Touro Law Center Public Service Job Fair

Touro Law Center is hosting its Second Annual Public Service Job Fair at which over 50 employers will accept resumes from and talk with students interested in summer and post-graduate opportunities. Bring copies of your resume (has it been reviewed by a CSO counselor?) and put your best foot forward by dressing in business casual.

Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Time: 2:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Place: Second Floor Atrium and the Public Advocacy Center

In addition, prior to the Job Fair, on February 3 at 12:30 in the Alumni Boardroom, the New York State Commissioner of Human Rights, Galen D. Kirkland, will speak on opportunities in his New York City and Long Island offices. The Department of Human Rights enforces New York State laws which prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, credit, places of public accommodations, and non-sectarian educational institutions, based on age, race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, military status, and other specified classes. Please join us in welcoming Commissioner Kirkland.

A tentative list of participating employers for the Job Fair is as follows (additional employers are requesting to participate as the date draws near):

The Career Services Office (for resume help and to answer questions)
ACORN
Brighter Tomorrows
CARECEN
Empire Justice Center
Health and Welfare Council of Long Island
Long Island Advocacy Center
Long Island Housing Services
Nassau/Suffolk Law Services
Latino Justice/Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund
SEPA MUJER
SALT (Society Of American Law Teachers)
ACLU, Suffolk County
Suffolk County Coalition against Domestic Violence
Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk (VIBS)
The Workplace Project
The Long Island Council of Churches
Suffolk County Community Council
Catholic Charities
Urban League of Long Island
Long Island Progressive Coalition
Long Island Immigrant Alliance
Mental Health Association of Suffolk County
Mercy Advocacy Program
Piper – Mental Health Group
Suffolk County Legal Aid
Suffolk County Legal Aid - Senior Citizens Bureau
Suffolk County Legal Aid Law Guardian Bureau
NY Civic Participation Project
Literacy Suffolk
NYS Mental Hygiene Legal Services
Nassau County Legal Aid
Nassau County Attorneys Office
Nassau County ACLU
NYS Attorney General's Office, Suffolk County
NYS Attorney General's Office, Nassau County
Equal Justice Works
Federal Defenders
Student Hurricane Network
Suffolk County District Attorney's Office
Nassau Suffolk Legal Services/ Suffolk Bar Association Pro Bono Project
National Lawyers Guild
U.S. Department of Labor, Long Island Office
Vision-Long Island
PILOT, Touro's Public Service Auction
Suffolk County Court Clerk Program
Legal Services For New York City
RAP-NY City Housing Courts, Hon. Fern Fischer
Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence
EAC Long Island
BIASHELP Long Island
New York City Administration For Children's Services

What You Should Know About the Attorney Grievance Process

The Touro Law Center Women's Bar Association and the Suffolk County Women's Bar Association present a special CLE program and dinner:


WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT THE ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE PROCESS

Featuring:

STACEY SHARPELETTI, ESQ.
Associate Attorney
The Grievance Committee
Tenth Judicial District

DEBORAH SCALISE, ESQ.
Scalise & Hamilton, LLP
Respondents Counsel

February 2, 2009
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
at Touro Law Center

The program itself is free for Touro Law Center students (there is a charge if you wish to receive CLE credits) and $20 if you would like to attend the dinner.

RSVP to:
Crysti Farra at crystifarra@optonline.net
Dean Barbara Mehrman at barbaram@tourolaw.edu

CLE Credits: This program has been approved in accordance with requirements of the New York State Legal Education Board for a maximum of two credit hours which can be applied as follows: ½ hour skills, ½ hour ethics and 1 credit professional practice. This program is suitable for two credits (transitional or veteran).

Divorcing Law Grads . . . Victims of ‘Education Hoax’?

For those of you who follow the ABA Journal online, a great source of legal news, you know that readers are permitted to post comments at the end of each article. Most of the time, you might find three or four comments, maybe five, for each article. On a rare occasion, however, an article hits such a nerve that dozens upon dozens of comments are forthcoming. The following is one of those articles.

Today, on an issue which is sweeping across the legal community and within law school educational circles, an article in the ABA Journal, written by Debra Cassens Weiss, touches upon the financial value of a law school education. Ms. Weiss writes about an article in Forbes magazine entitled The Great College Hoax, written by Kathy Kristoff. Ms. Weiss' article, Divorcing Law Grads, Stressed Over $190K in Debt, Victims of ‘Education Hoax’, discusses the difficulties law graduates can have with student debt payments.

