Fall 1999

Notes from the Editor
President's Message
NAPLA Web Page
Advising Average Applicants
CLEO

Happenings in the Profession LSAC File Status Online
Claudia Tomlin
Beth Cobb O'Neil
Entry Level Associates Salaries
Philly's Finest
Review: A Woman's Guide to Law School

The following are not included online.

Member Questionnaire Appendix
2000 Locator Appendix
MAPLA Profiles Appendix

top

Two early Christmas presents accompany this issue of the Notes. The newest edition of the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors' Profiles and our own Locator. Please note that there was an error in the edition of the Locator distributed with the last issue of the Notes. Although this is the season for giving, Washington University School of Law was incorrectly placed in the wrong cell. Sorry to dash the hopes of certain students with less than stellar records who hoped to pack their bags for Saint Louis.

Just as the trees in the northeast are dropping their leaves, three NAPLA regulars are also moving on. Jack Shea of West Chester University epitomized those advisors who happily combined a full faculty teaching load, an active role in university life-Jack is the chair of West Chester's political science department-with an unflagging enthusiasm for helping his school's students advance to law school. Jack was always eager to find out more information about the ins and outs of law school so as to serve his students better. In the process, Jack brought a great sense of humor laced with a good dose of Irish skepticism that combined to make him one of the people who makes NAPLA what it is, i.e., the greatest of the APLA's. For us parochials, Claudia Tomlin put the University of Denver's law school on our mental map. When she came east to our conferences, Claudia was a presence. She knew that recruiting only began with handing out brochures and sitting at a table at NAPLA's law school fair. Her presence at other functions, on panels and at parties, cemented the deal! Finally, the last member of the trinity is Beth Cobb O'Neil who upon her move to Newtown from Boalt Hall helped usher in a new era of NAPLA-LSAC relations-a sort of testing Ostpolitik that helped bring down the walls that seemed to have developed earlier between the two groups. That, of course, didn't mean that relations between the two organizations always ran smoothly and no, neither I nor any other former NAPLA President ever called them the "Evil Empire." Among Beth's many contributions was pitching in to help make possible our annual PLANC session on pre-law advising at the American Political Science conferences.

Fall not only prompts the quiet sounds of falling leaves, but the less pleasant sound of recommendation requests falling on to our desktops. Raking leaves is easier! To help with the advising that comes with the letters of recommendation, Villanova Law School's Dave Palozzi shares his ideas on how to help the average law school applicant stand out from the mean, median and mode. Also not to be forgotten is the help available from the Council on Legal Education Opportunity or CLEO. To that end, this issue of the Notes contains information about how students may apply and statistics on who is most apt to be selected to participate in one of the very valuable CLEO summer programs.

Finally, do not forget to complete and return the NAPLA questionnaire. Your association needs the information so as to plan better as to how we can serve the membership. The decision to launch a web site, Cf., p. 4, and the movement towards planning conferences with a longer lead time, Boston in 2000, Williamsburg in 2001, all require more data for better planning.

Graham Lee
Saint Joseph's University
Philadelphia, PA 19131-1395
phone: 610-660-1753
fax: 610-660-1284
glee@sju.edu

top

Dear NAPLA Members,

I always knew that NAPLA was an active organization, constantly working to improve pre-law advising and advocating on behalf of our students. However, I never realized just how busy and involved we are until I started my role as president of this venerable body. What follows is a report on what I have been doing for the past two months, which also serves to highlight the extent of our activities in the pre-law world.

To start off, we are getting ready for "Navigating the New Millennium" with our June 2000 Conference in Boston. Jane Levy has some wonderful plans for the conference. Of course, the city is one of our favorites and we will be holding some of our sessions in the new Suffolk Law School building. You should also start making your plans for our first-ever joint conference to be held with SAPLA in 2001 at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Heather Struck, Jane Levy and I went down to do a "site visit," and it is truly a wonderful place setting. The idea of a joint conference (almost a "mini-national") is exciting. As we talked with our counterparts from SAPLA it is evident that we share many of the same concerns, but that we do have differences and there is much that we can learn from each other. We are also hoping to work with LSAC to support attendance from the historically black colleges and thus increase our understanding of diversity issues in advising, admission and placement. Both of these sites also spell "vacation," so plan on bringing your family and staying a while.

