The Dean's Plan

Developing a strategy to fix MU's sudden drop in US News Rankings and address student concerns, the Dean discusses measures to strengthen the MU law school in a recent letter to the student body.

Dear Students,

Over the last week, all of us have had thoughtful, and candid, conversation concerning our most recent ranking, employment for our graduates, and other aspects of the Law School. Deans and faculty have met with students and groups of students, and after Thursday’s open meeting, I, personally, heard from many of you and met with elected student leaders, other student representatives, and the Faculty Policy Committee.

Much of this discussion has centered on student and graduate employment and how we can best focus and extend our efforts to ensure that every graduate obtains a good legal job. I therefore am extremely pleased that the University has provided funding for an additional full-time professional law school staff member for career services. You have raised good ideas concerning career services, and this wonderful support from the University will enable us to build upon these suggestions, and more fully extend our efforts, as we engage in career services planning this summer.

We have some very good news from the University on another front as well. While all campus hiring must be approved by MU, the University has authorized us to hire for all five open faculty positions at the Law School. Next fall we will seek three new entry-level faculty to join us in Fall 2011, while in Fall 2011 we will seek to hire an additional two entry-level faculty to join us the year after.

With respect to another rankings category in which we dropped this year, bar passage, we also received good news earlier this week–that MU graduates had the highest bar passage rate (95%) of any law school in Missouri on the February 2010 Missouri Bar Examination (including 100% success for first-time takers).

Thank you for your continuing suggestions and support of our law school as we work, together, to make this an even better law school in the years ahead.

R. Lawrence Dessem
Dean

Art Imitating Life

A clever artist with photoshop recently updated Michelangelo's David scultpture to reflect 21st century America, i.e. the 30% of America that is obese.

The photo raises an interesting question: if David had been a plus-sized model, would he have made the cut? Or put another way, can a hero, a conqueror, and a defender of justice also be fat?

You make the call.

Dean's Letter

After last week's heated town hall meeting where MU law students expressed their pointed concerns with the significant plummet of the University of Missouri Law School in the U.S. News Report Law School Rankings, some MU law students have discussed transferring to another university. In response to student dissatisfaction, the Dean sent out this letter.

Dear Students,

Last week was quite extraordinary for alumni, students, and faculty of the Law School. Governor Jay Nixon appointed three new judges: Richelle Christensen as Associate Circuit Judge in Camden County, David Chadwick as Circuit Judge of the 43rd Judicial Circuit, and Bill Francis as the newest judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals. All three judges–and Governor Nixon–are graduates of our Law School.

Here at the Law School, the oral advocacy of our first-year students shone, and some of the best-of-the-best student advocates will argue in the fall before judges of the Missouri Supreme Court in the Supreme Court Chamber in Jefferson City. We also honored student excellence at this year’s Edna Nelson Banquet. The most recent honors for our faculty came with the announcement that both Professors Richard Reuben and Thom Lambert were on faculty teams that made exciting interdisciplinary proposals that will be funded by the University’s Mizzou Advantage Program. First- and second-year students also have recently registered for next year’s courses, including some new practice electives and our ever-popular legal clinics.

Last week we also received very disappointing news concerning this spring’s ranking by U. S. News, and each of you are facing the most serious challenges in the legal marketplace within the lifetime of any of us. Thursday’s meeting produced some good conversation and specific suggestions on which we will build going forward. Concerning the employment statistics that have concerned us all, you may want to check out Professor Brian Leiter’s most recent post on his Law School Reports at http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/. After wondering how several schools report higher employment percentages than Stanford, Yale, and other Ivy League law schools, Leiter suggests “perhaps the time has also come to eliminate the self-reported employment data.”

Especially for those who put great stock in U. S. News rankings, it is significant that we continue to be ranked in the top 25 to 30 percent of law schools in the country by judges and lawyers (50th in the nation) and deans and law professors (59th in the nation). These are the numbers from U. S. News’ national surveys – and our rankings would be significantly higher from those here in Missouri and the Midwest who know us well.

