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The Top Law School Stories of 2013

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In case you haven’t been on the internet lately, 2013 is almost over. It’s been an interesting year for law school news, so I’ve rounded up some of the more interesting stories for you.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 I: Law School Applications At 30-Year Low

Law school applications are still plummeting. But this is good news for anyone who still wants to go to law school. There’s less competition trying to get into your ideal school, and you might even get some money thrown at you.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 II: Obama Says Law School Should Take Two Years

In August, President Obama, himself a graduate of Harvard Law School, weighed in on the debate over legal education, voicing his support of law schools dropping the third year. Obama admitted that this might lead to a drop in revenue for law schools, which is why you shouldn’t count on it happening any time soon. Here’s the LSAT blog’s own Alex Davis with his analysis.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 III: Law Degree Worth A Million Dollars More

The mainstream consensus these days seems to be that very few law schools are worth going to. So, when Micheal Simkovic of Seaton Hall Law School and Frank McIntyre of Rutgers Business School announced their research paper in which they found that law school graduates earn about a million dollars more over their lifetimes, they created quite a bit of debate. Chicago’s Brian Leiter gave some interesting reflections on the article. Above The Law, the Enquirer of legal journalism, featured a scathing critique of the paper.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 IV: Free Speech Right To Hide Bar Passage Rates?

The Southern California Institute of Law — which despite its fancy title is a law school — tried to argue that it had a First Amendment right not to report its bar passage rate. This might be because in 2012 0% of its graduates managed to pass the California Bar Exam. Ouch.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 V: Illegal Immigrants Can’t Practice Law

It turns out that illegal immigrants can go to law school and even intern with congressmen, but they can’t practice law. Discuss.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 VI: Outcomes Based Law School Ranking

This year, Above The Law released their law school rankings based mostly on how successful graduates were in the job market. These are my favorite law school rankings. They’re not without controversy. For one, New York City law schools took a big drop compared to their U.S. News rankings. Top Law School Forums has a user-friendly table with both rankings side by side.

Top Law School Stories of 2013 VII: Harvard Will Accept February LSATs

Harvard Law School not only announced that it would be accept February LSAT scores during the current cycle, but it’s extending the application deadline to March 1. According to the email the school sent out, this move was prompted by the delays some December LSAT takers experienced due to bad weather. However, some are wondering if this could be because Harvard is trying to get its applications up.

Those are my top law school stories for 2013. If you think I missed some, and I’m sure I did, feel free to post a link the comments.

Enjoy your break and make sure you’re sending out those applications!