Remember the Otters

When I was 10, my paternal grandparents subscribed to HBO. “Clash of the Titans,” followed by “The Beastmaster,”followed by another showing of “The Beastmaster” made for quite a day … dayafter day.

But HBO didn’t cater only to the sword and sorcery crowd. Thefledgling cable TV network showed it had a heart by airing “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas” each holidayseason.

The Gift of the Maji-inspired program tells the tale of a poorwidow otter and her plucky son Emmet. They scrape out a living in FrogtownHollow on Ma’s income from doing laundry and Emmet’s odd jobs.

A local talent contest on Christmas Eve offers a $50 first prize. Madesperately wants to buy Emmet the guitar of his dreams, coincidentally pricedat $50. And Emmet longs to purchase his mother a piano.

In order to obtain a proper dress in which to compete in thetalent contest, Ma Otter hocks Emmet’s tools to buy fabric. To join a band alsohoping to win the contest, Emmet pokes a hole in Ma’s washtub to make a washtubbass.

Neither Ma nor the jug band take home the money, as they’re bothupstaged at the talent contest by the heavy metal stylings of The Nightmare, aband made up of hooligans from River Bottom.

But as Ma, Emmet and his band mates dejectedly walk home on thefrozen river, they begin to sing together. The owner of a local restauranthears them and invites them to perform (for compensation!) that night. The gigpresumably turns into a regular one, and Ma and Emmet’s fortunes rebound.

I bought the show on DVD about eight years ago and have beenwatching it every December since (along with “Love Actually” and “It’s aWonderful Life” — man, I’m hokey). Last year, I watched “Emmet Otter” with our 8-weekold son, Alex, and this year’s viewing is scheduled for tomorrow.

The painfully obvious segue to law school?

Take a moment over the next few weeks, regardless of your religiousbeliefs or affiliations, to be thankful for the bonds you share with friendsand family. Things don’t always go smoothly in law school or in the practice oflaw, but the kindness and generosity shared among fellow students, valuedco-workers, friends and family buoys the spirit and promotes a resilientattitude.

Finally, a brief plug for the good work done by members of ourcommunity to ensure that local families have a brighter holiday season. Severalnonprofit agencies in Lawrence are working to help roughly 400 families. Formore information on how to donate, see this article. Donorsare asked to provide a new clothing outfit for each member of the family, giftitems for the adopted household and a gift card for a holiday meal.

HappyHolidays! 

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Read more from this post in Online law articles »

Class of 2010 Employment Report

For each graduating class, KU Law measures employment at graduation and nine months after graduation. Each February, every law school in the country submits employment data for its most recent graduating class to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). Each June, law schools receive a detailed report from NALP of national and school-specific employment and salary trends.

Class of 2010 Employment Statistics
We submitted our Class of 2010 employment report to NALP on Feb. 22, 2011. There were 168 students in the Class of 2010. Of the 165 students for whom we were able to gather employment information, 131 students reported employment and 10 reported returning to school to seek an additional degree. Sixteen students reported seeking employment, and 8 reported not seeking employment.

We ran preliminary calculations for employed at graduation and nine months after graduation based on the US News & World Report methodology.

To calculate employed at graduation, US News adds the number of employed grads plus those seeking additional degrees, and divides by the total number of graduates less those not seeking employment.

For the nine-month figure, US News adds the number of employed grads plus (1) those seeking additional degrees and (2) one-fourth of unknown grads and divides by the total number of graduates less those not seeking employment.

55 percent of the KU Law Class of 2010 was employed at graduation. 88.6 percent of the KU Law class of 2010 was employed or seeking an additional degree within nine months of graduation. These employment statistics will be reported to US News this fall and will appear in the April 2012 rankings issue.

With the exception of the employed at graduation statistic, which fell from 63.2 percent to 55 percent, the Classes of 2009 and 2010 were quite similar. The number of students still seeking employment nine months after graduation increased by two students from 2009 to 2010, but the Class of 2010 was larger by eight students.

Class of 2009 and Class of 2010 Salaries
In the KU Law Class of 2009, 108 students reported salaries, or 82 percent of employed students. Our 82 percent salary reporting rate compared favorably with the national rate of 54 percent. In fact, the highest national percentage of employed graduates reporting salaries over the last eight years was 65 percent.