The NAPLA Pre-law Advisors Handbook, 2nd edition is ready! New articles, new and up-to-date information, new art work; it will all be mailed to regular members around the first of the year. Many thanks go to the contributors, to Jean Dillon for her editorial guidance and to Frank Homer for his production talents. You will soon be able to see NAPLA on the web, and I really do mean see, as not only will there be a listing of the Board Members and Agents but there will also be their pictures ('mug shots') as well. Maybe there will even be some shots of conferences similar to the ones in the last issue of NAPLA Notes. (Another incentive to attending a conference, your picture on the web, or how to prove to your Dean that you really went!) Chaz Neal is our webmaster and, as any of you know who have attended his technology workshops, he is really an expert in the area of a well-presented and informative web site. There will be more information available when we are officially on line.

Applying to law school is a stressful experience and can also be an expensive one for the majority of our students. In cooperation with LSAC and PLANC we are working toward a clearer definition of the actual meaning of "without penalty" in the LSAC Statement of Good Admissions and Financial Aid Practices. Confusion has arisen, as this term is applied to seat deposits for regular admission acceptance prior to April 1st. We are pleased to hear that the Dean of Hofstra School of Law has stated that "We will no longer require a seat deposit from any accepted student earlier than April 1."

My first PLANC meeting in November in Chicago was a positive one. One item, which will prove helpful to pre-law advisors, is an initiative taken by LSAC to help coordinate the recruitment calendar. They have asked that representatives from each APLA and a law school representative from each APLA region meet to see if better coordination can be achieved. (LSAC will pay expenses.) There will be more on this topic once the group meets.

If you have any questions or comments on the above material, please do not hesitate to contact me and if I can't help you, I can surely put you in touch with someone who can.

Pauline M. Harrington, JD
Political Science Department
Bridgewater College
180 Summer Street
Bridgewater, MA 02325
(508) 531 -2418
fax: (508) 531 -6186

top

NAPLA is completing work on its new web page. The web site will include our online membership directory. If you want to be included, please e-mail Charles Neal at cneal@wmdc.edu. Your e-mail must include the following:

top

When advising applicants about law school, there are many considerations to keep in mind; from making sure that law school is the right career path for any given applicant to determining if a student is competitive enough to get into a school, you can spend hours with each student counseling and exploring various options. Oftentimes, the most difficult applicant to advise is the average one. Figuring out what to do with your average advisee can be difficult. Depending on individual situations, a number of approaches work.

First, it is important to explore with students whether they really want to be a lawyer. Law school is not for everyone. Through the use of career profiling, interest inventories or students' reaction to part-time employment in a law firm, you can guide your advisee toward appropriate career options. Once students settle on lawyering, the next step is helping them define the type of law school for which they are best suited. While everyone wants to attend a top tier law school, the reality is most students will not meet the rigorous standards for admissions. More often than not you will help match a student's ability and interests to a number of fine law schools outside the top tier.

To develop a strategy for the application process begin with finding out a student's GPA and LSAT and matching those numbers to a group of schools with similar numbers. Throw in some "reach" schools but make sure the students have realistic expectations about their admittance possibilities. Additionally, students should apply to "safety" schools-schools where they have a strong possibility of being admitted.

A strong personal statement can make a difference for the average applicant. The essay should be interesting, well-written, mistake-free and include topics such as students' personal experiences or how their education has made an impact on their thinking-anything that distinguishes them from the hundreds, and, in some instances, thousands of applications that are reviewed each year. Statements that accurately describe the applicant or his/her background carry more weight than one that may tell a committee about how many lawyers are in the family or the wonders of the legal profession.

Letters of recommendation also enhance the average applicant's file. Letters from professors or others who know the student well as a student are the most influential. Letters from a family member, a summer employer or a family friend carry little weight. Admission Committees are much more interested in academic performance, and in ideas and creativity.

Finally, as a pre-law advisor, it helps to call the admissions office yourself. Your knowing law school admissions personnel gives you another avenue to help the average student. A phone call from you on a student's behalf with someone at a school where you have developed a relationship flags the applicant's name. If the file is borderline, your call could have an impact.

