January 2015

It's the incredible, imploding, aging legal industry.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

Not seasonally adjusted	January	2014	1,115,500
	November	2014	1,121,200
	December	2014	1,124,700
	January	2015	1,111,100	-4,400
Seasonally adjusted	January	2014	1,122,700
	November	2014	1,119,200
	December	2014	1,119,600
	January	2015	1,118,200	-4,500
Change from Dec-14 to Jan-15				-1,400

December 2014

Though the economy has recovered — an 11.2% U-6 is relatively good — one industry seems to lag. At this point you would have to be an idiot to go to law school, which is exactly what is happening. As I type this, seven schools have a first-year class with a median LSAT below 145; these stoodints are in the bottom-quartile of test takers. But wait, there's more! The ABA allows schools to waive the LSAT for up to ten percent of their incoming students. You know, the ones who when asked what they got on their SAT reply, "Drool."

If you think law school has a bad outcome now, wait until a legion of idiots starts failing the bar, squalls online, and the media picks it up and runs with it. Basically, the schools plan to pull the entire "profession" down with them and are laying the groundwork in private. Knowing your students will never pass the bar, you either get rid of it with Diploma Privilege or have the examiners weight the results, all in the name of fairness/opportunity/diversity. The alternative is to acknowledge the academy accepts unqualified students and let John Q. Public think graduates of non-elite law schools are dumb as bricks. Pick your poison.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

Not seasonally adjusted	November	2013	1,138,800
	December	2013	1,134,400
	January	2014	1,134,800
	February	2014	1,138,100	-700
Seasonally adjusted	November	2013	1,135,100
	December	2013	1,133,700
	January	2014	1,133,700
	February	2014	1,134,200	-900
Change from Jan-14 to Feb-14				500

Thank you, Nando

As both a fan of TTR almost from inception and someone who also faces health challenges — it's amazing how much your life can change in an instant — I'd like to wish you happy trails. Thank you for your monumental contribution to scamblogging, your perseverance, and your willingness to slough off the endless abuse from defenders of the legal academy and "profession."

Happy belated third anniversary, TTR!

I intended to post this a week ago, but then I intend to do all kinds of things before life intervenes.

Third Tier Reality turned three on August 20. As a fan since inception, I'd like to congratulate Nando. Here's the post that started it all.

What a different world it was back in 2009! The jerks who run TLS crammed all bad news into one allowed thread and waited for an economic recovery that still hasn't come, oblivious to structural changes in the industry. David Segal's landmark Is Law School a Losing Game? was still well over a year away. Inside the Law School Scam, initially published anonymously, was still two years away. Meanwhile, contemporary scambloggers were considered bitter losers who should have studied harder and networked more.

No need to state the obvious: in incorporating attention-grabbing visual and stylistic elements, his blog stands out. That, combined with inconvenient truths (hard to argue with a 990 return, isn't it?), an endless supply of material from a scummy legal academy, and sheer persistence, has kept it going. Truthfully, my favorite thing about TTR is how much its mere existence pisses people off. There's a new blog, published by an anonymous, inarticulate simpleton, whose sole content is ad hominem attacks against Nando, that … whoops, it's gone already!

As of August 2012, the word about law school is out. Applications are down and the strongest candidates are either bargaining hard with the T14 or forgoing law school altogether. Possibly everyone who can be reached, has been reached.

"MY GOAL IS TO INFORM POTENTIAL LAW SCHOOL STUDENTS AND APPLICANTS OF THE UGLY REALITIES OF ATTENDING LAW SCHOOL."

Mission accomplished!