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Suits like this one aren’t exactly uncommon. However, one actually making it to a trial is.
Updated March 25, 11:00 a.m.
Sometimes, dreams must come to an end. Which is exactly the case for … per The New York Times.
A jury in San Diego on Thursday rejected claims by a law graduate, Anna Alaburda, that the Thomas Jefferson School of Law enticed her to enroll by using misleading graduate employment figures.
A jury voted nine to three to reject her claims.
Originally published March 11, 9:16 a.m.
Usually, the judge reads the petition of the plaintiff in a whiny voice, laughs, then throws it across the desk with a big red stamp that reads “dismissed” on it, or at least that’s how I imagine it goes. When I applied and somehow got accepted to law school, people were excited for me, but literally no one told me that spending approximately $50,000 per year for private law school was a good investment. Hell, my law school even required all incoming students to take an entire seminar on employment and earning statistics to cover their asses, conveniently after we had already paid for the first semester. People may have been willfully blind, and I’ll even lump myself in that category, but it was definitely no secret.
I could have gone straight to work after undergrad, debt free, and likely (definitely) made more than I have thus far as an attorney. (I wasn’t an English or Poli Sci major, which helps. No offense. My dad always referred to those as, “More tea, Sir?” degrees, and I’m inclined to agree in a lot of circumstances.) But nope. I wanted to be prestigious or some shit. I wanted to have the trump card that said, “Dear Local Facebook Attorney, I am actually an attorney, and you are, in fact, not. I win.” After six years at a party school, I wasn’t exactly bringing Harvard Law worthy application features to the table. I didn’t even attempt to mitigate my law school expenditure by applying to a more-competitive-than-normal public school. There was only one in my state, and going out of state didn’t really appeal to me, though it probably should have. I applied to exactly one school, because I figured if they didn’t want me (my money), no one would. The rest is exorbitant student loan history.
All of this, I’m sure, sounds pretty depressing, but let me clarify– I do NOT regret my decision. I’m not going to put a “100%” in front of that “do not” or anything, because if you ask me what percentage I’m feeling 10 days in row, you’re going to get 10 different answers. But overall, I’m glad I went, and I’m glad I’m an attorney. I do have some issues with how nationalized student loans are issued and managed, but that’s a conversation for a different day when you’re in the mood to hear me yell and use excessive profanity. JK. I always yell and use excessive profanity, but I’ll leave the administration of student loans topic be for today.
So, back to this chick who sued her law school. She claims that the school inflated their employment rates by including all employment in their figures instead of just legal-field employment, which, yeah, that’s shitty. $150,000 and three years of your life to end up working at the local watering hole, serving up drinks to the new crop of law students spending loan money to forget that they’re $150,000 in debt isn’t exactly something anyone expects when they excitedly tell their friends and family that they’re going to law school.
However, in this case, Ms. Alaburda is claiming that TEN years after she graduated in the top-tier of her class that she still cannot find a full-time, steady job as a lawyer, which I have an extremely hard time buying into. Yea, maybe your law school inflated statistics or weren’t explicit in disclosing the full spectrum of jobs that the statistics consisted of, which the school should be held accountable for, but, at the end of the day, you’re still an attorney who passed a legitimate bar exam. People are always going to need people who actually understand the law, even your Uncle Gary who is a news comment section Constitutional Law scholar. Uncle Gary’s 5th offense public urination and intoxication charge isn’t going to take care of itself. But hey, if you’d rather spend your resources suing your law school and convincing yourself part-time paralegal work is all that’s available to you, by all means. That just means more Uncle Garys for me.
I’ll be interested to see the outcome of this case, as it is the first of its kind to actually make it this far. I’ll also be interested to see how many other law grads it will be encouraged to take a ride on the slippery slope train. Regardless, I’m a bit torn on this issue, as, having been a seemingly unemployable, highly-indebted law grad, I can see both sides. However, my bills, unfortunately, don’t pay themselves, so my alma mater can rest at ease knowing I’ll be spending my time and energy on the Uncle Garys of the world instead. (I apologize in advance to anyone with a law-abiding uncle named Gary.).
[via CBS News]
Image via Shutterstock
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McMagistrate
After stretching college out for 9 years, McMagistrate is now an attorney in her late-ish 20's who earned her title by embracing the stigma that accompanies a healthy partying habit. She enjoys showing off her sub-par golf game and pretending her impressive law school loan doesn't exist. You can likely find her on her patio, live-tweeting her wine binges, and concerning her neighbors.
@mcmagistrate
Suing someone being the only way you can get into a courtroom as a lawyer. PGP.
Partying with Uncle Gary sounds like a risky, but fun time.
I made sub-par grades at a sub-par law school – passed the bar on the 1st try and have gainful employment. It can be done. She probably just sucks as a human. And if she thinks she couldn’t get a job before… Wait until future potential employers get a hold of this.
Are we twins?
Triplets?
Always knew I had one out there somewhere.
Read about this the other day, she actually was offered a job out of law school but turned it down. To me it seems like she was unwilling to grind it out the first couple of years to get where she actually wanted to go. If she wants sympathy, she can look in the dictionary between shit and syphillis.
When there are more law schools in the country than Starbucks, yeah, you may need to understand the market is pretty saturated with lawyers.
Paradox: If you could beat your law school in court claiming they did a poor job of preparing you for legal practice, then they actually did a good job preparing you for legal practice.
Boy after this lawsuit I’m sure job offers are just gonna come rolling in!
I don’t have any problem with including non-legal employment. Some people go to law school for business reasons and never practice. That was my intent, until I found out you can make good to great money as a lawyer and experience a well above average stress and substance abuse rate.
Had she never heard of hanging up her shingle? There are a lot of small towns with only one or two lawyers. She could go set up so and get a decent client base pretty quickly. It doesn’t have the prestige of working at a major firm, but it pays the bills.
I have to stop comment from my phone. Please give us an edit button!
You’ll soon realize how naive you are if you think “hanging a shingle” somehow compensates for the fact that there are too many attorneys and not enough clients. People who would even consider hiring a self-employed lawyer with no experience working out of their apartment are the kind of people that expect you to make their DV charge “go away” for less than 100 dollars. Being a solo attorney exposes you to people you thought only existed on Jerry Springer – absolute bottom feeders who think legal services shouldn’t cost anymore than their weekly trip to Walmart.
I merger said it was ideal, and it will only work in small towns that are under served by attorneys. The over abundance of attorneys is largely in the cities, and the unwillingness of many new attorneys to be a simple small town lawyer doesn’t help.
Not to mention any one who has taken federal tax law should know that if you practice in one of these under served rural areas the the government will relieve some of if not all of your school debt.
The school didn’t just include people with jobs outside the legal field in their statistics, they intentionally hired recent graduate as “clerks” for their law professors so they could claim that X percentage of recent graduates was employed in the legal field. These clerk positions were making minimum wage but led people to believe they would have X chance of making lawyer type money within a few months of graduating. The schools knew the legal market was saturated and took active steps to hide the fact because all the other graduate schools at a university are funded by the law school. Think about it – no pricey labs or equipment. It’s literally just a building stuffed with people who read all day everyday for three years. And they pay top dollar to do so.