journal.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:10 AM Author: Trip Office Selfie
me too. do you know how to physically take a mediation agreement and find the right place to mail a notarized copy of the agreement to the court to have it entered or recorded? a friend called and asked. solo life would be hard
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:15 AM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I once got into a conversation at a Lincoln Park bar with a fifty-something-year-old John Marshall law alum. At one point, he told me, "We may not learn all the theoretical stuff they teach down in Hyde Park, but at least when you graduate from John Marshall, you know how to find the courthouse and file a motion."
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:20 AM Author: Trip Office Selfie
Honestly, of course we can file motions and write memos in support and hand them to the courier or even physically go to the courthouse and file it in the clerk's office. And i doubt they teach the john marshall grad that.
but what i'm asking is more the question that a solo working for 1 month would know but in biglaw there's legal assistants who hire the depo company, and they make the certified copies of the depo and waive or sign or whatever is checked off. these are things i just don't do. specifically with real estate law i know all about commercial lending and loan structures but i don't know what to do if i filed a foreclosure and the other side ignored me. do you to tell the judge they're in contempt and the sheriff physically evicts the tenants. i don't know.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:28 AM Author: Godawful hissy fit patrolman
I wonder how good the practice guides are...I'm doing a pro bono family law case and using practice manuals to get through. Some are pretty good - they list each step out exactly as they (are supposed to) happen.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:31 AM Author: Trip Office Selfie
child custody or divorce? you could seriously fuck that up against a decent family atty, or you could easily win if it goes to trial. trials/final hearings are where a smart atty can blast a ttt lawyer with 10+ years of experience.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:41 AM Author: Godawful hissy fit patrolman
Divorce with custody. I got it through a Legal Aid type program which you have to be pretty poor to qualify for. Since they're married (and he qualified), they're both pretty poor so I don't think she paid much for her lawyer.
Opposing counsel is pretty TTT but she does have more court experience than me (I think - she doesn't seem to practice full time).
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:33 AM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
As a summer, I did a research assignment on the mechanics of collecting a judgment when the defendant refused to pay. The practice guides were really useful, especially at including model versions of the forms that needed to be filed with the court/sheriff's office.
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:36 AM Author: Trip Office Selfie
it seems hard to get a garnishment of wages. do you just draft a motion called "motion to garnish" and then set it for hearing with the JA of the judge where you won the original judgment?
Date: September 9th, 2009 11:39 AM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
If I remember right, it is tough to garnish wages in Texas beyond certain types of judgments (e.g., backpay on child support, tax liens). I think we ended up filing something where the sheriff actually went out to his property and seized assets to sell off.
This was two years ago, so I don't remember exactly.
Date: September 9th, 2009 1:48 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
I posted this over in the thread about him:
Date: September 9th, 2009 12:31 PM
Author: MindTheGap76 (is semi-retired)
Full disclosure: I know absolutely nothing about the guy that wasn't in Zimmer's e-mail.
I'm conflicted on it. He must be the first dean in at least twenty-something years not to be a former faculty member (Levmore, Epstein, Baird, and Stone; don't remember who was dean before that). On the one hand, maybe it is a good idea to get someone with executive experience in to run the school and leave the Chicago profs to do what they do best.
On the other hand, it seems like a further dilution of Chicago's unique culture. I appreciate the criticisms of Levmore, but in both good ways and bad, he was intensely Chicago. I liked that.
Date: September 9th, 2009 2:01 PM Author: Histrionic Orchestra Pit
That makes a lot of sense. The faculty right now is divided between the old guard who either have already served or probably have no interest and the relative young 'uns.
Date: September 9th, 2009 2:25 PM Author: Titillating iridescent coffee pot spot
Half of the final consisted of 40(?) multiple choice questions about UCC Art 2. The other half was open response, but evidently MC sets the curve. I dig his snarky classroom demeanor but disagree with the pedagogy, especially in the context of a 1L class. Bernstein is teaching a UCC 2 class this quarter--advanced contracts.