These are a few suggestions for helping the average student. By working with students to define career goals, to select appropriate schools, to write a strong personal statement, to submit solid letters of recommendation and perhaps by calling the admissions office yourself, you help your advisees present a complete package with the hope they are admitted to the schools best suited for them.

top

Table 1 is a comparison of the CLEO Summer Institutes of the past six years. Although there is a 38 percent decrease in the number of applicants in 1998 as compared with 1993, the rate of applicants to the number of institutes held actually increased. Although there was a decrease in the number of institutes held in 1997, there was an increase in the number of students certified per institute.

Tables 2 to 6 are 1998 CLEO Summer Institute Summary Statistics. In the CLEO program, women constitute a majority of the 1998 entering class. African Americans represent a preponderance of the students certified by CLEO to enter the summer institutes (58.8%), followed by Hispanics (23.6%), Asian Americans (12%), and Native Americans (1.6%). Most of the CLEO summer institute fellows have a GPA of C+ or better. More than 34% have a 3.0 or better GPA; 11.4% have a GPA of 3.51 or better. Thirty-nine percent of CLEO summer institute fellows score between 140 and 144 on the LSAT; 30% score 145 to 149; and 11% score 150 to 154. Approximately 35% of CLEO summer institute fellows reside on the east coast of the United States, followed by the South (30%), and the west coast (18%).Get the CLEO Edge!

Just because "Justice is Blind" is no excuse for starting law school in the dark. Over 90% of all CLEO summer institute participants go on to successful careers in all areas of the legal profession. Since 1968, CLEO has sponsored annual six-week pre-law institutes designed to demystify and shed light on the law school experience. Preparation builds confidence. And CLEO alumni enter law school confident in their ability to succeed having been introduced to the Socratic method of case analysis, legal writing, IRAC (issue, rule, analysis, conclusion), briefing cases, the benefits of study groups, time management, test taking skills, and more. Come into the light. Get the CLEO Edge!

Eligibility Requirements

Applicants must be eligible to attend an ABA-accredited law school; apply to at least one CLEO Consortium on Diversity in Legal Education Member School or Supporting Institution; ("MSSI"); be a United States citizen, permanent resident or citizen of U.S. trust Territories; and be able to devote six weeks to a full-time, intensive pre-law program on a law school campus away from home.

top

Financial Information

All students are encouraged to apply regardless of their financial status. As a non-profit program, CLEO attempts to locate outside funding sources to supplement the cost of the institute. The actual cost to CLEO of the summer institute is approximately $3,000 per student. This includes the following: Room and Board - $1,700; Instructional fee - $750; Books and Materials - $150; Teaching Assistant Salaries - $200; and Institude Administrative Cost-$200 Low income students who are selected to attend the institute pay a fee of $200. Other selected students may participate by paying a $2000 fee. The approprite fee must be received before a student's participation can be confirmed. Transportation to the institute is not included. Federally funded stipends are no longer available.

Application Deadline

February 1st of the year you intend to start law school is the deadline for applying to CLEO. Applications received by November 30 will receive "early admit" status and be processed immediately.

Academic Criteria

The pre-law summer institute is designed to assist all students, primarily those seeking a solid preparation for the first year of law school. Students accepted into the CLEO program have either already been accepted into a law school or are seeking placement assistance into a law school. Those seeking placement assistance usually have academic criteria which are borderline, i.e. LSAT score and GPA which meet a law school's admissions standards, although in the lower percentile, but with other indicators of a strong likelihood for success. Although CLEO is extremely liberal with respect to academic eligibility, it is unlikely that a student with a LSAT score and GPA below 140 and 2.5 would be selected without a strong recommendation from a CLEO MSSI.

top

Admissions Policy

Admission decisions are the responsibility of the CLEO Admissions Director, the Institute Director, and the Admissions Directors of the MSSI. Once your file is complete, CLEO will notify the MSSIs listed on the front of your application, that you (and the other applicants) would like to be nominated to participate in the summer program. Using the list provided by CLEO, the MSSIs review their files to determine which of their applicants would most benefit by participating in CLEO. Nominees are then forwarded to the CLEO national office. Applications are reviewed and decisions are made on a continuing basis. However, a student is not confirmed in the program until his fee has been received by the national office. In an effort to increase diversity in the legal profession, especially for members of underrepresented groups, CLEO considers such factors as age, economic, educational, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds .

