Category Archives: Law School

Apologies, blog readers, but this announcement is for UM Law 1L & 2L students only:

I would like to hire two part-time summer research assistants. The hours are negotiable, but likely would be in the 10-30 hours per week range. It would be best if you could start very soon after exams finish.

Job one involves helping me with my research. It requires someone who can write clearly, is well-organized, and who is really good at finding things in libraries and on the Internet. If you happen to have some web or programming skills (some or all of HTML, MySQL, Perl, Debian), that would be a very big plus but it is not in any way a requirement.

Job two involves helping me manage and edit JOTWELL (see jotwell.com). It requires excellent organizational skill plus some editing skills. Some interest in designing a PR campaign might also be of value. Jotwell uses WordPress to publish, but it is easy to learn, so no experience needed.

In both cases the hourly pay of $ 13 is set by the university, and is not as high as you deserve, but the work is sometimes interesting.

If you are interested, please send me an e-mail with the words RESEARCH ASSISTANT (in all caps) followed by your name in the subject line. In the email tell me:

– which job you are applying for (“both” is a perfectly acceptable answer)
– how many hours you’d ideally like to work per week and what other jobs/courses you have planned for the summer (if any),
– when you are free to start, and whether you have vacation plans (no problem if you are planning to take a week or two off during the summer)
– your phone number and email address.
– whether it is OK for me to share your application with other interested faculty members who might also want a summer research assistant.

Please attach the following to your email:

1. A copy of your resume (c.v.),

2. A short writing sample (non-legal is preferred — in any case, please don’t send your LCOMM memo),

3. A transcript (need not be an official copy).

(You might also mention that you saw the ad here. Can’t hurt.)

That’s the provocative title of a provocative essay by A. Morgan Cloud & George Shepherd, both of Emory University School of Law, now on SSRN. Here’s the abstract:

A most unlikely collection of suspects – law schools, their deans, U.S. News & World Report and its employees – may have committed felonies by publishing false information as part of U.S. News’ ranking of law schools. The possible federal felonies include mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, and making false statements. Employees of law schools and U.S. News who committed these crimes can be punished as individuals, and under federal law the schools and U.S. News would likely be criminally liable for their agents’ crimes.

Some law schools and their deans submitted false information about the schools’ expenditures and their students’ undergraduate grades and LSAT scores. Others submitted information that may have been literally true but was misleading. Examples include misleading statistics about recent graduates’ employment rates and students’ undergraduate grades and LSAT scores.

U.S. News itself may have committed mail and wire fraud. It has republished, and sold for profit, data submitted by law schools without verifying the data’s accuracy, despite being aware that at least some schools were submitting false and misleading data. U.S. News refused to correct incorrect data and rankings errors and continued to sell that information even after individual schools confessed that they had submitted false information. In addition, U.S. News marketed its surveys and rankings as valid although they were riddled with fundamental methodological errors.

Which reminds me, I need to write up my analysis of U.Miami’s release of its employment figures.

Eugene Volokh (and his commentators) discuss Effective Self-Promotion in Cover Letters.

I would like to hire a 2L or 3L to be my research assistant for 10-15 hours/week during the coming semester.

The work primarily involves assisting me with legal research relating to papers I am writing on privacy and on Internet regulation.

I need someone who can write clearly and is well-organized. If you happen to have some web or programming skills (some or all of WordPress, HTML, MySQL, Perl, Debian), that would be a plus but it is not in any way a requirement.

The pay of $13 / hr is set by the university, and is not as high as you deserve, but the work is sometimes interesting.

If this sounds attractive, please e-mail me the following with the subject line RESEARCH ASSISTANT 2012 (in all caps), followed by your name:

1. A note telling me
   • How many hours you’d ideally like to work per week
   • When you are free to start.
   • Your phone number and email address.
2. A copy of your resume (c.v.).
3. A transcript of your grades (need not be an official copy).
4. If you have one handy, also attach a short NON-legal writing sample. If you have none, I’ll accept a legal writing sample (whatever you do, though, please don’t send your L-Comm/LRW memo).

In Negative Results Advance Science Too I reported the result of multi-day experiment conducted on a large pile of law school final exams. The result were discouraging, to say the least:

A large pile of exams, closely observed over a period of days, will not grade themselves. These results are reproducible. Furthermore, altering the test protocol to pay no attention to the exams does not appear to alter the outcome in a measurable way.

I regret to report that I have once again confirmed this result.