Commentary: “The Cove is a Total Failure”
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Here’s a blog post from Ryan Cecil Smith (Hyogo-ken, Nishinomiya-shi, 2010) about his attempts to show the controversial documentary film The Cove to students in his town of various age ranges in an effort to foster discussion and reaction.
Here’s the post: http://ryancecilsmith.com/blog/the-cove-is-a-total-failure
Here’s a quote from Ryan’s blog post:
“I think that there should be some reckoning by the makers of The Cove for how poorly the movie has been received in Japan. I’m really disappointed that the movie is targeted so far from a Japanese audience, even though the point of the movie is ostensibly to change a Japanese practice.”
Ryan is very interested in hearing reactions and comments from the JET and JET alumni communities as well as from any other readers. Please feel free to comment below.
You can find additional commentary about The Cove on JetWit here and here.
NUMBERS CRUNCHED! The ABA’s Number of Attorneys per State and per Gross State Product
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates a think tank of one, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
Folks, this chart should explain itself. It doesn’t speak too much to the tuition bubble, but eyeballing the data suggests there’s a correlation between lawyer density and less income per lawyer. I may have to run a regression analysis just to satisfy my inner social scientist.
Structural Unemployment Plagues U.S. Legal Sector
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
I’ve read how young adults in Japan are sometimes criticized for being lazily unemployed and living with their parents. I don’t know how common or fair that depiction is, but it’s out there. Economists’ term for this phenomenon is “structural unemployment.” Guess what awaits the U.S. legal profession?
The Missing J.D.s
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
Anyone see Kore-eda Hirokazu’s 「誰も知らない」(Dare-mo Shiranai), the movie about the mother who abandons her four children in a Tokyo apartment? I thought of that movie when I learned that 4/10 law graduates over the last forty years are neither practicing lawyers nor judges. What happened to them? Did they land on their feet? If you’re going to law school will you end up like them? Found out more here.
How Law Schools Behave Like States in International Relations Theory
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
You studied political science before JET didn’t you? Do not lie! For those of you with a healthy interest in politics, specifically international relations, please read, “How Law Schools Behave Like States in International Relations Theory,” and tell me who’s the realist.
Legal Education in New York: Top of the Heap or Dream Deferred
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
I’m pretty sure that most Jets Wit out there live here in New York. If so, you’ll be right at home with this week’s post—where I chide the Big Apple for adding five law schools during its 1970s economic and demographic slump. But when your contract expires please return to NYC, JETAANY needs your support!
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
I’m not sure, but some JETs who go on to law school choose Temple University, or at its Japan Campus (TUJ) as I did. For those of you who’re Pennsylvanians or contemplating studying law in Pennsylvania, I have for you a Frankensteinian experiment, “Failure to Launch: The Curious Case of Wilkes Law School, PA.”
Land of 10,000 Lakes and One Tuition Bubble
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill. For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.
Before leaving to teach in Saitama, I remember going to a Minnesota handcrafts shop in the Mall of America to find gifts for my new coworkers that reflected my home state. I think I bought some of them a bag of wild rice and then I bought a beautiful box of assorted jelly beans from Candyland on North Wabasha in Saint Paul. All were well received. When I left JET, though, even then I knew better than to study law in my home state of just over 4,000,000 with all four of its law schools in the Twin Cities. For those of you who’re Minnesota JETs like me, or want to study law in the North Star state, these posts are for you.
Law School: You Get What You Put into It…Sort of
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Law school isn’t always a bad option. If you bring more than a bachelors (of arts!) degree to the table, you have a better chance of coming out ahead after graduating. For those of you whose eyes are bleeding from memorizing kanji for the JLPT 一級, take a break and read this post. Don’t worry, it’s in English.
A Half-Hearted Defense of the Legal Services Cartel
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Wait a second? Why would I defend the ABA when it fails to act on the tuition bubble? I have my reasons between labor cartel and attorney oversupply, and you can read them here.
An International List of Writing Organizations and Opportunities
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Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker. Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi. To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com.
Here is a practical list of organizations, market guides, and networking opportunities for jump starting your writing career. My apologies that it is heavy on the America and Speculative Fiction side, but that is who I am and what I write, so that is what I know best. But hopefully everyone can find something useful from this list:
The Charge of the Juris Doctor Brigade
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Do you like tables? Not kotatsu! I mean data tables! Ones that show where law schools and law students are geographically saturated in the United States. If you’re considering law school in the U.S., you have to see where not to go.
Bottleneck Attack!
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Plenty of people accept the facts about runaway law school tuition, but they think legal education is in a “bottleneck” until the economy recovers and law starts paying off again. Watch me defend the Dojo in, “Bottleneck Attack!”
The Big Bubble Battle (Bart II)
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
Higher education costs more each year, but if a law school is just a bunch of classrooms, a library, and faculty, why is attending it so much more expensive? Place your bets on who will win the final bout of the Big Bubble Battle before clicking!
The Big Bubble Battle (Bart I): Enter the University
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Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules. He operates his own blog, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States. He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.
If American law schools are festering in a tuition bubble, universities must be too! Right? Break out the tako-yaki and watch universities and law schools enter the sumo ring to see which bubble is bigger.
