Barry Law Added to Law School Kill List

Bitter Staff / July 6, 2012 / Columns, Lawyer / 13 Comments

After placing NYU Law on the kill list a couple of weeks ago, we got down to some serious work. As in, what school in Florida should we take out? The eleven Florida law schools we know about (excluding online schools—so far) include:

Barry University School of Law
Florida A&M University College of Law
Florida Coastal School of Law
Florida International University College of Law
Florida State University College of Law
University of Florida Levin College of Law
Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University
St. Thomas University School of Law
Stetson University College of Law
University of Miami School of Law
Ave Maria School of Law

It was a close call for our experts, who wrangled over public vs. private schools, law school employment stats, and which school had the worst mascot. In the end, we added the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at Barry University to the law school kill list. Why? A few reasons:

1Bucky the Parrot. Bucky the Parrot is the mascot of Barry University and Barry Law. While slightly better than Sebastian the Ibis at Miami and “John B” Hatter at Stetson, having a parrot as a mascot just doesn’t cut it, especially for a law school already on the edge of a kill list. We don’t need no parrots.

2Cost/Location. Two law schools and Disney World in a town the size of Orlando? It came down to supporting the public option, which is A&M. For in-state folks, A&M will set you back about $135,000, while Barry tops out at over $210,000, and most of its grads end up practicing in Florida anyway. No brainer. But that doesn’t mean we won’t come back to you later, A&M.

3Jobs. Basically, any school with less than a 50 percent placement rate for its grads gets the attention of our law school death panel. And that’s nearly half of all the Florida schools. Sure, Barry is better—according to the Law School Transparency Clearinghouse— at job placement than it’s cross-town rival FLorida A&M, and also better than Florida Coastal, Nova, and Ave Maria. But it’s not a big enough gap to make up for the other critical factors, especially the mascot question.

4Who? Honestly, when the death panel exclaims “Who” when we mention a law school, it’s not a good sign. If we haven’t heard of it for at least some reason, why keep it around? Sure, Shaq graduated from Barry University with a PhD in education. But not law. And while we like the ring of Barry Law, it’s just not enough to keep it alive (yes, fear us, Duncan School of Law).

Sorry, ~~Bucky~~ Barry, you need to close. At least we’ll be happy to save some seats for Barry Law professors and administrators at the next document review gig.

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FactCheck

You should seriously do more research if you try to say Barry should be killed over FAMU and some other Florida schools (what about Thomas Cooley’s new law school in Tampa?). Barry Trial Team is nationally ranked, wining two ABA Trial Competitions each year for the past 3 years. And is invited as one of the Top 16 Trial Program in the country to Baylor’s Top Gun $10,000 Competition. The VITA Program is recognized year-after-year by the ABA for providing tax assistance to low-income families. They just built a trial advocacy center with 5 state-of-the art courtrooms which are utilized by local attorneys and national trial competitions. Barry grads are dominating the ASA and PD’s offices in Central Florida, compared to FAMU who can barely get respect. In the Spring Bar exam, Barry had a higher pass rate than some of the better known schools. It may not be anywhere near the best, but in Central Florida it has become a factory for local, well respected young lawyers – especially for such a young school.
Oh not to mention they don’t have a wrongful death (hazing) scandal attached to the school.
Rinaldo Cartaya

Isn’t this from your website? http://bitterempire.com/four-best-fourth-tier-law-schools/

Pretty sure you names Barry one of the best fourth-tier law schools. Ava Maria, Florida Coastal, FAMU didn’t make that list. So I guess that means (1) you contradict yourself or (2) one of the other three schools should be on your kill list instead. You pick.
Mike

In addition to having one of the top trial teams in the country, Barry beat Harvard in the finals of the Chicago ABA National Trial Team Competition in March. Barry has also beaten Harvard 2 of the 3 times they have faced Harvard over the past 5 years. Barry has also defeated other top trial teams including Stetson, Denver, Temple, and St. Johns.

