Eagleionline

In the latest issue of the National Jurist, BC Law ranked 45th in the number of clinical opportunities available to its students.

We ranked these ABA-approved law schools based on the total number of full-time clinical course positions offered per the number of full-time clinical course positions offered per the number of full-time students using data provided by the Official Guide to the ABA-approved Law Schools 2008 Edition.  This ranking shows where the most clinical opportunities are available.

With 156 slots for 780 students, this methodology produced clinic opportunities for 20.0% of the entire student body.  However, the rankings fail to consider that BC only permits 2L’s and 3L’s to participate in clinics, which would presumably present a much higher percentage of opportunities for students.

Among the many concerns for an incoming BCLS 1L (e.g., how will I know if I’m a gunner?; will I have a gunner in my class?; what is a gunner?), perhaps none is more important than how to order BC Football season tickets.

For $145, you can get a full season student package for all seven home games.  If you’ll be away the weekend of Thanksgiving, you can also get a student season package for $120 minus the Maryland home game on Saturday, November 29.  These tickets require your BC ID at the gate (or at least the BC ID of someone who could pass for a distant relative) and are general admission for the student section.

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• Brian Albritton (BCLS ‘88) nominated to fill U.S. Attorney spot in Middle District of Florida.
• 2008 Rappaport Fellows Matthew Mazotta, Julie Kobick, Elizabeth Monnin-Browder, and Eric Batcho (BCLS Class of 2010) are profiled in the Cambridge Chronicle and Somerville Journal.
• Visiting faculty member Michael McCann discussed the NBA referee scandal with Sports Illustrated and CNN.
• Professor George Brown is quoted in the Los Angeles Times on corruption in Congress.
• Edward J.M. Little (Double Eagle - ‘70, ‘74) and Kenneth Breen (Double Eagle - ‘89, ‘92) are profiled in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog for representation of Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse employees, respectively, charged with securities fraud related to the subprime mortgage crisis.

In a recent edition of the Massachusetts Lawyer Weekly, Brian Cook (BC Law ‘85) criticizes the lack of preference given to military veterans in the admissions process at BC.

This year, I was asked by a student whom I did not know well to write a letter of recommendation to BC. I met him and heard his story and could not wait to help him. He was not the son of an alumnus or a politician or a wealthy business leader. He was a veteran who had served his country and luckily returned, albeit disabled, with a renewed sense of place and interest in studying law after being in a world where there was no rule of law.

This experience changed him. He improved his grades, took the LSATs and applied to law schools. He was accepted at nearly every school he applied to except BC. In fact, BC Law, the school that spoke comfortably from Chestnut Hill about public service and lawyers who made a difference, did not even wait-list him.

When I inquired about his application, I was told that BC does not “track” veterans or even know how many of its class are veterans. The school certainly doesn’t know how many of its applicants or admits are disabled veterans.

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During the 2004 presidential election, University of Wisconsin Law School Professor Ann Althouse inquired about Senator John Kerry’s intelligence based on the fact that he attended Boston College Law School.

I’ve been wondering why Kerry went to Boston College Law School. Since he was rich, it can’t have been the lure of a free ride. You would think, with his anti-war activism, he would have been a very attractive candidate for admission to Harvard (or another top-ranked law school) if only his LSAT and GPA were at all within range. No offense to Boston College, of course. I think it’s similar to attending my school, the University of Wisconsin Law School. And the point is, he had an extremely admirable personal story and record of activism, as well as the ability to pay his way, so he could have gotten into Boston College with numbers well below those of the average students.

Now, Thomas Lipscomb at the Huffington Post takes his shot at BC Law four years late in an attempt to offer meaningful commentary on the current presidential election.

Why had a Boston snob like John Kerry gone to a subway law school like Boston College? A source who had been on the Harvard Law School admissions board revealed that with Kerry’s bad military record he was turned down for admission though clearly qualified because they didn’t want to admit someone who they thought would be unable to pass the bar.

Specifically, Lipscomb infers that there were concerns that Kerry would be unable to pass the character and fitness requirement of the bar. 

[A] former Secretary of the Navy told me that Kerry had asked him to expunge the disciplinary action the Navy had taken against him for what the Navy regarded as treasonous activities supporting the enemy in a time of war so he could be admitted to a law school and get on with his career. The Secretary refused. So it appears that Kerry went to Father Drinan, the former dean of the Boston College Law School. Kerry had decided not to run against Drinan for an open Congressional seat Drinan then occupied. Kerry asked him for help. The disciplinary action disappeared from Kerry’s official records with the general Jimmy Carter amnesty for Vietnam veterans with bad service records, the first bill Carter initiated after his inauguration.

In a post on his blog earlier this week, USNWR Law School Rankings Czar Robert Morse hinted at what could be the next major change in the formula used to rank the nation’s top law schools.

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Washingtonian magazine has printed a series of articles speculating on who might fill the top appointed positions in the next administration. BC Law is well-represented on the list with two possible picks for Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

If former Law & Order DA Fred Thompson doesn’t head the real-life Justice Department, Debra Wong Yang [BCLS ‘85] might become attorney general. A former state judge now at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, she was the first Asian-American woman to serve as a US Attorney and led the largest US Attorney’s office outside of Washington as head of the Central District of California, which includes LA.

Also mentioned as a potential pick is former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman (BCLS ‘60), who has been one of McCain’s economic advisors during the campaign and could reportedly end up as Secretary of Treasury or as a member of the National Economic Council.

The Boston Globe and Providence Journal report that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be a visting judge on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston beginning next week. The 1st Circuit’s Calendar lists the three-judge panels Justice O’Connor will sit on and the cases to be heard on May 5th and 6th.

Since retiring from the Supreme Court two years ago, O’Connor has been a visting judge for the 2nd, 8th, and 9th Circuits. Scholars have recently called for the renewal of the historic practice of “circuit riding” not only by retired Supreme Court justices, but also sitting ones.

[Hat Tip: Legal Blog Watch]