In the course of that discussion, questions were raised about the data the law school publishes in its Viewbook. In particular, commentators questioned the claim made there that the average starting salary for UM grads who work in firms is over $100,000. I wondered about that myself, as the breakout data later on the same page seemed to suggest something lower.

Could the law school have made a (convenient) error in the viewbook?

I took my concerns to the law school administration, who responded by giving me a full data dump and a full explanation. I don’t have the energy to try to type in all the data, so I’ll just try a simplified version of the explanation. [If you really have to have more, or have further questions, the Dean of Career Development, Marcy Cox, mcox@law.miami.edu (305-284-2668), says she’s happy to address them.]

According to Career Development Office, the reason why the both $104,500 number and the more detailed but somewhat different pie charts accompanying it are accurate has to do with response rates, differing data sets, and national reporting standards.

Since firm size and starting salary are related, you might reasonably object — as I did — that it would be more reasonable to pro-rate the responses of the people who gave salary data on the assumption that the people who didn’t fill in that part of the survey earned similar amounts by comparable firm size. And I still think there’s something to that. But I’m told by the Career Office — and I believe them — that the average salary data is presented the way it is because that’s how all law schools do it and the goal is to provide prospective students with numbers that can fairly be compared to what is provided by other law schools.

The Career Development Office avers that it collects the data and reports it in accordance with ABA and NALP guidelines, using the same methods that every other accredited law school in the country uses. Were the law school to do something else, the administration notes, it would no longer be reporting to students in the way it reports to the ABA and NALP. That would mean our data would have an asterisk. And even if we were doing it in order to provide better data the inevitable conclusion that most people would draw is that we were trying to hide something. So the Catch-22 is that we have to do it this way, possibly sacrificing some statistical excellence and even accuracy, or else we’ll look like we’re engaged in some sort of cover-up. And, of course, in addition to having an asterisk, we’d be harming our competitive position since we’d have gone to some trouble to calculate and report a lower number which would harm marketing and recruiting.

It seems to me that UM is between a rock and a hard place here. I would prefer that we use the best statistical techniques, pro-rate the data we have, and let the chips fall where they may. Following the national standards will, I believe, tend to cause this (and apparently almost every other) law school to report a number as “average” that is in fact likely to be higher than the reality. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, what UM — following a methodology its competitors use — reports as an “average” salary for graduates in firms, is most likely closer to what someone in the 75th percentile of the salary distribution gets. And given the law firm salary structure is now a notoriously double-humped curve (see Starting Salaries For Law Students are BiModal — If Not Bipolar for more details), this is a fairly severe truth-in-advertising problem.

Students nationally have some right to be upset. On the other hand, it seems pretty hard to ask UM to engage in unilateral disarmament in the recruitment wars: this is a job for the ABA or the AALS to resolve on a national level. (It also means that students thinking about a law career and hoping for the giant salaries offered by the biggest firms should really understand what that double-humped curve means to their prospects.)

Meanwhile, however, I’ve asked the Career Development Office to include something in the next edition of the Viewbook that makes clearer the relationship between the various data sets it uses. They’ve agreed in principle, and we’ll thrash out some language when time comes to do the next edition.

Where most year-end greetings come with photos of adorable children and picturesque snow scenes, this one featured a picture of a food-bank truck (pictured) with the following text:

Past contributions by our firm have enabled the Daily Bread Food Bank to deliver over 1.3 million meals to those in need in our community.

This year, we decided to contribute a truck to help make the deliveries a little easier.

When you see this truck in our community, you may notice that our name is not on it. That is because the gift of this truck is made in your honor. It would not have been possible without you.

Nice work, gentlepersons.

The Daily Bread Food Bank (an affiliate of America’s Second Harvest) is one of the charities our household donates to.

Top French Attorneys Need US or U.K. Legal Degree | ABA Journal - Law News Now To get a top job at a law firm in France, a law degree from a well-regarded American or British law school is virtually required.

That’s because France has no law school viewed as first-rank, so BigLaw firms looking for French lawyers view the foreign law degree as a virtual necessity, reports Bloomberg. Traditionally, the law has not been treated equally with business, government and economics in France—all three of which, unlike the law, are represented among the “Grandes Ecoles,” French institutions of higher learning that offer prestigious professional degrees to a select group. Legal education is offered at public universities that are open to a much larger pool of students.

Hence, major law firms looking for attorneys in France prefer candidates with a business or economics degree from a Grande Ecole and an American or British law degree, says Renaud Bonnet, who serves as recruiting partner for the Jones Day office in Paris. “It’s no longer enough to just do law school.”

