Library Blog: The Gothic Column

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 @ 10:31 am

6 Skills Every Law Student Needs

Posted by Janis Fusaris

Admissions consultant and former University of Chicago Law School admissions dean Anna Ivey recently had a guest post on The Careerist blog advising law students on 6 skills they need to master:

  • Improve your writing – write on a journal; take classes that require longer papers; take contract drafting classes; write, get feedback, and write some more.
  • Talk like an adult – use grown-up speech patterns; learn how to write a decent cover letter and sound professional on the phone.
  • Learn to read a financial statement – you need basic financial and accounting literacy.
  • Hang out with B-school students – broaden your contacts; don’t hang out only with other law students.
  • Always network in person – establishing relationship capital means talking to people in person; follow-up is also key. 
  • Think like a creative problem-solver and a businessperson – start an internal mental shift while you’re in school and think of yourself as someone who has to run a business and solve management problems.

Click here for the full post.

Thursday, May 2, 2013 @ 2:57 pm

ABA Weighs Tougher Bar-Passage Rule for Law Schools

Posted by Janis Fusaris

The American Bar Association committee revising law school accreditation standards is considering a new rule that would require at least 80% of a school’s graduates to pass the bar within 2 years of graduation.

The existing standard requires that 75% of a school’s graduates who took the bar in at least 3 of the past 5 years have passed, or that the first-time bar passage rate be no more than 15 points below the average pass rate for schools in states where its graduates took the bar.

The proposed new standard would also require schools to account for all of their graduates, which some deans claim would be an impossible task.

Click here for more.