For those of you currently applying to law schools, you will have noticed that you are frequently requested to disclose whether you have had any disciplinary infractions imposed upon you or have a history of misconduct. This is a sensitive issue that must be dealt with carefully and honestly.
Barbara Andelman from Case School of Law has some excellent insights on this:
Applicants really need to read the application questions pertaining to misconduct carefully, and make sure to answer each school’s specific questions correctly.
The questions vary widely from school to school. For example, the question on our application specifically states that expunged offenses must be disclosed. Another school may specifically exempt such matters. Precise reading of the questions on the application is a must.
Students will often seek advice from an attorney on whether an expunged matter needs to be disclosed and are told incorrectly that they need not disclose expunged offenses. Although this is true, for example, in the employment context, it is not true in the context of applying for admission to a school.
The effect on an applicant’s chances for admission based on disclosure of the offense is almost never as bad as the repercussions for failing to disclose. So I always advise folks: read the question carefully and respond honestly. (I’m the person at my school who signs off on our graduates’ character and fitness certificates for the bar exam, and every year I have graduating third-years who failed to disclose a matter that would have had no impact on our decision to admit them, but whose ability to take the bar exam is in jeopardy because of their decision not to disclose.)
Posted November 18, 2005 in Tutorials
There is an interesting post for what exam writing is like for L1 students. Here is the link. This is less “Pre Law” and actually more about law school, but it’s certainly a good idea to look ahead a little bit and see what life will be like once you’re IN law school. Really just another reiteration on the necessity of excellent writing skills. But as this blog entry demonstrates if you follow the link, there are various types of writing styles and assignments and you should be adept in all of them.
Posted November 17, 2005 in Tutorials
Lawgirl, a lawyer who has a weblog, (click here to go to her main website) has an interesting article about getting into Entertainment Law (Link to article). She has some interesting insights. Observe her emphasis on not requiring knowing what type of law you’re interested in well into your first year of law school. This is a common theme irrespective of your career path in law.
There is an interesting article written by Sarah Kellogg on the financial burdens of a Law School degree (click here to go to article). While perhaps thankfully she doesn’t get into too many gritty details about how MUCH recent grads pay in students loans a month, she gives some hefty ballpark figures. A rather informative article was written by Mary Guiden (link to the article) about this topic as well. It is certainly something to reflect upon.
Will this effect what type of law you specialize in and what career path you choose? Well, yes, tuition for Law School is quite drastic. The returns however are on par with the investment, but to be honest this is highly dependent on what field of law you choose to pursue. However, even if your dream job is in Public Service, fret not. There are some governmental programs that may alleviate your debt if you’re working for Uncle Sam. We’ll talk more about this later. Read the articles for starters. It’s one of the components of your application that oftentimes is not factored in enough. Goodness this moves right into the topic of specializations, law school, financial packages, and other important topics. We’ll get to that in time.
Posted November 1, 2005 in Opinions