Northwestern Smooths Path to JD/PhD

Northwestern University will introduce revisions to its J.D./Ph.D. program this fall that will make completing the joint degree easier -- and more affordable.

Summer sessions will be added to the five-year program to help students make progress with their dissertations and research.

In addition, Northwestern will extend full financial support for the J.D. part of the program to qualified students. University officials think they may be the first school in the country to offer full J.D./Ph.D. funding. The program is meant to benefit future academics who would have difficulty paying off law school debts on professorial salaries. J.D./Ph.D. graduates who receive this funding but who do not go into academia will be asked to repay Northwestern for the cost of their J.D. program.

Around 65 students have already applied for admission to the J.D./Ph.D. program next year.

Salaries Climb Higher for Top Law School Grads

The New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has raised the base salary for its first-year associates to $160,000, according to a report in the New York Law Journal.

The increase is likely to be matched by other law firms.

Law firms began raising associates' salaries last year, increasing annual salaries for brand-new J.D.s from the $125,000 that had been the standard for years to $145,000 in New York and $130,000 to $135,000 elsewhere.

Law firms usually follow one another's lead on associate salaries because they are all competing for a relatively small pool of graduates from the top law schools.

Source: "Simpson Hikes Pay; First-Years Go to $160,000," by Anthony Lin, the New York Law Journal, January 23, 2007

LSAT Test Dates for 2007-2008

The LSAC has published a list of LSAT test dates for the 2007-2008 application season. The test will be given on:

-Monday, June 11, 2007

-Saturday, September 29, 2007

(Alternate date for Saturday Sabbath observers: Monday, October 1)

- Saturday, December 1, 2007

(Alternate date for Saturday Sabbath observers: Monday, December 3)

- Saturday, February 2, 2008

(Alternate date for Saturday Sabbath observers: Monday, February 4)

For more information, see the LSAC webpage.

Duke Names New Dean for Law School

Duke University has named a U.S. federal judge widely respected for his expertise in legal reform and civil procedure to be the next Dean of the Duke Law School.

If approved by Duke's Board of Trustees, David F. Levi will leave his present position as Chief U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of California and assume the dean's office on July 1. He would succeed Dean Katharine T. Bartlett, who has led the School since early 2000.

Levi was appointed a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of California by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, following seventeen years of service as a prosecutor and U.S. Attorney in the same district. He was named chief judge in 2003.

Levi said that the Duke Law School's "momentum" in the legal community and its commitment to academic excellence were some of the qualities that he admires about the School. In a Duke University press release, he said that his goals as dean would include continuing to support "outstanding scholarship, a deep engagement with the profession of law, the hiring of more top-notch faculty, a commitment to diversity of both our students and faculty, and making the most of collaborative opportunities both within Duke and internationally."

Source: "Federal Judge David F. Levi Selected as Dean of Duke Law School," press release, Duke University (Durham, North Carolina), January 3, 2007