AG Holder Signals Change in "War-On-Drugs" Policy

AG Eric Holder @ ABA Annual Meeting

By: Timothy P. Flynn

Addressing the ABA's House of Delegates in San Francisco last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a significant shift in federal drug policy that could have an impact on our decades-long "War-on-Drugs".  The policy initiative will effectively gut the tough anti-drug sentencing policies that have been a staple of federal legislation for the past quarter century.

Holder indicated that sentencing guidelines would be reduced for non-violent low-level substance abuse offenders.  Stringent mandatory minimums would be eliminated.

In making the surprise high-impact announcement, the U.S. Attorney General said, "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason."

Going forward with the new policy, known as the "Smart on Crime" initiative, Holder said that US Attorneys will be exercising their prosecutorial discretion to charge defendants with minor crimes [i.e. possession] better suited to their substance abuse conduct, rather than charging such low-level participants with distribution crimes that carry hefty minimum sentences.

The AG also signaled that his boss, President Obama, will be seeking a legislative initiative that would give federal judges more discretion in their sentences for drug-based crimes.  This was very welcome news to the ABA's Criminal Justice Section Chair, Neil Sonnett, who characterized the long-standing federal drug policy as one that features "over-criminalization" and "over-incarceration".

We here at the Law Blogger have seen many a client go "bye-bye" due to these harsh sentencing guidelines, some of which spill over into our state laws.  Remember the mandatory drug lifer law debacle of the 1980s?

With the onset of drug courts and sobriety courts over the past decade that feature treatment over incarceration, the criminal justice system here in Michigan has made great strides toward what Holder announced at the federal level.

Hopefully this momentum will continue after Holder's boss leaves office.  For the opposing point of view, take a look at Georgetown Law Professor William Otis' editorial in USA Today.  Also, here is the NYT's op-ed on the incarceration aspect of this debate; and here is The Economist, calling for "Holder to be Bolder".

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Posted in: ABA,Attorney General Eric Holder,criminal defense lawyer,drug abuse,Smart on Crime,substance abuse,Timothy P. Flynn,war on drugs

Cooley Law In-Line with National Trends in Legal Industry

By now, we've heard the familiar tales-of-woe within the legal industry: too many lawyers; no jobs for newly-minted lawyers; young graduates are slaves to their law school tuition debts; and, the legal service industry is contracting.

With such a gloomy backdrop, the nation's largest law school, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, provides an interesting petre dish to test these national trends.  Sure enough, Cooley seems to bear out what is happening in law schools and legal service markets across the country.

The first trend of note is the steady decline in law school enrollment.  According to statistics published by the Law School Admission Council [publishers of the LSAT entrance exam], law schools have experienced more than a 30% decline in enrollment since 2003.

In an article last week in the Lansing State Journal, Cooley Dean Don Leduc admitted that his school's admissions took a hit; dropping by nearly 27% and expected to drop by another 15% when classes resume next week.  Dean Leduc told the LSJ that many law school applicants across the country regard Cooley as their "backup" choice.  Since law schools across the country are plunging ever deeper into their applicant pools to fill their classes, many students no longer need to play their Cooley card.

It is no secret, as the LSJ points out, that Cooley Law is one of the least selective ABA accredited schools in the country, and that out-of-state students make-up a significant portion of its student body.  Presumably, from sea to shining sea, students that cannot get into other law schools around the country flock to Cooley for their "ticket".

The next trend in the industry is the curious response of law school administrators to their steadily declining enrollments: raising tuition.  The National Law Journal has analyzed tuition rates at private law schools like Cooley and reports a 4% average tuition hike for this fall.

This year, the average cost for a single year of tuition in a private law school will crack the $40,000 mark for the first time in history.  In line with this trend, Dean Leduc announced that Cooley was raising its tuition by a whopping 8%.  This fall, students will pay $37,140 to attend Cooley Law School on a full-time basis.

Next trend: is law school worth the expense and effort?  Many voices are saying no.

One way to determine the value of a law degree is to track employment statistics among recent law school graduates, as required by the ABA to maintain a law school's accreditation.  Nationally, the average salary for 2011 law graduates is $60,000; down from $72,000 in 2009.

In related litigation, Cooley was recently sued on a fraud theory in federal court by a group of its alumni.  The law suit was tossed for lack of merit; it was really the ABA's vague reporting regime that was indicted in the case.  The issue involved how Cooley reported employment statistics for its recent graduates.