Barry’s Bar passage rates are rising. Barry consistently beats FAMU in Bar passage. Barry also had bar passage rates in February that were similar to Miami and FSU. They also beat UF in the last Bar exam. Barry is consistently improving.
Jack

Barry Law School is a miserable place to go. The students are not too smart so what good is it? Whoever said they won trial teams is hallucinating!
- Greg
  
  Take a tour of FAMU and if you think you would want those students representing you good luck. FAMU is under review right now anyways.
Jack

Nobody gets a job out of that phony Law School with a stupid name. How stupid can you be to only get into that school?
Mike

No hallucinations. I was there, so I know we won that competition but I like to provide proof so check out this website:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwriting/2012/04/results-from-john-marshall-trial-advocacy-competition-barry-beats-harvard.html

Barry has won 9 national championships in the last 5 years and 4 in the last 2 years. We have recently won Michigan State, Georgetown, Puerto Rico, and back to back championships at Quinnipiac

Oh, and plenty of graduates get good jobs. We recently had someone clerking at the Florida Supreme Court, several clerks at the 5th DCA, we have an alumnus who was just elected to the bench in Orange County, and we have several other alum’s who own their own firms or work for large firms.

Barry may not be the highest ranked school but it is one of the most under-rated. There are a lot of intelligent people at Barry Law.
Mike

Oh, and over the past 5 years, we’ve won 2 national championships at ABA Chicago and one runner up. We’ve also been invited to Baylor’s Top Gun competition all three years of its existence, which is only open to the top 16 teams in the nation based on performance.
Jeff

Mike is right…the author of this blog did not do ANY credible research.
Jack K.

This article is ridiculous. I am a recent grad sitting in a commercial review course with “top” law school graduates, and I’m the only one who has a handle on it. Barry Law is a wonderful place for someone who wants to work really hard. I don’t know who this ‘jack’ below or above in the comments is, but he sounds more like a jack— than a future lawyer. The student body at Barry consists of some of the hardest working group of people I’ve ever met. Of course, like at any school, there are those that have a healthy social life, but most work very hard. This article is elitist, and this person should be embarrassed of what he/she wrote. Reading it reminded me of a history professors lesson at one point in my past. He said, “when a dominant social group finds itself insecure because the social environment is shifting, that social group will always put up a fight.” Well, guess what, the courtroom is the level playing field. Ivy and non-Ivy get to fight as equals. Brains and hard work over pedigree!
Secretion Diaz

Good Lord, look at Barely Law School’s latest bar results: 62%! Kill this school already before they take more money from students…
Jimson

I’m glad I didn’t go to law school. I have no student loan debt, and can use my salary to pay bills and invest the rest.
The Friendly Professor

Although I know this post is a joke, I hope one day you’ll come to see our school as the little school that could. U.S. News and World Report ranks us #8 in the country for diversity. We offer a chance to students who often have been denied the privileges enjoyed by students at top 100 hundred schools, and many of our student go on to work in public service. We have a thriving public service program including a nationally awarded VITA clinic, one of the only collaborative Family Law Clinics in the country, one of the only transactional, non-litigation Environmental Law Clinics, an immigration clinic, a bankruptcy clinic, and a juvenile defense clinic. For over a decade, we took students on a Pro Bono Legal Service trip to New Orleans as well. This public service is part of our mission as a non-profit law school as compared to the for-profit schools in our state. Our recent overall employment number was 74.49, which is higher than FAMU, the Florida Cooley campus, St. Thomas, and Florida Coastal. We are ahead of four other schools in the state on our bar results in a state with a hard bar, and all hands are on deck helping our students with the bar. We want to get back to the number three spot we once enjoyed. We rank twenty-two in the entire country for moot court! We have beaten all but two Florida schools in that ranking. We have a championship trial team. Finally, our professors publish in some of the top law reviews in the country, speak at conferences around the country, and hold national committee positions yet still manage to meet one-on-one with students. Finally, parrots are smart and are also friendly and nice. Here’s to a school that values niceness!