A portion of the article follows:

Some time after he graduated from California Western law school in 1995, Joel Kellum married his law school sweetheart. The couple had $190,000 in student debt.

Kellum and his wife made $145,000 in loan payments, but they paid off only $21,000 in principal, Forbes magazine reports. The variable-interest rate debt, which leapt as high as 12 percent, was a major source of stress in their marriage, according to the couple, and they divorced last year. "Two people with this much debt just shouldn't be together," Kellum told Forbes.

The magazine uses the couple to support the thesis of its article. It calls the lawyers “victims of an unfolding education hoax on the middle class”—the myth that college and advanced degrees translate to a life of economic privilege.

The average law grad has $100,000 in student debt, according to the magazine. . . . Schools [may] also “goose employment statistics by temporarily hiring new grads and spotlighting kids who land top-paying jobs, while glossing over far-lower average incomes,” the story says.

"There are a lot of aspects of selling education that are tinged with consumer fraud," [UCLA law professor Richard] Sander told the magazine. "There is a definite conspiracy to lead students down a primrose path."

* * *

One law school dean, Richard Matasar of New York Law School, says law schools are "exploiting" students who don't succeed in life, according to an account of his remarks at a recent program by TaxProf Blog.

Matasar said registrations for the law school admissions test are flat or below the norm for this year. “That's never happened in a downturn in the economy before,” he said. “They're catching on. Maybe this thing they are doing is not so valuable. Maybe the chance at being in the top 10 percent [helpful in landing a good job] is not a good enough lottery shot in order to effectively spend $120,000 and see it blow up at the end of three years of law school.”

To read the rest of Ms. Weiss' article, go here.

Transgender Law: Challenging the Boundaries of Law and Gender

The Touro Law Center Journal of Race, Gender and Ethnicity, is pleased to announce a symposium that will take place at the Law Center on February 20, 2009:

Transgender Law: Challenging the Boundaries of Law and Gender

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Young Lawyers Connect

Responding to the challenges of being a busy young attorney or law student, the New York City Bar Association created Young Lawyers Connect, a mix of live events and online programming for young attorneys, be it through age or professional experience, and law students who want to take an active role in their career. Young Lawyers Connect was created to help you excel in your professional life, maintain a personal life, and enjoy your legal career.

Please join them at their next "First Thursday" and "Career Development" events. For more information and to register, go here.

First Thursday Events

First Thursdays- Wine Tasting at Landmarc, Time Warner Center
Thursday, February 5, 6:30am-9:00pm

First Thursdays - New York Beer at the New York City Bar
Thursday, March 5, 6:30am-8:30pm

First Thursdays- Sushi Making
Thursday, April 2, 6:30am-8:30pm

Career Development Events

Navigating Your Career Through Troubled Waters
Tuesday, January 29, 6:30am-8:30pm

Small Law Firm Breakfast: When Work is Just a Grind Effective Stress Management for Solos and Small Firms in Today's Economy
Tuesday, February 10, 8:30am – 10:00am

The Art of Schmoozing: Networking Made Easy for Law Students and Recent Law School Graduates
Wednesday, February 11, 6:30pm – 8pm

2009 Professional Development Workshop Series: The Essentials Client Relationships
Thursday, February 12, 8:00am -10:00am

Spring 2009 CSO Programs

There is no denying that the general economic downturn has had an effect on the legal hiring market. While employers continue to hire, the market has shrunk and it is taking longer for new graduates and attorneys to find positions. Accordingly, students need to make sure that all of their job search skills are at their sharpest during these difficult economic times. Make it a point to attend CSO programs this semester so that you know what you have to do and when you have to do it to obtain the job you seek.

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Advancing Climate Justice Program

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If you are interested in environmental law, this is the kind of program to attend to learn about current developments and to include on your resume and in your cover letters.

Working out of town this summer and need a place to live?

The NALP Apartment Exchange matches students with apartments during the summer months.

Check it out, and bookmark the site in case you find an out-of-town summer job in the coming months.

"Making Your Intentions Known: How to Network in a Social Setting"

In this economic environment, law students and lawyers need to have their job search skills at their best.

On Thursday, January 29, 2009, from 6 PM - 8 PM, the New York City Bar Association (42 West 44th Street, New York, NY), is hosting a program:

Making Your Intentions Known: How to Network in a Social Setting

The program will provide practical tools and techniques for networking in a social setting, including how to segue from casual conversation to business topics, how to hone a message about yourself and your capabilities and how to tell brief anecdotes that convey your substance without bragging. A cocktail reception will follow where participants can practice their networking skills.