Application Procedure

All portions of your application must be submitted together by the deadline. Additionally,

o The application must be completed, signed, and include a $20 application fee (money order only, personal checks can no longer be accepted). No fee waivers will be granted.

o You must register with the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) and order enough reports so that CLEO may request one from LSAC. The CLEO LSDAS Code is 5096.

o The LSAT must be taken by December of the year before you intend to enter law school.

o Your personal statement must be typed or printed and discuss aspects of your background, experience, and aspirations.

o Include four self-addressed, stamped envelopes so that we may notify you of the status of your application.

o All students applying for low income fee participation must submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to the U.S. Department of Education www.ed.gov/ offices/OPE/express.html. The government will verify all financial information, produce a Student Aid Report (SAR), and forward it to the applicant. Applicants must send a copy of their SAR to CLEO to complete their application. A SAR is required for all low-income fee category applicants.

o Optional. Letters of recommendation.

top

Application Sharing Program

This program is designed to ensure that as many students as possible who have obtained a LSAT score/GPA of at least 147/2.7 are admitted to law school. CLEO MSSIs are committed to increasing diversity in the legal profession. Students who qualify for and participate in the Application Sharing Program will have their application forwarded to MSSls as appropriate.

Institute Locations

The location of the CLEO pre-law summer institutes varies from year to year. Most recently, they have been held at DePaul, University of Pittsburgh, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-Columbia, Dickinson, University of Richmond, Valparaiso, Howard, Southern, South Texas, and Northern Illinois. The six-week program begins in early June. Students are generally assigned to the institute closest to their place of permanent residency or the region of their nominating law school.

Non-Discrimination Policy

CLEO does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability regarding admission, access to, treatment, or employment in its programs and activities.

top

CLEO Placement Assistance

CLEO participants who successfully complete the six-week Regional Summer Institute program and demonstrate a probability of success in law school are certified as CLEO Fellows and are eligible to receive law school placement assistance and apply for CLEO sponsored scholarships, (e.g. ABA Business Law Section Scholarship, Lillian Caldwell Lollis book Stipend Award, etc.). Placement assistance is rendered primarily to those participants who have not gained admission to law school either prior to or during the course of the institute. To this end, CLEO institute directors devote substantial energy to secure active consideration of such students by CLEO Member Schools and Supporting Institutions ("MSSIs").

Occasionally, a student who is determined to attend a particular law school participates in the summer program believing that CLEO can secure their admission to the school of his choice. This student may experience disappointment at the end of the program.

There is also a tendency on the part of some applicants to limit their prospects for admission by either 1) applying to too few schools, or 2) their unwillingness to consider schools outside their geographic area; citing family or other reasons for their inability to consider other locales. Students from dense urban metropolises fail to realize that law schools in their regions are normally saturated with applications from highly competitive, credentialled and diverse applicants from which they can be very selective-thus decreasing the chances of admissions for the applicant whose academic indicators are not as strong.

While every effort is made to place 100% of the participants, CLEO can not guarantee that all certified fellows will be admitted to an ABA approved law school at the conclusion of the summer institute.

For applications and additional information, write CLEO, American Bar Association Building, 740 15th Street, NW, 7th floor, Washington, DC 20005. the phone number is 202-662-8630. CLEO's web address is www.abanet.org/cleo.

top

CLEO	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Applicants	1,920	1,300-1	1,300	1,350	900	720
Participants	150	140	120	118	88	124
Institutes	6	6	5	3	2	3
Students Certified	145	139	117	113-4	85	120
Enrolled	142	124-2	124-3	108-5	84-5	112-5

1. Applications dropped because CLEO, for the first time, revealed its financial eligibility requirements, thereby dissuading hundreds of applicants from applying. In both 1993 and 1994, about 800 applicants fell within CLEO's eligibility requirements.

2 Nine students deferred enrollment until the next year. Six were unplaced because law schools were over subscribed and/or lack of available financial aid.

3 Three certified students elected not to enroll.

4 Students were no longer certified after 1995. This figure represents the approximate number of students who completed the program.

5 Maintaining accurate records of student enrollment and continued status became more difficult after 1995. An analysis of the available data indicates that between 90% - 95% of those completing the program enrolled in law school.

