Sep 17

JET Alum researcher seeks JET Alum respondents for survey on reverse culture shock

Smitha Prasadh (Tokushima-ken, 2005-07) is a Master of Design Candidate at Carnegie Mellon School of Design as well as an active organizer of the growing JETAA Pittsburgh Subchapter.  She is seeking respondents for a survey she is conducting on reverse culture shock as part of her graduate research:

Hello! I am an alumna of the JET Programme. For my graduate thesis, I am designing a resource to help North American JET alumni cope with reverse culture shock upon their departure from Japan. If you are an American or Canadian JET alum, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could fill out this survey about your overall experiences before, during, and after JET. Your participation would help my research greatly.

The following survey should take approximately 15‐20 minutes to complete. (Should you choose to elaborate on your answers, it will take a bit longer.)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/jet-rcs-thesis

Thank you very much for your time!

Smitha Prasadh
thesis@smithaprasadh.com


Sep 13

Reformers, Futile Gesturers, Blamers, and Loss-Cutters: Adventures in Anger, Personal Responsibility, and Positive Thinking

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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.

As the tuition bubble expands, so too does a cast of characters who discuss it–all with their own audiences and agendas.  Read this to find out who’s who as the tuition bubble debate becomes more complicated.


Sep 8

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.


Sep 3

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?


Aug 31

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.


Aug 13

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.


Jul 30

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!


Jul 7

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.


Jul 2

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.


Jun 25

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.


Jun 17

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.


Jun 11

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!


Jun 3

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!


May 28

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.


May 21

The Juris Doctor Is Your New Bass-O-Matic

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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.

Like me, many American JETs contemplate going to law school when faced with their contracts expiring.  You may hear about the value of the Juris Doctor – the degree that’s so flexible you can do anything with it.  Find out why you should recontract and save your yennies by reading this.


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