Products Liability Law Forum

[thinkbig]

http://legalcareers.about.com/od/legals ... tsliab.htm

Please forgive my ignorance...
Is this a real practice area? It doesn't seem to be a program of specialization per se that law schools offer. What is required to get into this legal area? Is there a specific legal focus or background that would be more conducive to a career in products liability law? What are the job prospects like in this area?

[jrock12]

yes it is a real area. it is not advertised as a real specialty basically because its not. i'm sure there are advanced course offerings if you so desire, but its usually covered in a first year torts class

[fornicator]

http://legalcareers.about.com/od/legals ... tsliab.htm

Please forgive my ignorance...
Is this a real practice area? It doesn't seem to be a program of specialization per se that law schools offer. What is required to get into this legal area? Is there a specific legal focus or background that would be more conducive to a career in products liability law? What are the job prospects like in this area?

Yeah, it's a huge practice area, and very lucrative for people who do it well (though be prepared for abject poverty if you suck at it.) As far as skills go, it'd be useful to have some knowledge of science or engineering (so you could understand how different products work, how they could have been designed non-defectively, know what questions to ask your expert witnesses, etc), but that's not absolutely necessary.

[thinkbig]

http://legalcareers.about.com/od/legals ... tsliab.htm

Please forgive my ignorance...
Is this a real practice area? It doesn't seem to be a program of specialization per se that law schools offer. What is required to get into this legal area? Is there a specific legal focus or background that would be more conducive to a career in products liability law? What are the job prospects like in this area?

Yeah, it's a huge practice area, and very lucrative for people who do it well (though be prepared for abject poverty if you suck at it.) As far as skills go, it'd be useful to have some knowledge of science or engineering (so you could understand how different products work, how they could have been designed non-defectively, know what questions to ask your expert witnesses, etc), but that's not absolutely necessary.

Thanks for the explanation. Would a focus on any particular practice area (say, litigation or intellectual property) in law school give an edge? What sorts of clinical programs / internships / externships would provide the most relevant practical experience?

[fornicator]

http://legalcareers.about.com/od/legals ... tsliab.htm

Please forgive my ignorance...
Is this a real practice area? It doesn't seem to be a program of specialization per se that law schools offer. What is required to get into this legal area? Is there a specific legal focus or background that would be more conducive to a career in products liability law? What are the job prospects like in this area?

Yeah, it's a huge practice area, and very lucrative for people who do it well (though be prepared for abject poverty if you suck at it.) As far as skills go, it'd be useful to have some knowledge of science or engineering (so you could understand how different products work, how they could have been designed non-defectively, know what questions to ask your expert witnesses, etc), but that's not absolutely necessary.

Thanks for the explanation. Would a focus on any particular practice area (say, litigation or intellectual property) in law school give an edge? What sorts of clinical programs / internships / externships would provide the most relevant practical experience?

IP would not help at all. Products liability practice is 99% litigation (the other 1% is just structuring insurance agreements with litigation elements in mind), so yeah, a litigation background would definitely be helpful. If you really want to practice in that area, you should ace your torts and civ pro courses first year, take a products liability course your second year, and fill out your 2L/3L schedule with insurance, trial ad, conflicts, fed courts, advanced civ pro, ADR, and remedies. Commercial law/UCC/bankruptcy/M&A courses could also be tangentially helpful, because products liability issues often come up in commercial disputes (e.g., whether one company accepted the products liability of another, what happened to the pending products liability claims against GM when it went bankrupt, etc). Environmental law is also implicated, because the EPA regulates certain products whose harm is, well, environmental (e.g., a gas stove that seeps natural gas into the water supply).

[270910]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

[thinkbig]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

What about USNWR rankings of Top X Programs? What about the various specialty certificates that most law schools offer? Are these all meaningless? I mean, if you want to practice IP, for example, wouldn't you have better prospects as a graduate of Boalt or Stanford with IP specialization, than some other top school without the reputation for IP (say, Northwestern or something)?