	Number	Percent
Female	78	63%
Male	46	37%

		African		Asian	Native
	White	American	Hispanic	American	American
Number in Institute	5	73	28	15	2
Percent	4.0%	58.8%	23.6%	12%	1.6%

	Number	Percent
below 2.00	2	1.6%
2.00 - 2.50	10	8.2%
2.51 - 3.00	55	44.7%
3.01 - 3.50	42	34.1%
3.51 - 4.00	14	11.4%

* Please note there was no GPA for one foreign student

	Number	Percent
below 134	1	1 %
135 - 139	12	10%
140 - 144	49	39%
145 - 149	37	30%
150 - 154	13	11%
155 - 159	10	8%
160 and above	1	1%

	North	South	East	West	Central
Number in Institute	9	37	43	22	13
Percent	7%	30%	35%	18%	10%

North	MI, WI
South	AL, DC, FL, GA, LA, MD, MS, SC, TX, VA
East	CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA
West	AZ, CA, HI, NM, NV, UT, WA
Central	IL, IN, MO, NE, OH, OK

top

Beginning November 20, 1999, the Law School Admission Council will introduce a new service which will allow candidates to check the status of their LSAC file online. There is no fee for this service.

This new service will provide candidates with the following up-to-date information:

o confirmation of an LSAT registration or an LSDAS subscription
o receipt of undergraduate, graduate and other transcripts by school name
o receipt of letters of recommendation by recommender's name
o the names of law schools that have requested an LSAT/LSDAS report and the date the reports were sent
o account balance information
o any hold on the file that may prevent reports from being issued
o the expiration date of their LSAC account

Candidates can access this service from LSAC's homepage (www.lsac.org) by clicking on "Online Services" and then selecting the option "Your LSAC file." Users will be asked to enter a user ID (their Social Security Number or Social Insurance Number) and their unique four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN). Thank you for your assistance in this matter. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Robert J.Meshanko, Director of Candidate Services, by telephone at (215) 968-1195, or by e-mail at rmeshanko@lsac.org.

top

As the year 2000 Presidential nomination campaigns have geared up, the pundits have started pontificating and the spin-doctors have launched their propaganda programs, I have been perusing the writings of one of the U.S. Presidents I most admire, Theodore Roosevelt. Our 26th President, the rampant bull moose who spoke softly and carried a big stick, once made an observation that bears repeating here:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

The archaic gender-specific references aside, I can think of no one who has worked in the arena of law school admissions who better personifies Roosevelt's musings than Claudia Tomlin. Throughout my years as a pre-law advisor and all during my association with WAPLA, it has been my genuine pleasure to have been associated with her.

Claudia Tomlin, a long-time, hard-working officer of WAPL A, has gone on to other things following the "great devotion" she has long spent in a "worthy cause" and thus earning "the high achievement of triumph." After many years of consistent, dedicated service to the University of Denver College of Law, Claudia has left D-U to start a graduate program of study at the University of Colorado. Most certainly, D-U's loss will indeed be C-U's gain.

I know I represent many others in WAPLA, Claudia, when I indicate we will truly miss your extremely good sense of humor, your diligence, your insight, your candor tempered with politeness and dignity and your levelheadedness. Those generations of students you have helped certainly thank you too for not having been one of "those timid and cold souls" Roosevelt was rightly quick to dismiss. Your sound financial stewardship, unbiased leadership and hard work have set fine examples for others to follow. Your shoes will be hard for others to fill. It has been an honor to have been associated with you. Best of luck!

Martin D. Sommerness
Northern Arizona University

top

First impressions, right or wrong, do count. My first impression of Beth was that of a very dynamic, highly professional and quite gracious person. That impression was formed on April 21, 1985, over fourteen years ago. My perception was correct then, and nothing has changed, or changed my mind, since then.

On that particular April day, the newly formed PLANC was meeting in California and had designated as one of its priority items the reincarnation of a west coast pre-law advisors association. Beth had invited us to meet at Boalt Hall with some area pre-law advisors. Her interest in pre-law advising came through very clearly and as a result of her leadership, along with that of some dedicated pre-law advisors in the area, PCAPLA was formed. The next evening, by the way, she had the entire PLANC Board to her home for dinner. We will never forget that wonderful Japanese dinner, our gracious host, and standing on her deck looking out over San Francisco Bay.

Twelve years ago when Beth came to Newtown as Associate Director for Admission, Education and Pre-Law Programs, there was much rejoicing among both pre-law advisors and her admissions colleagues alike. Testimonies to her performance in this role abound. As Phil Shelton wrote, "Beth is a great friend of pre-law advisors in this country and truly gave that constituency a voice at the table when important decisions were made with LSAC."