One hundred and five (105) KU Law graduates reported salaries in the 2010 class. This represented 80 percent of employed graduates.

A breakdown of Class of 2009 salaries by employment sector and employment category may be viewed here. Salary means and medians by employment sector and employment category for the Class of 2010 will be published on the KU Law website when we receive our NALP report in June.

Class of 2009 and Class of 2010 Bar Passage Required Jobs
The overall NALP and US News employment statistics count all jobs of any type. While most law students enroll with the goal of practicing law, by graduation some have decided to pursue less traditional, "JD preferred" jobs or other professional positions that do not require the passage of a bar exam.

Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of the number of grads accepting jobs requiring bar passage.

In the KU Law Class of 2009, 97 students reported accepting jobs requiring bar passage, representing 62 percent of grads for whom employment status was known. Ninety four (94) of these positions were full time, while three were part time.

Nationally, 71 percent of law students in the Class of 2009 for whom employment status was known reported accepting a job requiring bar passage.

The same overall number (97) reported accepting jobs requiring bar passage in the KU Law Class of 2010, or 59 percent of graduates for whom employment status is known. Ninety-five (95) of these positions were full time, while two were part time.

A breakdown of this statistic over the last eight years can also be viewed here.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Read more from this post in Online law articles »

Getting involved at KU Law

KU Law affords students countless opportunities to tailor a legal education to meet your personality. Combined with a smaller to mid-sized student body and comparable to other reputable law schools, students receive the individualized attention foundational to a successful experience. Entering law school, I have always hoped to work in Kansas City at either a corporation or law firm. Therefore, I sought opportunities that would best prepare me for my future. KU Law exceeded my expectations.

As a first-year student, I was immediately presented with opportunities for mentorship and networking. Career Services provided me with a valuable mentor to explore the ins and outs of networking and job-prospecting in Kansas City. I was also paired with a Dean’s Fellow (upper-level student mentor) that provided a valuable student-perspective on the transition from undergraduate to law school. Additionally, the student body has countless organizations, social events, and activities to choose between. Immediately, I felt connected and involved in my law school.

As the year progressed, I began exploring more substantive opportunities to gain hands-on experience. I participated in the joint writing competition and was accepted to the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy. On the Journal, I had the opportunity to edit, review, and cite-check the work of prestigious practitioners, professors, and scholars. This perfectly aligned with my desire to develop strong legal writing and researching abilities. I also obtained an invaluable position as a judicial extern for Magistrate Judge K. Gary Sebelius through KU Law’s Judicial Clinic. This provided a real opportunity to understand the practice of law as a young attorney and apply my classroom learning in a meaningful way.

As a third-year student, I feel ready and able to tackle upcoming challenges. Additionally, each of these opportunities led to new and exciting opportunities. For example, I am currently the Senior Symposium Editor for the Journal and will help host a symposium on “The Role of the States in Federal Healthcare Reform” in February 2011. I know that the skills and experiences I had were made possible because KU Law values students having opportunities at their disposal. In considering law schools, be sure to consider not just how the classroom environment will contribute to your learning; strongly consider how the larger law school experience will facilitate your development as a young attorney. I could not be more satisfied with my choices and experiences at KU Law.

T.J. Trum, 3L

Read more from this post in Online law articles »

Career services programming keeps students at the top of their game

The KU Law Office of Career Services prides itself on providing a wide variety of career-related programming and resources, and in being accessible, welcoming and helpful to students and graduates, regardless of their career aspirations.

In the fall of 2009, the office sponsored 26 lunchtime programs, ranging from resume and cover letter-writing and interviewing skills, to practice area-specific panels.

This fall, we sponsored another 22 programs and produced two webinars: one about interviewing tips and techniques and another detailing strategies to find a job beyond the on-campus interview process.

The series of fall 2010 presentations included programs about the state of the legal economy; panels focusing on criminal law, federal government practice, law practice in small towns, judicial clerkships, and alternative careers for lawyers; and instructional hours on resumes, cover letters, networking and positive psychology.

In collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs, we debuted the KU Law Student Wellness Series in the fall of 2009. The purpose of the series is to encourage professional behavior and teach practical skills essential to navigating the pitfalls of life as a law student and new attorney. In both the fall of 2009 and 2010, we featured programs about how to cope with law school anxiety, how to better manage finances while in law school and after graduation, and business etiquette.

Students also seek career-related information through individual appointments. From July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, Todd Rogers had 282 appointments with students, while Karen Hester had an additional 254. Between the two of us, we scheduled more appointments from July 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2010, than in any of the previous seven falls.

I should also mention our 1L Mentor Program, through which we matched 73 1Ls with attorney mentors this fall, and our annual Legal Career Options Day, generously co-sponsored by the Kansas Bar Association, Johnson County Bar Association and Wichita Bar Association.

More information about these important networking programs, and pictures from the Mentor Reception and the 8th Annual Career Options Day, can be found on our website.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Read more from this post in Online law articles »

Career services dean answers employment questions from prospective students

Let’s address some questions about employment raised byprospective students over the last few weeks.

(1)  When will employment statistics be available for KU Law’s mostrecent class?

For each graduating class, KU Lawmeasures employment at graduation and nine months after graduation. Each February, every law school in thecountry submits final employment data to the National Association for LawPlacement (NALP). In June, law schoolsreceive a detailed report from NALP of national and school-specific trends.

We will submit our class of 2010report to NALP on February 22, 2011. Atthat time, we will update our website with the “employed at graduation” and“employed nine months after graduation” data using the US News formula (whichdiffers slightly from the NALP formula).

Here are the US News numbers fromthe 2006-09 graduating classes:

Graduation Year	% Employed at Graduation	% Employed Nine Months after Graduation	US News Ranking
2009	63.2	89.0	TBD (April 2011)
2008	69.4	93.6	67 (April 2010)
2007	67.1	95.5	65 (April 2009)
2006	65.9	94.7	73 (April 2008)

(2)  What’s the geographic dispersion of recent KU Law grads?

For the class of 2009, the lastclass for which we have complete information, 51.2 percent of the class wasemployed in Kansas, 21.7 percent in Missouri and 27.1 percent in other statesand countries.

Most students reportingemployment in Missouri were employed in the greater Kansas City area.

Outside of Kansas and Missouri,the most traveled-to states by the Class of 2009 were:  Washington, D.C. (7), Arizona (3), Oklahoma(3), Colorado (2), Illinois (2) Maryland (2), New York (2), Texas (2), Virginia(2) and Washington (2).

Historically, between 65 percentand 75 percent of our students remain in the West North Central Region, asdefined by NALP to include Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, NorthDakota and South Dakota. The bulk ofthese students find employment in Kansas and Kansas City, Mo. 

Other popular regions for ourgrads are South Atlantic (on the strength of D.C.), West South Central (mainlyin Texas) and Mountain (primarily in Arizona, Colorado and Utah).

(3)  How has the recession impacted on-campus recruiting?

Nationally,the most dramatic impact of the current economic situation was on fall 2009recruiting of 2Ls for summer 2010 positions. At the largest national law firms,the median number of summer offers dropped from 30 in fall 2007 to 18.5 in 2008to just 8 in 2009. The percentage of callback interviews resulting in summerjobs fell from 60 percent to 46.6 percent to 36.4 percent over that three-yearperiod. The acceptance rate of 42.8 percent was an all-time high.

Our on-campus interview (OCI) numbers serve as a rough barometer of the overallhealth of the legal economy, especially regionally. By tracking the last threeacademic years, it becomes clear that the recession was in full bloom in latesummer/early fall 2009, the same time period in which employers were decidingwhether to participate in the fall 2009 OCI program to recruit 2L law studentsfor the summer of 2010.

Over half of law schools surveyed reported a decrease of 30 percent or more inthe number of employers on campus in fall 2009 compared with fall 2008. Ourdrop was 40 percent, from 72 to 43 employers; 38.2 percent of schools in theMidwest reported a decrease of more than 40 percent. 

Some good news: In the fall of 2010, 50employers from 7 states conducted 670 interviews on campus, as compared to 562on-campus interviews in the fall of 2009. An increased number of call-back (second) interviews, offers andacceptances were also reported by our students.

(4)  What did last year’s 1Ls do over their summer break?