Many in France also see a need for more elite legal education there, and are promoting changes in the current system. “The legal profession is ascendant,” says Louis Vogel, the Yale University-trained president of France’s oldest law school. But for French attorneys to compete successfully with American and British lawyers, he says, “It is absolutely necessary to have a Grande Ecole of law.”

It’s true that as far as I can tell there isn’t as much interesting legal academic writing going on in France as I’d expect. There’s lots of interesting academic writing going on there, some of it is about law, but a surprisingly small amount of it is by law faculty.

Surprising, though, that the legal profession in a country with a reputation for a degree of intellectual insularity and for having a conservative legal establishment would be so open to foreign credentials. Perhaps those reputations are undeserved?

As ‘Rumpole’ would say….See You In Court. For a few seconds of voire dire anyway.

Previous post: Called for Jury Duty.

Take for example this account of the past five days in the annals of Miami Law:

(1) a murder trial in which the witnesses give credible evidence that detectives threatened them (including in one case threatening to take the witness’s kids into care) in order to get them to give perjured testimony incriminating the defendant — but the increasingly pathetic-looking Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office says it has no intention of investigating whether the cops are bent;

(2) another murder case that lacked a body now features a lead detective who, on the witness stand, was made to admit to sleeping with a key witness.

(3) A local lawyer who runs a massive ticket-fixing business shot and killed an armed mugger by using the handgun he keeps in the glove compartment of his black Mercedes.

In other local traffic news, six-year-old girl foils carjacker by beating on him

“I smacked him on the head with my book”.

(4) Local Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry blew a three-year-long FBI sting operation into corruption by officers on his force by blabbing about it to at other cops and local politicians. Not surprisingly, word quickly got out to the prime suspects who immediately tried to resign, stopping the investigation into their associates in its tracks and wasting a giant amount of police work. When first confronted about it the Chief told the press a series of lies, which he’s gradually been recanting.

(5) A prominent local builder was jailed yesterday, charged with embezzling public funds to buy a sculpture of a giant watermelon slice. He very vigorously contests the charges, and was photographed giving the finger to a reporter.

Local slice of life

(6) Cops arrest blogging photojournalist for taking crime scene photos.

(Post inspired by Justice Building Blog.)

On the other hand, I do think that last week’s post about the TV exposé of local cops is a bit late (unless maybe the local station is doing reruns?). I wrote about it a year ago.

Personally, while very devoted to yellow yellow pads up through law school, I discovered that I really preferred white pads some time early in law practice. I think they are easier to read.

THE FOLLOWING POST IS INCORRECT. RUMPOLE BLEW IT. SEE THE POST ON 511/06. JUDGE FARINA HAS NOT ORDERED ANY INTERPRETER NOT TO INTERPRET FOR A DEFENDANT'S FAMILY. SORRY. WE BLEW IT.

"Rumpole" of the Justice Building Blog, now quite the talk of Miami-Dade litigators, has found a Cause, and it's a good one:

JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG: NO HABLA INGLES....EVER

Here is the scene:
A lawyer is in court.
The Defendant is in custody.
There are sensitive plea negotiations at sidebar.
The case gets reset.
The defendant has to surrender his passport, pay a large fine and restitution before the case gets settled and he can get out of jail.
The new court date is two weeks away.

The interpreter does her job in court and on the way out the attorney wants to tell his client's family the new court date and what needs to be done.

The attorney signals to the interpreter, who walks over and in Spanish asks the people if they are defendants.
They politely tell the interpreter that no, they are the family of the defendant who was just in court and they ask her what happened and when they have to be back in court.

The Interpreter reaches into her pocket, pulls out her reading glasses, clears her throat (ahhem) and loudly says for all to hear:

HEAR YE HEAR YE, BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR DADE COUNTY, I CANNOT ANSWER ANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS.
FURTHERMORE, BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF JUDGE, I CANNOT TRANSLATE ANY INSTRUCTIONS FROM YOUR ATTORNEY.
YOU MAY NOT BE TOLD THE NEXT COURT DATE.
YOU MAY NOT BE TOLD WHAT JUST HAPPENED.
WELCOME TO THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF DADE COUNTY.
I AM AUTHORIZED TO CONVEY TO YOU THAT THE CHIEF JUDGE, ON BEHALF OF ALL OF THE JUDGES OF THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT,
WISHES YOU A VERY NICE DAY.

This is not the rule elsewhere, not even in nearby Broward, which is not perhaps the watchword for sensitivity to non-English speakers and minorities. As Rumpole says, "WHEN BROWARD TAKES THE LEAD IN RACIAL OR ETHNIC SENSITIVITY, THEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING IS WRONG."