Members of the Association, their guests, and all other interested persons are invited to attend. The fee is $15 for members, $25 for non-members.

For more information about this program and to register online, go here.

LGBT Summer Internship

The Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLGSF) is accepting applications for the Summer 2009 Thomas Steel Internship. Each year one law student works on a legal project dedicated to improving the LGBT community. This internship is 40 hours a week.

This year's project will include working part time with the Trangender, Gender Variant and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project and part time with the NLGSF. The internship is based out of San Francisco, will last from June through August, and has a stipend of $5,000. Applicants should be first or second year law students with a demonstrated a passion for social justice and a commitment to public interest work. Past activist/organizing experience and involvement with the NLG a plus. People of color and members of the LGBTQ community strongly encouraged to apply. The deadline to apply is January 30, 2009. Please submit a cover letter and resume via email to carlos@nlgsf.org or fax 415.285.5066

2009 Patent Law Interview Program

The Loyola Patent Law Interview Program is a two-day interview program held in Chicago each summer that brings together patent law employers and law students from across the country to interview for summer associate positions and post-graduate employment. The 2009 Patent Law Interview Program will be held on Thursday, July 30 & Friday, July 31 at the Embassy Suites Chicago - Downtown/Lakefront at 511 North Columbus Drive in Downtown Chicago.

Click here for a list of employers that participated in last year's program.

Click here for a list of law schools that participated in last year's program.

Each year roughly 1,500 law students register for the program, submit their resumes, and bid on interviews with the nation-wide employers that interest them. The program is entirely employer selected - which means that participating employers review the resumes submitted to them and choose the law students they are interested in interviewing at the program. Roughly half of the students registered for the program are selected for interviews each year.

As you may know, Dean Gilbert is a registered patent attorney, so please speak with him about any questions you have about the Program or taking the Patent Bar Exam.

For additional information, go here.

"Chicago Law Firm Has Unfortunate Slogan"

An article in the ABA Journal by Debra Cassens Weiss talks about how unfortunate it can be to have a particular last name:

The fallout from the Bernard Madoff scandal has reached Chicago lawyer Ari Madoff and his law firm—which has an unfortunate slogan.

Ari Madoff is not related to the accused scammer, even though his grandfather, a former shoe salesman, is also named Bernard Madoff, the New York Daily News reports. Ari Madoff’s mother, Shana Madoff, has the same name as one of Bernard Madoff’s nieces.

* * *

Now the 29-year-old lawyer is thinking of changing his name and his law firm’s slogan: "Madoff, the most trusted name in securities law."

To read the rest of this article and to find other interesting legal tidbits, go here.

"The Bumpy Road to Law Partnership"

The January 5 issue of Long Island Business News contains an enlightening article by Bernadette Starzee entitled "The Bumpy Road to Law Partnership":

In the legal world, the road to partnership is paved with hard work, professional excellence and the ability to bring in business for the firm. But the process by which associates become partners has undergone changes.

Length of time

Over the past five years or so, the length of time it takes a freshly minted attorney to become partner has crept up.

“In firms of any size – those with at least 40 or 50 attorneys – the trend was in the seven to eight-year range,” said Robert Andrew Wild, a founding partner and chairman of Garfunkel, Wild & Travis in Great Neck. “Now it tends to take nine to 10 years.”

There are exceptions to the rule, Wild said. “If someone lands Google as an account, they’ll be a partner in 15 minutes,” he said.

Additionally, it’s tricky to apply the nine to 10-year rule to Long Island’s legal landscape, where smaller firms with two to 12 partners abound, Wild said. “In some small firms, you might never become partner – there may be two partners, and that’s it,” he noted. “Or there may be three partners, and a fourth attorney is so important to the business that the firm doesn’t want to lose him or her, so he or she is made partner early.”

To read the rest of this article, go here.

NYU Job Fair Deadline Extension

Thanks to a computer server crash at precisely the worst possible time, the NYU Job Fair people are extending the deadline by which law students must upload their resumes to employers in order to seek interviews at the Fair.

Segment A uploading (remember, Segment A is that portion of the upload process during which you may submit your resume to the largest number of employers) will be reopened from 11 PM on Monday, January 5, to 11 PM on Tuesday, January 6.

Resume Upload Segment B (this segment allows you to upload a smaller number of applications) will then run from Tuesday, January 6 at 11 PM until Wednesday, January 7 at 11:55 PM.

Law school graduates may not upload resumes to apply for interviews, but they may attend Table Talk sessions.

To access the Fair's registration site, go here.