Class rankings

Per Mindi:

Updated class rank information is now available. Please keep in mind the following academic rule:

*3.06 Disclosure of Class Rank Information for Limited Purposes**
* Information about students' class standing shall be made available solely for the purpose of aiding students applying for judicial clerkships and academic positions.

Remember that disclosure of this information for any other purpose would be a violation of the Honor Code.

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Feel free to discuss class ranks, grades, and clerkships in this open thread, being mindful of the Honor Code.

Someone Needs a Lesson in Professional Responsibility

Not to detract from the worthwhile discussion of grades/clerkships, but if anyone wants to see John Yoo getting his ass handed to him on a platter by the House Judiciary Subcommittee, check it out here and here. The latter clip is particularly amusing, as Yoo is unable to formulate a coherent response to the question of what privilege he's asserting. They seem to really have it out for him. I almost feel bad for the guy. Almost.

Grades and rankings discussion welcome here

If anyone wishes to discuss grades or rankings, feel free to do so on this open thread. While I think it's great that Boalt (ahem... Berkeley Law) has a (relatively) non-competitive atmosphere and am extremely grateful that students here tend not to be overly grade obsessed, curiosity sometimes gets the better of us. Additionally, some folks might find it helpful (or at least stress/anxiety-reducing) to complain about their lack of grades or discuss GPA/class rank for clerkship purposes. Feel free to do so here (in a civil manner, of course).

I wonder if the delay in grades (and Dean O's absence) will affect the timing of class rank disclosure. It's important for 3Ls applying to clerkships (as well as recent grads) to get their class rank relatively soon, especially since more and more judges are not adhering to the hiring plan (many 10th Circuit judges and some 9th Circuit judges in particular), so there may be an advantage to sending out early applications (be careful, though -- while some judges don't follow the plan, others adhere to it very strictly for current students, and an early application will not be viewed favorably). Check out the Clerkship Notification Blog for news on judge hiring, and also So You Want to Be a Law Clerk for info on early-hiring judges, as well as good general clerkship information.

Let the Bar/Bri fun begin!

What's everyone's impression of their Bar Review courses so far? At Boalt, we've got three classes offered: two California Bar/Bri classes (one in the morning and one in the evening) and one NY Bar/Bri class (in the evening). The morning CA Bar/Bri class is in the freezing cold and overcrowded Booth Auditorium. Granted it's only day two (our first day of substantive material), but it seems to be moving at a fairly slow and manageable pace.

I'd like to open this thread up to a discussion. What are everyone's general impressions? Do any alums have tips for bar studying? How should we be studying in our free time? Is it advisable to summarize notes from the day's lectures? Saving an entire half-row of seats for friends who don't arrive until a minute before class starts: acceptable?

Movers & Shakers: Update

Professor Sklansky is returning to Boalt, at least for Fall '08.

3L Town Hall Meeting Report

The 3L Town Hall meeting had a very low turnout; maybe a dozen students (at most). Dean Edley, Professor Bundy, the LRAP guy, K. V.Heuvel, Dean Ortiz, and P. Patterson were present to answer questions.

Here's a partial non-literal transcript of some of the questions and answers:

Question: How do we retain faculty?
Edley: If faculty has an offer from a peer institution, campus will let us match salary -- but it's the other parts of compensation (e.g. tuition for kids, mortgage deal for primary AND vacation homes) that we can't match. There are also professional issues (e.g. wall-street connection in NYC for business profs). Then there's the prestige advantage that Yale, Harvard, and Stanford have. Bottom line is that faculty stay because they love the students, people love the Bay Area.

Edley: Faculty loves our students! Right?
Bundy: [silence]
[Edley gives Bundy a look]
Bundy: Right! we love the students!

Bundy: The extra dimension of compensation matters, and prestige matters to some extent.

Question: Do we have a poaching program of our own?
Edley: Yes - for example, Ken Gergen (sp?) from Texas. We poached 2 last year for the JSP faculty.

Question from 2L: How can students have better communication with the administration and vice versa?
Edley: Main route is Dean O's office; Mindi & Dean O are the main channels.
3L #1: There seems to be a disconnect between students and administration. Some students have the chutzpah to walk into the Dean's office, but not all students do. It would be nice to get more emails from the Dean. [Edley response: That's a great idea.]
3L #2: Best way to communicate with students and get feedback is with a weblog.
Edley: So would emails be better than more meetings?
3Ls: Yes.

At some point, discussion shifted to the Registrar's Office. A couple students (and Dean O) defended the Registrar's Office (they're overworked, students come to the registrar's office with unreasonable demands), while others argued the folks in the Registrar's Office were inefficient and unnecessarily rude. Nothing was resolved, but Dean O admonished students for "looking down" on and acting rudely to staff.

Question: How will we choose a replacement for Dean O?
Edley: Berring is heading up a search committee, which will include 2 students and one recent grad.

At the meeting, Edley passed out a memorandum (which will be emailed to all students) discussing last-year's low bar passage rate. The memo doesn't explain reasons for the low-passage rate but instead offers observations and assurances that the School is still looking into the problem. One of the interesting insights it offers is that class rank appears to be correlated with success on the bar. Specifically, on the July 2007 test, 100% of Boalt test takers in the top 1/3 of the class passed, 94% in the middle of the class passed, and 51% from the bottom 1/3 of the class passed. So really, only 1/3 or 2/5 of the class needs to start freaking out.

Movers & Shakers Part II: Departures

Who will be leaving Boalt next year, either temporarily or permanently? So far we know:

Rumor has it that Jan Vetter is retiring.

Ian Haney-Lopez, who apparently likes to plan ahead, will be at NYU in Fall '09 and HLS in Spring '10, per his CV.

Gillian Lester and Eric Talley will be visiting at HLS all next year.
Lester will be teaching Employment Law at Harvard in Spring '09. Talley will be teaching: Corporate Finance in Fall '08, and Corporate Law and Finance Seminar and Corporations in Spring '09.

Professor Howard Shelanski will be teaching Telecommunications Law at Georgetown in Fall '08, and teaching Antitrust in High-Tech Industries and Antitrust Law at NYU in Spring '09.

Sklansky is presumably outta here (no official word on whether he'll be at Harvard, but we suspect that's the case).

No word on what's up with Professor Linda Krieger, who visited at Harvard last year is currently listed as a member of the Univ. of Hawaii faculty.

And of course, Dean Ortiz will be leaving us for UC-Irvine.

Also of note:
Professor Aaron Edlin taught Antitrust Law at Harvard for the Winter Term '08, and Jesse Fried taught Law and Finance of Corporate Reorganizations at Harvard for the Winter Term '08 (though both are teaching at Boalt in Fall '08).

Who else do you know of who's leaving Boalt next year?

EDIT: [updates in bold]