Earlier this year, the ABA announced that only 55% of recent law graduates held full-time employment that required bar passage to hold the position.  For Cooley, the numbers were well-below that mark.  The LSJ article reported that only 37.5% Cooley's 2011 graduates held full-time law positions.  Of those legally engaged grads, a significant percentage [20%] were solo practitioners straight of of law school; a dubious proposition if you are facing more than $100,000 in student loan debt and have zero experience representing clients.

To combat this negativity, Dean Leduc has recently released his own report, with commentary, citing statistics from the National Association of Legal Professionals and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, concluding the employment rate for law graduates is higher than the overall national average and the unemployment rate across this group is lower.

Regardless of the forecast, lawyers will always be with us.  We agree with Dean Leduc that future legal professionals should not be swayed by the current obvious gloom.

Instead, be persistent and follow your dream.  There is nothing more fulfilling than doing what you love to do for your profession.

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Posted in: ABA,American Bar Association,Bureau of Labor Statistics,Cooley Law School,Don Leduc,Lansing State Journal,law student,lawyer,National Association of Legal Professionals,National Law Journal

Military Divorces for Returning Soldiers

As our soldiers return from war in the Middle East, many cases of post traumatic stress disorder are becoming manifest.  Often, the PTSD shatters an already fragile marriage, strained to the break point from years long separation.

Many soldiers, having survived the war, come home only to be placed in a trick bag: struggling with PTSD while their marriage falls apart.  To complicate things even more, there are special rules that apply to military divorces.

The psychology of both partners to the marriage is affected by the homecoming.  The state-side spouse absorbed 100% responsibility for managing household tasks, child rearing, education, and all other domestic issues.  A sense of independence may have seeped into the spouse's "mindset" that often requires an adjustment when the other partner returns from war.

For his part, the returning soldier needs time and some space to decompress from war; especially if the individual is not only returning state-side, but also discharging from the armed forces.

If the soldier's deployment was for several years, a spouse may have developed an "interim relationship" which must now be dissolved if the marriage is going to survive.  Many do not.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) [formerly known as the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act] is a federal statute that governs issues of defaulted servicemembers and the related stay of proceedings in divorce actions.  One feature of SCRA is that divorcing servicemembers are entitled to have the judge appoint them an attorney in the family court.  Interestingly, however, the statute is silent as to the scope of the appointed attorney's duties and her right to compensation for services rendered.

In a military divorce, support is also governed by federal regulations; each branch of the armed services has promulgated policies in the form of regulations that require the servicemember to provide adequate support for family members.  To calculate support, the servicemember's "leave and earnings statement" must be obtained and deciphered.

To enforce a support order, the support payee must turn to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.  The DFAS website has references to garnishment resources and information on designated agents.

Custody issues are resolved, for now, in accord with the state laws governing this issue within a divorce proceeding.  Many states have specific provisions within their custody statutes that deal with a servicemember.

Congress, however, has been considering various amendments to SCRA that would federalize custody issues arising within military divorces.  The ABA has prepared a "white paper" on the subject.

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Posted in: ABA,American Bar Association,divorce,Iraq,post traumatic stress disorder,PTSD,SCRA,Servicemembers Civil Relief Act,soldier

Vote for the Law Blogger in the ABA's Top 100

This is the 5th year the ABA Journal has conducted an on-line poll to determine the best law blogs out there in Cyber-Space.  If you like our law blog, please vote for us by clicking here. 

The Amici form required to register your vote can be anonymous and only takes a minute.  Non-lawyers can vote for this blog.

The scope of content covered by the ABA's top 100 blogs is truly amazing.  One of the best features of such a poll is the diverse legal specialties that come into focus.  Niche areas such as intellectual property, patents, tax law, Internet law, and estate planning are ideal for blog coverage.  The attorneys that administer blogs in these areas are specialists devoted to the development of their respective niches.

Our blog, on the other hand, reflects matters of more general interest to lawyers and consumers of legal services in Michigan.  This is consistent with our firm's general practice in areas of divorce, criminal defense, and probate law.

By drilling into the ABA Journal's website, you can get an idea of the subject matter covered in the law blogs honored by this Top-100 contest. 

As a long-standing member of the ABA, this blogger was recently provided with several complimentary annual membership cupons.  I still have a few left.  If you are a Michigan lawyer with a P-number greater than 65000, send me an email with your contact information.  Interested attorneys must act quickly as these cupons expire in a few weeks.