As her worthy successor and a former admissions officer herself, Anne Brandt, has written, "Beth Cobb O'Neill serves as mentor and friend to generations of admission professionals throughout the country. From newcomers to seasoned admission officers, Beth is the person our profession looks to for advice and wise counsel."

Anne continues, "In her twelve years of service, she helped shape the Law School Admission Council's relationship with both admissions professionals and pre-law advisors, and understands the value of their shared goals. Having come to LSAC from a position as a law school admissions officer, Beth was highly qualified to understand how the cooperation of laws schools and pre-law advisors benefits prospective students. She has worked constantly to provide services and support to pre-law advisors and to keep them informed about LSAC." Another admission officer and beneficiary of Beth's experience and knowledge, Melanie Nutt wrote, "I can't tell you the number of times I called her with questions or to just get her take on a problem. She was always patient and good natured, even though I'm sure she had heard the same question a million times." Many of us as pre-law advisors have had similar experiences with Beth.

Beth's professionalism throughout all her career and her patience with all of us are well complemented by her passion for the advancement of fair and equal access to American law schools. As Phil Shelton summarized it, "Her lifetime commitment to the concept of fair and equal access challenges all of us to work harder to advance goals to which she devoted her professional life."

Law Services, and all of us in this business, will miss what one articulate observer has labeled "Beth's indomitable energy and special perspective." Yet somehow or another, none of us can quite picture Beth riding off into the sunset, even a California sunset. We wish her well but hope, we know, we will continue to share her wisdom and wit. From all of us, thanks for everything, Beth.

Gerald Lee Wilson
Duke University

top

The National Association for Law Placement has completed its fifth comprehensive survey of associate compensation with the 1999 Associate Salary Survey report. Over 660 offices (30% of which had 50 or fewer attorneys) provided salary information as of April 1, 1999.

The median salary for first-year associates ranged from $51,000 in firms of 2-25 attorneys to $85,000 in firms of 251 attorneys or more, with a first-year median for all participating firms of $70,000. A comparison with figures reported 16 months earlier, as of January 1998, shows a dramatic increase in first-year salaries, especially in larger firms. In firms of 101-250 attorneys, the $70,000 median is $10,000 higher than in January of 1998. The median salary in firms of 251 or more attorneys also rose by $10,000.

As expected, each year of associate experience brings several thousand dollars in increased compensation: median salaries for eighth-year associates ranged from $90,000 in small firms to $114,142 in large firms, with a median for all participating firms of $100,000.

The volume of data allowed analyses for 32 individual cities as well as many additional states and regions not encompassed by those cities. These analyses reveal a wide range of law firm compensation. For example, the median salary for first-year associates in all firms of over 251 attorneys in the Northeast was $95,000, with reported salaries ranging from $72,000 to $107,000. For firms of 251 or more in the West, the median first-year salary was $89,500, with reported salaries ranging from $62,000 to $105,000. In comparison, while a first-year associate in a large firm in Washington, D.C. might earn in excess of $91,000, the median salary for a first-year associate in Columbus, Ohio was $50,000. Contrasts between large cities and smaller metropolitan areas are also evident. The median salary for a fourth-year associate in New York City was $130,000; for firms reporting from other areas of New York State, the median was $63,450.

The l999 survey was the first to request information on salaries for intellectual property (IP) attorneys specifically. Although the reporting of IP salaries was far more limited, the data suggest that IP attorneys command a premium of about $15,000 and that firms of 51-250 attorneys pay better in this field than either smaller or larger firms.

The survey also reports the aggregate compensation and bonus systems at participating firms and the prevalence and size of bonuses for prior judicial clerks. Aggregate compensation includes bonuses in addition to base pay. For first-year associates aggregate compensation ranged from $35,000 to $114,500 nationwide. Among the findings regarding bonus systems: 56% of firms use a discretionary basis as one means of determining eligibility for bonuses. Over two-thirds of firms of 2-25 do so, compared with 48% of firms of 251 or more attorneys. Many firms (46%) use "meeting fixed goals" as a determinate of eligibility, and for this factor the frequency is reversed-33% of small firms consider this factor, while 58% of the largest firms do so. Bonus amounts were based on various factors, the most common of which were merit/performance (74% of offices offering associates bonuses), billable hours (58%), and discretion (47%). About one-quarter of the firms reported paying a bonus to prior judicial clerks, with large firms most likely to offer bonuses. Bonuses of $5,000-$10,000 were most typical.

