Franklin & Marshall College

“Is this a good time to go to law school?”  This is the question I posed to Prof. Ben Barros, a professor at Widener Law School, when he was at F&M on Tuesday to teach his first day of property law – often the very first day of class for first-year law students.  His answer:  “This is the BEST time to go to law school – for someone who really wants to be a lawyer - in 30 years.  Applications are down nationwide, and it’s likely that in three years, the economy will be stronger.”

As encouragement to all, I have two main things to say:  Yes, there are people out there who read these letters of recommendation (in fact, it's part of their job).  Thus, your work is significant and worthwhile.  And remember, an individual letter writer is but one voice among several singing in support of an applicant.  Therefore, each letter need not describe its subject completely; rather, it need only give an informed perspective from within the context that the author and applicant know each other.

This past week I had the opportunity to travel to New York City and meet with alumni and employers to develop partnerships beneficial to our students. Great information, suggestions and observations came out of my four days of meetings. This is what the employers are saying...

Last Friday, I attended a one-day conference hosted by Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, the new allopathic medical school in Camden.  We Philly-area pre-health advisers like to get together every January at a different health professional school, engaging in dialogue about timely professional topics, hearing updates from Admissions deans, and generally comparing notes . . .  

As with battle over the value of higher education that I discussed in my previous blog post (and which resurfaced this weekend in the New York Times in an article misleading and worthy of critique in its own right), critics and advocates alike have taken to the newspapers and blogosphere to make their case regarding the value (economic or otherwise) of law school and a legal education.