New York Law School has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that the school provided deceptive employment data. And lo and behold, its lead counsel is a NYLS graduate. Perhaps this is just a random fact, but the folks at ATL have gone after a couple law schools - namely Thomas Cooley and the University of Illinois - for failing to retain their own grads when they needed help with a high-profile legal problem.
I suspect that ATL has had notable impact on the conduct of many law school administrators. If nothing else, deans think twice before pressing the send button on a school-wide email. To me, the decision of NYLS to hire its own grad, Michael Volpe - who, given his expertise in labor and employment law, is perhaps not the first person you'd think of to defend you in this case - is a visible indication of the influence of Lat and Mystal.
And hey: it's great news for Volpe as well, apparently. Venable has already edited his bio to reflect the fact that "he is currently defending New York Law School in the much publicized case concerning the publication of post-graduation employment statistics."
It turns out that hiring your own grad isn't just good optics for the law school; it's good for the alum as well.
Update: To be sure, the case involves labor and employment. Just not labor and employment law.
I have no doubt that it is attributable to Mystal's influence, but I have serious doubt that this type of nepotistic preference is good for anybody in the long run. First, it has all the problems of protectionism -- a person chosen not for their expertise but because they are your own graduate is presumably less competent than a person chosen for expertise, even though of course there will be exceptions and this might be one of them. More importantly, from the perspective of optics (which is what NYLS is presumably really interested in), how long before the sarcastic comment changes from "even the law school won't hire their own grads" to "those grads have to resort to getting work from their own law school"?
Posted by: TJ | October 18, 2011 at 04:15 PM
TJ, being a Venable partner with NYLS as your client is far, far different than having no job lined up after the bar exam and going back to work for the NYLS Center on Basket Weaving Law & Policy.
Also, how can a law school honestly encourage its alumni to hire fellow alumni (as my school does) if it's not going to take its own advice? Besides, you don't think the same kind of nepotistic behavior happens between Harvard grads?
Posted by: lawyer | October 18, 2011 at 07:42 PM
lawyer, I am perfectly well aware that this kind of nepotistic behavior happens in every place in every age. Doesn't mean it is a good thing in the long run.
Posted by: TJ | October 18, 2011 at 08:38 PM