For several years now, the focus of law school admissions offices has been trending more and more toward employability. What does this mean for law school admissions strategy?
Employers and clients value a lawyer who can succinctly and informally explain a legal issue or communicate effectively by email, and those are skills that (probably) will not be covered in your first year of law school.
You have probably heard before that networking is crucial in this day and age. The lawyers who have the most success in law firms are the “rainmakers,” those who bring in new clients and new business, and the lawyers who have the most success finding new clients are also masterful networkers.
Law school, you may have heard, trains you to “think like a lawyer.” What does it mean to think like a lawyer?
Too few applicants know this — this is actually what starting salaries look like for those right out of law school.
Every ladder has a first step. Enjoy!
In a sense, this is a blog post 25 years in the making.
Every year at the end of the summer, law schools invite law firms to their campuses to interview students for jobs.
We've reached out to a number of friends at law schools and firms and companies to see what things applicants did that made them grouchy.
In this podcast, SCG's Mike Spivey speaks on what to expect for the rest of the cycle — including why it might greatly favor some people with strong softs this summer, thus making it a "Soft Cycle," but also why it has and will continue to be slow. Also discussed are two internal LSAC changes that will have significant impact for the rest of the admissions cycle and in future years.
Finally, the link Mike mentioned to the blog he wrote to those who are done and checking out of the admissions process – or just want a different take on things —can be found here: 10 Lessons Life Has Taught Me.
This is a very encompassing podcast that features the A to Z of the law school admissions process, starting with "Why am I applying" and finishing with scholarship negotiation and the three things that applicants are doing who are punching above their numbers this competitive cycle—with most everything in between covered.
Three other blogs/podcasts are mentioned during this podcast:
Also discussed: My Rank, Law School Transparency, and the Above the Law Rankings.
You can listen to this podcast through the YouTube video below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
You can also listen to this podcast on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses how COVID-19 and new grading systems will affect law school transfer admissions. Listen below through YouTube, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
Also, a quick note — for a look into Mike's daily schedule (which we've been asked about many times) and some advice on staying sane while quarantined, see this recent blog.
Just a quick update from Mike Spivey on how the continuously developing situation with COVID-19 / coronavirus is impacting — and will continue to impact — law school admissions. Watch here or listen on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group's Anna Hicks and Mike Spivey discuss bad advice in law school admissions — who gives it, how to identify it, and how to determine which advice is worthwhile. Plus, some bonus [good] advice on LinkedIn at the end!
You can also listen to this podcast on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
Here's the podcast on when admissions officers do take note of a specific applicant's behavior online and the consequences it can have.
And here's the Family Guy parody video mentioned in the podcast regarding subjectivity in admissions.
Please note that we are currently at capacity and are not taking new clients for this cycle at this time (we are still working through our current waitlist in date order). However, we will soon be opening our reservation list for next cycle! You can monitor our blog and Twitter for updates on our future availability for this cycle and for the reservation list announcement.
You may not know that I, and several of my Spivey Consulting business partners, were meant to be at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. You can read the story and my thoughts nine years later in a blog post I just published to my motivational blog here. –Mike
