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Boston U / Re: Tell me about BU
« on: July 17, 2005, 06:38:10 PM »
Justice Luttig: "Don't listen to jsr315. He must be a disgruntled fool with no personality and a bad attitude."
Most students at BUSL are very friendly. Unfortunately, there are also a small number of insecure assholes at BUSL who need to make fun of others in order to feel better about themselves. Justice Luttig is a case in point. Don't put too much stock in what he says. For instance, he writes that top 25% BUSL grads have "identical" job prospects compared with Harvard Law grads. Yeah, right. Consider that the valedictorian of my class at BUSL clerked on U.S. District Court along with kids from Harvard Law who were ranked #352 and #413 in their graduating class--no comparison in job prospects between the schools.
Luttig IS right when he says you can get a job with a BUSL degree if you are a good networker. But that's true of any other school. It's possible to get a job with a small-to-medium sized law firm in NYC or Boston with a law degree from Suffolk, Northeastern, Yeshiva, Golden Gate University, New England School of Law, Touro, or any number of other lower ranked schools provided you are a good networker and get lucky. What prospective students should ask themselves is whether they want to have to depend on their networking skills and luck to get a job. It doesn't say much for BUSL if the average student--i.e., the student ranked in the middle of the class--is viewed as an untouchable by big law firms and has to rely on family connections, a glowing personality, a steady handshake and proper alignment of the stars in order to find a legal job.
As far as faculty moves go, I can't say that I'm surprised. My impression is that BUSL has a very transient faculty. No one seems happy to be there. I don't know if any of this has changed, but when I was there the place was about as cheery as a morgue--the students didn't have jobs, the faculty felt underappreciated and the administration was under fire. Given this environment, it does not surprise me that longstanding members of the faculty like Lawrence and Barnett would want to get out of dodge.
Most students at BUSL are very friendly. Unfortunately, there are also a small number of insecure assholes at BUSL who need to make fun of others in order to feel better about themselves. Justice Luttig is a case in point. Don't put too much stock in what he says. For instance, he writes that top 25% BUSL grads have "identical" job prospects compared with Harvard Law grads. Yeah, right. Consider that the valedictorian of my class at BUSL clerked on U.S. District Court along with kids from Harvard Law who were ranked #352 and #413 in their graduating class--no comparison in job prospects between the schools.
Luttig IS right when he says you can get a job with a BUSL degree if you are a good networker. But that's true of any other school. It's possible to get a job with a small-to-medium sized law firm in NYC or Boston with a law degree from Suffolk, Northeastern, Yeshiva, Golden Gate University, New England School of Law, Touro, or any number of other lower ranked schools provided you are a good networker and get lucky. What prospective students should ask themselves is whether they want to have to depend on their networking skills and luck to get a job. It doesn't say much for BUSL if the average student--i.e., the student ranked in the middle of the class--is viewed as an untouchable by big law firms and has to rely on family connections, a glowing personality, a steady handshake and proper alignment of the stars in order to find a legal job.
As far as faculty moves go, I can't say that I'm surprised. My impression is that BUSL has a very transient faculty. No one seems happy to be there. I don't know if any of this has changed, but when I was there the place was about as cheery as a morgue--the students didn't have jobs, the faculty felt underappreciated and the administration was under fire. Given this environment, it does not surprise me that longstanding members of the faculty like Lawrence and Barnett would want to get out of dodge.