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Posted in: ABA,ABA Journal,American Bar Association,attorney,law blog,law blogs,lawyer,The LawBlogger

Cooley Law School Ranks (Itself) 2nd in Nation, Behind Harvard

Good News!  Cooley Law School's latest law school ranking has just been published on its web site.  In a single year, they have improved from 12th to second best in the nation; only Harvard Law School remains ranked higher than Cooley according to the their own rankings.

Now, you've just got to stand back and take note of such bold and relentless devotion to self-promotion.  Simply refusing to allow reality to get in the way of its vision of excellence, Cooley actually announced its ever-higher ranking in a press-release on its web site.

Despite a firm national consensus that the law school dwels in the basement of the "4th Tier", Cooley believes it deserves top-flight status largely based on their collossal law library; one of the largest in the nation.  Nevermind that in our increasingly digitized world, actual bricks, mortar, and book volumes are rendered less-significant by the minute; think Borders.

This blog took note when Cooley drew serious national criticism by installing its good name on a minor league baseball park in Lansing; the former Oldsmobile Stadium.  That post received more comments than any other in this blog's two-year history.

A steady theme in the law-blogoshpere concerns the lack of employment prospects in the legal field after a six-figure student loan debt is incurred.  Along these lines, this blog questions the propriety of an educational institution that rakes-in premium tuition dollars on the promise of future employment, despite the absolute saturation and professional grid-lock among the already-minted lawyers in our service-based economy.

With its satelite campus system, and a jaw-dropping legion of graduates, Cooley is part of the "lawyers-gone-wild" problem in our nation.  This latest self-adulatory ranking is simply designed to entice ever-more eager but unsuspecting students into parting with a lot of dough for their shot at the American Dream; lawyer-style. 

In the opinion of this blogger, however, Cooley's self-rank is so disingenuous, it boarders on fraud.  Perhaps its time for the ABA to review this business model.  On the other hand, maybe Harvard Business School should do one of its famous case-studies on Cooley's undisputed financial success.

Post Script:  If you want to see how a federal judge views Cooley's BS self-ranking, take a look at Judge Quists' opinion, here.

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Posted in: ABA,American Bar Association,Cooley Law School,Cooley Law School Stadium,Lansing,law school

ABA Proposes to Drop LSAT Requirement for Law School Applicants

The dreaded LSAT scantron.

From time-to-time this law blog has addressed the effects that the down economy has had on the legal profession. In doing so, we’ve alerted our readers to the collateral effects now becoming manifest for recent graduates of the nation’s 250+ law schools. We’ve often asked the question: do we really need more lawyers?

The latest development in this rough chapter of the profession is the current proposal of the American Bar Association to drop the requirement that students entering law school take the LSAT.

Doesn’t this sound like a good thing? Many critics have long-asserted that the only thing this test measures is one’s aptitude for taking a standardized test. Well, not so fast.

The consensus among the industry professionals is that all the top-tier law schools will continue requiring that applicants sit for the exam. It should be noted that as many as 10 law schools already have been granted waivers to admit students without LSAT scores.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the chairman of the ABA’s committee on the entrance exam has told the National Law Journal that a significant faction within the committee has concluded that the rule that law school applicants, “submit to a valid and reliable admission test” should be repealed. The committee’s concern, in part, relates to the ABA’s proper role in the law school admission process and its indirect endorsement of the Law School Admission Counsel; the well-funded organization that administers the LSAT.

The proposal to drop the LSAT requirement will be the subject of public debate at the ABA committee’s next meeting on April 2 in Chicago.

Last weekend, we posted on the problems associated with the glut of lawyers, taking our lead from a front-page story in the NYT Business Section that has since received much exposure. The ABA proposal has attracted more unwanted attention to the professional formation of attorneys.

One of the knocks against lawyer-making is that the process is designed to enrich the law school and impoverish the law student. Students willingly submit to the impoverishment process in exchange for a coveted professional credential: the Juris Doctor.

Local connection: No law school exemplifies this process more than our own Cooley Law School, receiving yet more spectacular negative publicity on this subject in the tongue-in-cheeky blog Above the Law whose recent post on this subject asks, “does the ABA really want every lower-ranked law school to turn into Thomas Cooley?”

While acknowledging that most of the top-schools will continue using the admission test, ATL suggests that Cooley will drop the LSAT like a bad habit, opening the door even further for those, er, less-qualified legal aspirants that can afford to pay heavy-duty tuition bills for their shot at the American Dream; lawyer style.

While our service-economy is flexible and somewhat forgiving, your law school student loan obligation is not. Where the rubber meets the road on this problem is that attorney positions have become occasional in a crowded profession.

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Posted in: ABA,Cooley Law School,Great Recession,law school,lawyer