Yes, some people who go to law school would like to practice in the public interest.

But instead, they end up going into corporate law because they have big loans to pay or other financial obligations.

What I see and hear from students more often is not this, however. What I see and hear is that law students want a wider range of options for using their law degree in ways that support their goals, values, aspirations, the quality of life they seek.

This may be serving the public.

Or not. Folks want to do good with their degree, yes.

But,

Powerful to see @edgeofempty and colleagues taking about how to build a strong data culture in legal aid orgs at @LSCtweets’ #LSCITC!

We will revisit this topic in the closing session #TalkJustice podcast recording. If you’re curious about the elements of a strong data culture:

- Commitment

- Quality data

- Staffing

#LSCITC

This article by @kathrynemyoung considers the upstream causes of the decline in mental health that starts in law school.

Prof. Young talked to law students to discover and document the changes they experienced in motivation, happiness, hopefulness & overall mental health 👇 during 1L in law school.

"Students enter law school with unexceptional psychological profiles: on average, they are no more or no less happy or healthy than demographically similar peers who are not in law school."

👇

AND, given the current HIGH rate of high stress/anxiety amongst law students, should we not be considering upstream causes as well?

Apparently, we've known since the 1960s that the way we educate lawyers is fraught.

Yet, here we are. Educating lawyers like it's the 1960s.

https://twitter.com/TheLSSSE/status/1464689488098123783

"The study of mental health of law students can be traced back to the late 1960s when research published in the Wisconsin Law Review found that 'failure anxiety' has been a serious impediment for first-year law students’ ability to study.

👇

Yes, I'm laser focused on how lawyers lead—how we *learn* to lead—as I prep to teach just this to @vanderbiltlaw students, and . . .

As I read @jaesunum's post on @Legal_Ev, all I can think: we are failing to train lawyers to make these important moral (yes, moral) decisions.👇 I genuinely question whether we train law students and lawyers to operate in the way Jae urges us to.

Note, I agree with Jae: "Big business and their legal counsel have the opportunity to steer capitalism to a gentler and fairer recovery, but the clock is ticking.
👇

We're steeped in racist and classist exclusion and perhaps those who now insist the exam must be protected at all costs don't realize this.

Well, you do now. The truth is being told.

With this truth comes power and incentive to make change NOW.

No reason exists to wait.

1/

https://twitter.com/jordanlcouch/status/1304173286260056065

"South Carolina offered diploma privilege until 1950. When the first class of African Americans was set to graduate from law school, a bill was proposed in the South Carolina General Assembly to require bar passage for the purpose

2/

#thread on the perils of workplace knowledge-hiding:

"firms with a high-trust environment, where employees can collaboratively and transparently share knowledge, gain stock returns two to three times higher than the industry average and have 50% lower turnover rates" "When we deliberately withhold or conceal information from each other, we are doing something called 'knowledge hiding,' an action that can take several different forms."