I was therefore surprised when I heard that some students were thinking about transferring to another law school. Even if our national reputation had suffered a hit, I’m unsure why anyone would leave the group of students and faculty with whom they have bonded here at the Law School. This is the network that is so very effective for our alumni over the years–here in Missouri and nationally. Especially when all schools are facing significant employment challenges, I’m not sure why anyone would want to be the “new student” among a group of students who already have bonded at another law school (or lose touch with faculty and classmates – and a powerful network – at Mizzou). Transfer students also traditionally miss out on full opportunities for law journals, boards of advocates, and leadership in co-curricular activities that employers value and that build leadership skills.

There are very good reasons why a small number of students seek to transfer every year, such as family situations, the transfer of a spouse or partner, or medical needs.

If you know a student who may be thinking about transfer, though, I’d ask that student whether he or she was dissatisfied with his or her courses, faculty, or classmates last Monday. And if you know or see Judges Christensen, Chadwick, or Francis, be sure to congratulate them on becoming the most recent Mizzou Lawyers to be appointed to the bench.

Many of the most productive conversations that I and other faculty and staff have had with students over the last few days have been with individual and smaller groups of students. After the main meeting on Thursday, I appreciated the group of students who stayed and continued our discussions for another hour and one-half, and I know that faculty and staff alike have appreciated similar conversations with and emails from you. Dean Gonzalez has or will ask our first-, second-, and third-year student ambassadors to meet next week concerning Career Services, and it is important that our dialogue continue in such constructive ways as we work to plan for next fall and beyond. I, myself, would like to meet with the leaders of our student groups, and I know that all faculty and deans appreciate your sharing your thoughts, ideas, and perspectives.

I recently received an email from a student admitted to next year’s class, who states: “Since I'm still several months from setting my first foot on campus, I can't reasonably speculate on the merits of US News' perceived weaknesses of MU; that said, I researched many schools extensively before choosing MU and was so confident in the program you have built that I chose to early admit. I don't regret that decision for a minute.”

With this new student, and each of you, we’ll build an even better law school going forward.

R. Lawrence Dessem
Dean
University of Missouri
School of Law

Revenge is a Dish Best Served in Court

A professor fired from his position at a Goldman Sachs owned university contributed the following poem to the blog to commemorate a recent SEC lawsuit against the investment giant.

Warning, the following poem contains language that may be inappropriate for children.


The Screwers get Screwed
by B.H.

Maybe Goldman Sachs has just begun
To be hit with nasty smoking guns
I hope the SEC throws it all, and
Every bit sticks to the wall
Those spawns of Satan
Could it possibly be?
They will be hanged en masse
From the SEC tree?
(hee hee hee!)

You fired me once
Tis all you can do
But I can watch-
One by one
As the the lot of you
No longer so bold
From your big
Stack of gold-
You'll wriggle and squirm
And turn on each other
As ill-gotten gains
Turn to personal pain
Just for you mothers

So break out the gin
and the tonic too
While you choke I'll grin
As you piss, swing and twitch
Like modern day witches
You sons of a bitch!

May you spend eternity
in your sub-prime hell
your soul foreclosed
and nothing to sell.

I'll sit back with delight
At the pitiful sight
Of sniveling men as
they start to unravel
When justice is delivered
The screwers get screwed
As an old splintered gavel
Is shoved up their asses
To the laughing approval
of the great huddled masses.

Law School Drops 30 Spots in U.S. News Rankings

The law school I attend dropped thirty spots in a ranking of the nation's top 100 legal institutions, making it the biggest lower of the annual U.S. News Report.

In a word, the emotion here is "disappointment" because despite a lot of people's hard work, the school that brings us together lost public status.
However, in an email to the student body today, the Dean suggests skepticism of the rankings are warranted because the rankings do not measure student potential.

There is much criticism of U. S. News’ attempt to rank from #1 to #100 the top one-half of law schools in the country, which some have compared to the point-by-point ranking by individual law schools (including ours) of very bright students—all of whom have the capacity to be outstanding lawyers.

Nevertheless, the Dean explains that the school does not (or cannot) dismiss the new ranking.

Despite the many flaws in the U. S. News rankings, or in any rankings in which a law school could rise or fall 20 or 30 positions in a single year, we study each year’s rankings every spring. While the rankings methodology remains flawed, it is better to rank higher, rather than lower, in such rankings.

