Don't Get Overwhelmed by Negative Media Reports

Since you are already in law school (I guess you wouldn't be reading this article unless you were) let's get something straight – your entire career is going to be affected if you allow yourself to be overwhelmed by negative reports about law schools or the market for jobs. It is expected that the media is going to highlight negative reports more often than positive reports, because of both their shock value, as well as wide implications.
 

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However, just as predictions about the Mayan Apocalypse did not lead to the end of the world, so negative predictions about the job market will not mean the end of your life.

Yes, it is the truth that the job market for new law graduates is bleak, but it is also the truth that this year year-end-bonuses at law firms have made a giant leap compared to the previous years. And it is also the truth that the economy is correcting itself and all the negative media reports are compelling the entire legal education system to sit back and rethink strategies in a student centric way.

However, if you allow negative reports about the economy and the state of the market in legal jobs to overwhelm you, it is going to affect your career, because it would be difficult for you to do as well as you would have in exams under ordinary circumstances.

Just a few days back, eight New York law schools posted a big decrease in their Bar exam pass rates. In New York Law School, the bar pass rate dropped by almost 10 points from 2011 to a pass rate of 70%.

So, who's to blame? I believe, it is all the bad press and lawsuits New York Law School has been getting over allegation of employment data manipulation. It is difficult to study in the same law school and be insulated against negative media reports, unless you steel yourself and decide not to pay heed.

That's a conscious decision every law student needs to take.

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As they say, there's no use crying over spilt milk, but you got to make the best of what is left. And for law students, they need to make the best of whatever is there, and that does not seem so bad according to the latest trends. Law firm bonuses are increasing, law school admissions are dropping. Supply and demand is on the way to finding its balance.

I believe that the real reason, for New York Law School graduates this year doing so dismally at the bar exam, is that many, if not most examinees were overwhelmed by negative reports in the media about the job market, and about the law school. I mean, if you look at it, it is difficult to find any other reason.

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The dean of the New York Law School, Anthony Crowell says he's formed a task force of 11 people to conduct “a top-to-bottom review” of the class that sat for the bar exam in July. He is stunned, because, as he says, “The credentials of the class that just took the July exam are consistent with the class that had the 94 percent pass rate.”

So? The school was the same, the credentials of the students were the same, the bar was the same, but a drop of 24 percent in bar exam pass rates is something so much out of the ordinary that one needs to look for a reason. And the only reason, that I see, is that students and fresh law graduates allowed their minds to be overwhelmed by the negative reports in the media. Doing that has permanently hurt the careers of a big number of law graduates who sat for the July bar exam in New York.

So, in whichever law school might you be studying, my advice is not to fret over something you can't do anything about. You know (now) that fretting can do only one thing – it can hurt your career personally, by affecting your concentration and your chances of success at the bar exam, or any other exam or interview, for that matter.

As in the profession, one needs to detach one's self from the personal pains of clients in order to retain objective judgment of the situation and provide quality service, so also law students today, need to detach themselves from distasteful truths about the job market or their law schools, in order to serve their own careers.

That's the way I see it.

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