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Blog Post
Several months ago, my wife and I drove past a big hole in the ground, not far from where we live. “What’s the sign say?” I asked. “Don’t go off on a jag,” she said with a slight giggle, “It says ‘Future New Home of American University Law School.” “Why now?” I blurted out with some salty language that followed. The next morning I did a bit of research and learned that AU was by no means the only law school to sink huge dollars into a new facility. How could this be? Curious Timing The law school building boom...
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Blog Post
Last month I wrote an article, When the Numbers Don't Add Up: Vermont Law School's Tenured Faculty Purge and What It Portends. It cast a harsh light on the economics of Vermont Law School (VLS), noting the all-in $70K annual cost of attendance, $122K national average law grad debt; 2.71 times adjusted-for-inflation cost of law school over the past 3 decades; lack of practice readiness or augmented skills possessed by most law grads; a harsh job market; and the folly that all law schools should cost the same or prepare students for identical careers. The dire straits of Vermont Law...
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Blog Post
Vermont Law School (Vermont) recently announced it had issued pink slips to 14 of its 19 tenured faculty members. This is not the first time a law school has terminated tenured professors for something other than sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Albany Law School, Charleston Law, and others have traveled that road, and several other law schools have shuttered. Vermont’s wholesale decimation of its tenured faculty is something different-- a clarion call to the legal Academy that its economic model is unsustainable for all but a handful of elite institutions. Students have borne the brunt of the model’s economic pain; now...
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Blog Post
Legal education has received a great deal of criticism in recent years–cost, student debt burden, declining enrollment and selectivity, a baffling building boom, graduates that are neither practice nor market ready, dismal job statistics, etc. What has been largely overlooked in the legal education discussion is the plight of a far larger segment of the legal ecosystem-- practicing lawyers. It's A Whole New Ballgame Lawyers are toiling in an industry that has been overhauled by a perfect storm of change agents-- the global financial crisis of 2008 and its fallout; client dissatisfaction with existing delivery models; the escalating role of...
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Digital transformation and its pandemic-produced acceleration have elevated talent to a top-level business priority. For employers, it has caused them to rethink what talent means in a dramatically shifting marketplace. What are its characteristics? How does it align with corporate purpose and culture? Where does it come from? How can individual talents be melded into an integrated, data-backed team? Why is a diverse workforce intrinsically and extrinsically important and how can it be optimally managed? What is the organizational commitment to up-skilling, career-enhancement, and well-being? These are among a growing list of talent-related considerations. Digitally mature businesses have developed a...
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When people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference. —Laverne Cox The pandemic has intensified the daily battle of subsistence for hundreds of millions of our fellow humans. For the more fortunate, it has provided an opportunity to reflect, reboot, and rebalance their lives. What is our purpose? Where do we live and work? How do we achieve balance that fulfills life’s purpose? The search for purpose has contributed to “The Great Resignation.” A record number of American workers have voluntarily left their jobs. There are many reasons, of course, and a lack of purpose—especially among Millennials...
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Blog Post
The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is attacking the health, financial welfare, social order and political stability of nations across the globe. At a time when millions are fighting to survive illness, financial hardship, political upheaval, and other existential threats, it is difficult to look beyond the moment. The scourge of COVID-19 will pass. When, at what cost, and what its lasting impact will be are open questions. One thing is certain: when the immediate crisis of the pandemic abates, life will be different. Tom Friedman’s recent New York Times op-ed suggests the coronavirus will create a new historical divide: before-Corona...
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