Sometimes all you can do is state the obvious.

Law School and Moral Thinking

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (a major higher education think tank) has recently published an extensive analysis of the state of legal education in the US.

The report itself is published as a book, but the Carnegie Foundation website has posted a free and brief Executive Summary.

Here is a quote from page 6:

In their all-consuming first year, students are told to set aside their desire for justice. They are warned not to let their moral concerns or compassion for the people in the cases they discuss cloud their legal analyses. This warning does help students escape the grip of misconceptions about how the law works as they hone their analytic skills. But when the misconceptions are not addressed directly, students have no way of learning when and how their moral concerns may be relevant to their work as lawyers and when these concerns could throw them off track. Students often find this confusing and disillusioning. The fact that moral concerns are reintroduced only haphazardly conveys a cynical impression of the law that is rarely intended.

In other news, although law school represents the apex of an education, some elementary schools are better at providing basic lessons in moral thinking.

Poem

Holding anger,
like swallowing salt water,
creates a thirst
for justice.

Don't give 'em an inch

Law school teaches one how to fight. Lawyers call it "advocacy."

One tactic involves burying an opponent's facts with a landslide of your own. The more true and relevant an opponent's fact, the deeper you want to bury it beneath the surface of discussion.

I know there is a legitimate reason for causing confusion, i.e. a professional obligation of a lawyer to her client when confusion will obscure the client's liability.

Once upon a time I even admired the ability to argue any point. These days, however, I prefer common sense.

Can video games help save the world?

Here is a reason to think they can.

And another.

Here is a way video game developers and our government are collaborating to fight childhood obesity and encourage healthy eating habits.

A January 2010 Time article on the subject.

In her TED Talk videogame developer Jane McGonigal explains how to we can achieve a better future through gaming.

At the 2010 Triangle Games Conference, another videogame developer Juan Benito talks about his game Six Days in Fellujah, based on personal experiences of soldiers. Using videogames to tell contemporary stories, Benito suggests that videogames can inform and increase young people's participation in politics.

Here is another example of videogame storytelling. Like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, this short juxtaposes human actors in a videogame world, a desolate zombie-filled city some may recognize from the smash-hit Left 4 Dead.

Lastly, if you thought that no respectable school would use popular videogames in its curriculum, then think again. In its online course IDS2935, “21st Century Skills in StarCraft.”honors students at the University of Florida learn critical thinking skills by playing the computer game Starcraft.

Such a class is not unique to the University of Florida. See here for an article discussing the use of this method of teaching to spur creative thinking at a number of schools.

BYOB - Bring your own Brain

Law school presents a problem for one with a liberal arts background.

Liberal arts developes core values by providing each student with freedom to experiment, question, and explore ideas connecting his or her personal experience with the subject matter.

Law school, on the other hand, has no time for self-exploration. Students must keep questions within 10 seconds, and, in so many other ways, the way law is taught prussures students to use a conceptual template provided by an "expert" in lieu of their own self-created critical thought.

In sum, law school and liberal arts education present two different cultures. The first will fill your brain for you, and the second will patiently wait while you fill it yourself.

In other news, I continue to suffer culture shock.

Law School Grades

Generally law school professors do not like to discuss law school grades. When they do, professors often speak with ambivalence. "Grades do not matter...that much," they are apt to say.

This mixed message can be aggravating to an inquiring mind, one which simply wants to guage the prestige lost from receiving a C in Legal Writing.

The New York Times this morning added to the pile of evidence showing that grades do matter (generally).

I'll keep looking for articles/stories that illustrate why grades don't matter - it might take awhile.

A Good Equation

Law textbook +
Grassy field +
Warm weather =

Happy studying

How We Learn

Law School today:

In class we reviewed the common law rule of "claim preclusion." Claim preclusion is when a litigant is barred from bringing the same claim against the same party again. A simple rule, yes?

Well, after class a student asked the teacher to explain an informative diagram about claim preclusion left on the chalkboard. The teacher attempted to explain but could not, at least well enough for the student to understand.

Maybe you'll get it tomorrow, the teacher said.

The End.