I know I'm really just displaying my ignorance here, but that's fine. I'm just trying to learn the reality.

[270910]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

What about USNWR rankings of Top X Programs? What about the various specialty certificates that most law schools offer? Are these all meaningless? I mean, if you want to practice IP, for example, wouldn't you have better prospects as a graduate of Boalt or Stanford with IP specialization, than some other top school without the reputation for IP (say, Northwestern or something)?

I know I'm really just displaying my ignorance here, but that's fine. I'm just trying to learn the reality.

The 'top X' rankings are a crock of shit .The specialty certificates are a crock of shit.

IP is slightly different, it's one specialty that clearly has its own requirements (notably pre-law school requirements, however).

I don't mean to berate your or make fun of your ignorance. I'm just kind of a jerk.

But yeah, specialty rankings are almost entirely meaningless for employment prospects. A school with programs and strong faculty in an area you might be interested could mean more exposure to help you choose what you do with your career... but employers care about your school's overall reputation + your first year grades and little else for the kind of employment most law students are seeking (big firms, prestigious PI, federal government, clerkships, etc.0

[fornicator]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

What about USNWR rankings of Top X Programs? What about the various specialty certificates that most law schools offer? Are these all meaningless? I mean, if you want to practice IP, for example, wouldn't you have better prospects as a graduate of Boalt or Stanford with IP specialization, than some other top school without the reputation for IP (say, Northwestern or something)?

I know I'm really just displaying my ignorance here, but that's fine. I'm just trying to learn the reality.

Yes, USNews rankings of Top X programs are completely meaningless. Two very narrow exceptions: (1) tax LLM programs (NYU, Florida and Georgetown are the only ones that anyone takes seriously); and (2) IP (Stanford, Berkeley, and GW are the only ones that really stick out though). Other than that, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by paying any attention whatsoever to those rankings.

[thinkbig]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

What about USNWR rankings of Top X Programs? What about the various specialty certificates that most law schools offer? Are these all meaningless? I mean, if you want to practice IP, for example, wouldn't you have better prospects as a graduate of Boalt or Stanford with IP specialization, than some other top school without the reputation for IP (say, Northwestern or something)?

I know I'm really just displaying my ignorance here, but that's fine. I'm just trying to learn the reality.

Yes, USNews rankings of Top X programs are completely meaningless. Two very narrow exceptions: (1) tax LLM programs (NYU, Florida and Georgetown are the only ones that anyone takes seriously); and (2) IP (Stanford, Berkeley, and GW are the only ones that really stick out though). Other than that, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by paying any attention whatsoever to those rankings.

So I shouldn't pay $39k/yr to go to John Marshall since they have the 6th best legal writing program in the nation???

[270910]

OP, you can't do anything in law school that will prepare you for practice. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not by a lot. People don't major or specialize meaningfully in law school. You don't graduate with a specialization in lit or IP or anything, and employers usually don't care about your coursework.

What about USNWR rankings of Top X Programs? What about the various specialty certificates that most law schools offer? Are these all meaningless? I mean, if you want to practice IP, for example, wouldn't you have better prospects as a graduate of Boalt or Stanford with IP specialization, than some other top school without the reputation for IP (say, Northwestern or something)?

I know I'm really just displaying my ignorance here, but that's fine. I'm just trying to learn the reality.

Yes, USNews rankings of Top X programs are completely meaningless. Two very narrow exceptions: (1) tax LLM programs (NYU, Florida and Georgetown are the only ones that anyone takes seriously); and (2) IP (Stanford, Berkeley, and GW are the only ones that really stick out though). Other than that, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by paying any attention whatsoever to those rankings.

So I shouldn't pay $39k/yr to go to John Marshall since they have the 6th best legal writing program in the nation???

I pray to God that was sarcasm.

[thinkbig]

So I shouldn't pay $39k/yr to go to John Marshall since they have the 6th best legal writing program in the nation???

I pray to God that was sarcasm.

LOL. (yup)