Posted by on Friday, February 3, 2012
Here is the NALP Industry News Weekly Digest for the week ending February 3, 2012. If I were you I would get a cup of coffee and sit down. The news digest is a long one this morning. If you had any doubts that this industry was changing rapidly, a quick perusal of this week’s headlines ought to convince you otherwise. The big news of course is the new class action law suits filed against an additional twelve law schools. I have collected here only a fraction of the enormous amount of ink spilled over this development this week. In other news, end-of-the-year law firm financial results are trickling in, and the common theme seems to be that after two years of decline, both gross revenues and profits per partner are up (remember that last year’s trope was that revenues were still down but that due to effective cost-cutting (read layoffs) profits per partner were up). It is clear that lateral partner hiring is moving along at a frenzied pace, but the jury is out on whether or not that is a good thing. In news that may or may not make law schools feel better, a prominent undergraduate college was caught this week inflating (for six years!) its admission statistics. There are some things not to be missed in this long list of articles: I found the UC funding proposal (“No Money Down”) fascinating, and Ed Reeser’s analysis of current law firm staffing trends (“Crazy Like a Fox”) compelling reading. Further down the page, the WSJ story (“Law Firms Keep Squeezing Associates”) is a must-read if you have not already seen it. And keep an eye on Obama administration higher education policy: keen industry observers have long predicted that the “gainful employment rule” might well be applied to all of higher education, including law schools. I wish I had some happy news to share this morning – it has been a lovely weather week in Washington, DC. The groundhog said six more weeks of winter, but here in the nation’s capital we have been enjoying spring!