Eighty percent of the Class of2012 reported summer employment and/or participation in summer school, a lawschool clinic or a study abroad program.

• 45 enrolled in a summer school class.
• 40 enrolled in a clinic in which they received course credit forcompleting practical legal work.
• 15 participated in a KU Law-sponsored study abroad program.
• 10 received a Bremyer Summer Clerk Scholarship for summer workwith a legal employer in a less populous Kansas community.
• 15 received a KU Law Summer Stipend for volunteer legal work witha public interest organization. Stipend recipients worked in Kansas, Missouri,Arkansas, California, New York, Texas and Washington.
• Finally, 25 students secured a legal internship with an employeroutside of the Bremyer or KU Law Summer Stipend Programs.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Read more from this post in Online law articles »

A response to ‘Is law school a losing game?’

On Jan. 8 the New York Times published a much-discussed article called “Is Law School a Losing Game?” The article’s author, David Segal, is critical of a law school system that he alleges overstates employment prospects to prospective students, all in the name of packing classrooms with students who pay high tuitions.

The Lawrence Journal-World linked to the article on Jan. 13 and asked about the employment picture at KU Law.

Let me partially answer that query by referring to two specific criticisms leveled by the article and then explaining how KU Law does business.

• Segal refers to the “Wonderland” of law school employment statistics and states that many schools — even some outside the top 40 — list the median starting salary of their graduates in the private sector at $160,000.

  As a prospective law student, it’s imperative to carefully scrutinize employment stats. For example, there’s a significant difference between private practice and public sector salaries. Statistics that blend private practice and public interest salaries together are relatively meaningless.

  So are private practice salary stats based on only a small percentage of graduates. It’s likely that schools outside the top 40 listing a median starting salary of $160,000 for grads in the private sector have not accounted for even a majority of those graduates when calculating the average.

  For the class of 2009, 79 KU Law students reported a private practice salary. This represented 80.6 percent of 2009 graduates employed in private practice. The average salary was $72,660.

• Segal also alleges that schools massage employment data to produce numbers that are inciting to prospective students and palatable to current student and alumni. In doing so, he notes that “a school with the guts to report, say, a 4 percent drop in postgraduate employment would plunge in the rankings, leaving the dean to explain a lot of convoluted math, and the case for unvarnished truth, to a bunch of angry students and alums.”

  The decision to come to law school is an important one that ultimately involves three years of intense study and, in some cases, significant borrowing. Prospective law students should be afforded every opportunity to review accurate employment data. The following information for graduation years 2006-09 is available on the KU Law website.

  Graduation Year	% Employed at Graduation	% Employed Nine Months after Graduation	US News Ranking
  2009	63.2	89.0	TBD (April 2011)
  2008	69.4	93.6	67 (April 2010)
  2007	67.1	95.5	65 (April 2009)
  2006	65.9	94.7	73 (April 2008)

  In the midst of the recession, our numbers took a hit, but we were upfront about reporting the losses accurately.

• One statistic not touched upon in the article, and not often discussed by prospective students, is the percentage of students employed in “bar admission required” positions.

  Most law students enroll with the goal of practicing law after graduation. By graduation, some have decided to pursue less traditional, “J.D.-preferred” or other professional positions that do not require the passage of a bar exam.

  During the recession, we’ve seen the percentage of recent grads employed in “bar admission required” positions decline as an increased number of graduates who do want to practice law have been unable to secure traditional legal positions and have been forced to look elsewhere.

  Here’s the percentage of KU Law graduates from the last eight classes who were employed in “bar admission required” positions nine months after graduation:

  KU Law Class	Ratio	Percentage
  2002	117/162	72.2%
  2003	96/146	65.8%
  2004	133/184	72.3%
  2005	124/179	69.3%
  2006	117/170	68.8%
  2007	115/157	73.2%
  2008	120/161	74.5%
  2009	97/156	62.2%

  (Note: Other categories are J.D. Preferred, Other Professional, Non-Professional, Pursuing Degree FT, Unemployed-Seeking and Unemployed-Not Seeking.)

The recession has certainly put a damper on graduates securing traditional legal positions, and prospective students deserve access to this information from all schools they’re considering.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Read more from this post in Online law articles »