Bitter Empire

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Scalia Spews Career Advice on Law Students

  /   /   Lawyer, News & Views /   6 Comments

Our brethren . . . errr . . . bloggeren (?) over at Lawyerist reported today that Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court has some advice for law students:

Take the bread-and-butter courses. Do not take, ‘law and women,’ do not take ‘law and poverty,’ do not take ‘law and anything.’

That’s cool. Very good of him to offer law students his wisdom on their course schedules. But is he the best source of advice for today’s law students facing a market like none other in history? Moreover, when was the last time he was out there in the market? 1967. 1967!? And he didn’t even make partner at this firm. Oh, what did you say, Tony? You had always wanted to teach, that’s why you left your firm before making partner? Yeah, sure. Face it, you couldn’t handle the real world – Mr. Supreme Court Justice! Just pathetic. Clearly, he’s a Bitter Justice.

Any who, is he the best person to be doling out law school guidance advice to the next generation of law-talkers?

Postscript: Tony sure doesn’t look like he’s been on a bread-and-butter diet these days.

Via Lawyerist.com.

  • southern bitter

    Scalia is right. Let’s put down our partisan swords and listen for a second. We know the old man is conservative, right-leaning and writes frustrating opinions– but he’s not wrong on this. Is “law and poverty” on the bar exam? No. Real property, evidence, con law, torts…those are on the bar exam. Law school is to educate you so you can pass the bar and get a job. Period. The most interesting class I ever took was a 3L seminar on capital punishment. I’m a divorce attorney. What a great investment that was. In this market, students should be focused on passing the bar, and when you are lucky enough to get a job, then worry about specializing your practice. I understand you will probably end up taking a fluffy course (mine was to satisfy a writing requirement)…but Scalia is right. Spend your tuition on classes that matter, and that will help you pass the bar.

  • Learned

    Typical media. Unable to resist the compulsion of ignorance that results in the disregarding of common sense in favor of seizing an opportunity to expound on their liberal biases. The discounting of good ideas and work by either side of the partisan divide, due to the political affiliation of their sources, is THE problem. It shouldn’t be about a party, but about what’s good and what works. Analogize your rhetoric about lack of job experience to yourself and perhaps you’ll see that you are a blogger – on an aptly titled site – because you weren’t very successful at landing or maintaining a big firm job yourself. That being said, should you really be the one telling people what advice to listen to? If I listen to yours, can I be a bitter lawyer and blogger too?

    • Bitter Editor

      This is like voluntarily going to a Billy Ray Cyrus concert and complaining about the mullets and country western music. This, Mr. Learned, is a comedy website.

      But for the record, the author of this post believes Scalia is probably the brightest Justice on the Supreme Court, regardless of his “leanings.”

  • Mean Partner

    Mean Partner disagrees:

    Everyone should take “Women and The Law,” “Law and Ethnicity: A Prism for the 21st Century” and other, similar vacuous courses. Why?

    Mean Partner’s divorce cost him a fortune! My ex wife made out like a bandit in (where else) California. “Like a bandit?” No, an actual bandit. So I’ll be working for a bit longer than expected. Why does this matter?

    Because the more incompetent boneheads soaked in ethnicity studies that I have as “younger competition,” the better for me. THEY can represent the rent-welshing tenants, perennial felons, and whining welfare rights people. Mean Partner will therefore continue to be one of the dwindling group of lawyers with actual legal training and experience.

    This will allow Mean Partner to continue smoking big cigars, getting his Rolex cleaned, having his Mercedes detailed, eating at high end eateries, and hiring young, attractive, women as associates (MP does not have affairs with secretaries–he likes intelligent ambitious women),

    So by all means, take another “Pondering the efficacy of sex-based normative analysis in Civil procedure while Assessing corporate culture, hiring patterns, discrimination against Womyn and the continuing oppressive role of the patriarchal system,” courses.

    Its almost not even up to you anymore: even the clueless law schools are hiring more poli-sci professors to teach theory based courses. Those courses have as much connection to law as “The Patient as a Poly-Environmental Matrix of choices and Feelings” has to do with Medical School.

  • Jerry

    Is there really a judge named Learned Hand? I think I can be a judge!

  • Peek both if you can, though it may be impossible to claim credit for everything.