The detailed results of the survey, including medians, averages and ranges of base salaries for associates through the eighth year, aggregate compensation for associates, and comparisons of compensation structures, have been published in the 1999 Associate Salary Survey. The report is available from NALP for $95. Visit NALP's web site at www.nalp.org or call the NALP office at 202-667-1666 for additional information.

top

The March 1999 issue of Philadelphia Magazine highlighted, by specialty, the Quaker City's best lawyers The sub-title of the article heralded them as "[t]he best, brightest, wiliest, winningest, most tenacious and efficacious attorneys in a city with more than its share. . ." For those advisors who might want their students to achieve this acclaim sometime in the future, we thought it helpful to identify the law schools that produced these high fliers.

A review of Martindale-Hubbell on line produced school data for all but nine of the 154 "best lawyers."

University of Pennsylvania	35	24%
Temple University	30	21%
Villanova University	20	14%
Harvard University	16	11%
Columbia University	5	3%
New York University	5	3%
Yale University	4	3%

These seven schools in toto accounted for 115 (or 80%) of the 145 attorneys for which M-H had information. None of the other Pennsylvania law schools had more than 2 in the ranks of the top attorneys.

The range of undergraduate schools attended was more broad, but UPenn dominated this category as well, with Temple again in the runner-up slot.

University of Pennsylvania	33	23%
Temple University	17	12%
Harvard University	7	5%
Haverford College	6	4%
Yale University	6	4%
Villanova University	5	3%
Columbia University	4	3%
Princeton University	4	3%
Pennsylvania State University	3	2%
Saint Joseph's University	3	2%
Swarthmore College	3	2%

Of the 33 Penn grads, 16 matriculated at Penn's law school and 6 went up North Broad Street to Temple. Temple undergraduates were even more likely to stay at home, with 11 of them attending Temple's law school. Four Temple Owls chose Penn for law school.

Of undergraduate schools not listed above, no institution placed more than two among the elite attorneys of Philadelphia. The University of Scranton was the only Pennsylvania school, not listed above, to have two of its alumni in the select circle. Excluding Virginia, Texas and Michigan (and Temple and Penn State listed above in the undergraduate chart), only five attorneys earned undergraduate degrees at state schools and about a similar number went to non-prestige private schools. The remaining fifty or so attorneys attended schools that can be classified either as Ivy league, quasi-Ivy league or prestigious liberal arts. As if pre-law advisors and admissions officers did not already know, the numbers clearly show we are not all equal!

Francis Graham Lee
Saint Joseph's University

top

Linda Hirshman is currently a professor of philosophy at Brandeis University. Prior to that she was a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law and practiced law in Chicago.

Although one wonders whether the average applicant needs 290 pages of material to inform herself of how to apply, get accepted, and survive in law school, and land a job afterwards, still, despite this caveat, Hirshman has produced a very readable, accurate guide to the process that asks and answers questions that many male pre-law advisors-and perhaps several on the distaff side as well-might either not raise or be able to answer.

The chapter entitled "How to Pick a Compatible Law School" tackles an issue that many NAPLA Conference planners have struggled unsuccessfully with: how to go about discerning the different character of law schools that, in terms of quantitative factors, seem similar. Hirshman brings a properly skeptical outlook to reading school catalogs and skewers those schools that feature widely disproportionate numbers of women and minorities in their viewbooks as opposed to the real numbers in their classes. Much of the chapter is directed to helping students look for courses and faculty ratios and faculty politics that can give a better idea of the character of the overall school.

For those willing to ignore the LSAC's warning and to risk their health with a another set of law school rankings, Hirshman presents the "Femscore." Among the factors that determine this score are the percentage of women who make law review as a percentage of the women eligible and a similar figure for the percentage of women who are members of the Order of the Coif. Generally, Hirshman finds that women do better at public institutions, those with significant minority populations, and schools located in the north or west.

Although I rather doubt Professor Hirshman and I would agree as to whom President Bush should nominate to the Court in 2001, we would agree that this book should be on every pre-law advisor's bookshelf with a few copies in the bookstore for the more self-reliant of our pre-law students.

Archive top