Harvard Creates Public Service Fellowship

Harvard Law School has created a new fellowship for incoming law students who previously served in the Teach for America Program.

Each year, two students will be selected for the awards, based on their commitment to public service and their interest in continuing public service activities while enrolled at HLS. The students will also be responsible for supporting student recruitment for the J.D. program.

In recent years, Teach for America has become one of the most popular post-graduation career options for U.S. college students. HLS has 10 former TFA volunteers among its current first-year class.

For more information, see the October 25 post to the Harvard JD Admissions blog (blogs.law.harvard.edu/admissions/).

LSAT Announces Changes to Test in June '07

The Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) will make two changes to the LSAT beginning with in June 2007:

1) A new question format will be added to the reading comprehension section. The new format, called 'comparative reading,' will present the test-taker with two short passages and ask questions about how the two passages relate to each other.

2) Argument prompts will no longer be used in the analytical writing section. All writing prompts will involve a decision. The writing section will continue to be unscored.

The LSAC also provided these results from a 2006 survey of law schools on how often the LSAT writing samples are used in making admissions decisions:

Always: 9.9%
Frequently: 25.3%
Occasionally: 32.7%
Seldom: 25.3%
Never: 6.8%

Source: "Notice of Upcoming Changes to the LSAT," posted to the LSAC website (www.lsac.org)

UC Berkeley Expands Financial Aid for Public Service

The UC Berkeley's School of Law has revised its loan forgiveness program for graduates working in government and nonprofit jobs.

The changes almost double the amount of educational loans that Boalt Hall will forgive for qualified graduates. To be eligible for the program, Berkeley alumni must be employing their legal skills in a government or public interest job and be earning $58,000 per year or less The program will pay off up to $100,000 in loans across a period of up to 10 years.

Source: "Law School Establishes New Loan Forgiveness Program, by Janet Gilmore, UC Berkeley News, October 19, 2006.

UT Students Research SC Death Penalty Case

Students enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic are providing legal research and other support for two cases that their professors will argue before the Supreme Court in January.

Robert Owen, co-director of the clinic as well as the attorney who will present one of the cases, told The Daily Texan that the "tremendous amount of research" provided by the clinic's 10 students was vital to his preparations. Clinic students have also helpted to draft arguments for the Supreme Court hearing. Owen hopes that at least some of the students will be able to travel to Washington to watch him argue their case before the Supreme Court.

The UT Captial Punishment Clinic was established in 1989 to give students practical experience working with death penalty cases. It has previously prepared and won two cases that were heard before the Supreme Court.

Source: "UT Law Students to Argue Case Before Supreme Court," by Nolan Hicks, The Daily Texan, October 17, 2006.

A Second Law School for Maine?

Husson College, a private, 4-year college located in Bangor, Maine, is eyeing plans to establish the second law school in that state.

At present, the University of Maine School of Law, located in Portland, is the 'Pine Tree State's' only law school. As one of the smallest law schools in the nation, it prides itself on fostering close student-faculty relationships and on maintaining a strong sense of community among students, faculty, and alumni.

Not surprisingly, Maine Law School alumni hold a prominent position in Maine's political and business life. Graduates include the present Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court, state and federal judges, and the state's three top law enforcement officials.

Husson College's law school proposal will need to be approved by the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Supreme Court. If all goes well, Husson officials hope to enroll their first class of J.D. students by fall 2008.

Source: "Husson College Hoping to Start Law School," by Aaron Roberts - WCSH6.com, October 11, 2006

Harvard Faculty OK Changes to 1L Curriculum

Harvard Law School faculty have voted unanimously to adopt a series of changes to the School's first-year curriculum, marking the first such change in a century.

The revisions are meant to prepare students to work in an increasingly complex and globalized legal environment.

HLS graduates are expected to develop a better appreciation for regulations and statutes and a better understanding of the institutions and processes of public law. The new 1L curriculum will introduce students to a holistic overview of the legal system in their first year, rather than waiting until their third year to do so. Learning will take place through simulations and mock litigation as well as through more traditional means.

Three new courses -- on legislation and regulation, on global legal systems and issues, and on applying theories to solve practical problems -- will be added to the first-year curriculum.

To make room in the schedule for the new classes, Harvard will lessen the amount of time devoted to classes on torts, contracts, civil procedure, criminal law, and property. A new January term will be added to the academic calendar for first-year students, during which they will take the new Problems and Theories class.

For more information, see "HLS Faculty Unanimously Approves First-Year Curricular Reform," a press release issued by the Harvard Law School on October 6, 2006, and posted to the School's website.