Articles Posted in Uncategorized

Little Ash Wednesday controversy in Iowa that is a very big deal to some: After lunch, while prosecuting an attempted murder case, the prosecutor went to Ash Wednesday mass and returned with ash on his forehead.

For mainstream Catholics, this is one of the few ways we have to publicly celebrate our faith. Many faiths of the world have ways you can, for lack of a better phrase, wear your religion on your sleeve at trial. Jewish lawyers have yarmulkes, female Muslim lawyers have headscarves, some Sikh attorneys have turbans, etc. Would a judge ever ask any of these people to remove their religious garb? Of course not. Yet, in this case, the judge asked the prosecutor to remove his ashes. The prosecutor removed the ashes, and the trial continued.

Do I think this was unfair? Yes. But the judge was in a no-win situation. It would also be unfair for the state of Iowa to piggyback off of the prosecutor’s show of piety because religious faith influences jurors. (If you have any doubt about this, read the section on religion in David Ball and Don Keenan’s book Damages.) So, on balance, I think the judge did the right thing and picked the integrity of a serious criminal trial over the prosecutor’s expression of faith. Still, I don’t like it.

The American Lawyer has an article on whether a “cheap” law school can help you land a big firm job.

I really don’t think it matters where you go to law school. It is absolutely true better law schools statistically produce better lawyers. People at lower-ranked law schools argue this point all the time, but it is silly to suggest that Timbuktu Law School graduates are as successful as those from Harvard. But if you take those same Harvard law students and put them at Timbuktu, eventually the difference in success with Harvard law students would be negligible. It will be, however, harder for those same students to get a job at the beginning of their careers.

One thing I’m sure of is that law school students are stressed these days about their job prospects. They are awful. The good news is that in the long run of history, everything will work out. I remember classmates of mine that were waiting on tables after they passed the bar because they could not find a job. Some of those same lawyers are among the most successful lawyers in my class. If you are a lawyer that can’t find a job, you have to get some solace from this.