AVE MARIA LAW SCHOOL Forum

[redsoxfan77]

Regardless of how important you feel Catholicism is or has been in informing your personal, life choices, the harsh reality is that religion of any flavor has very little to do with the study and practice of law. Accordingly, to let it inform your choice of law school is nearly as pointless as deciding based on the sports teams or the size of the quad. In fact, there is a litany of reasons to ignore the degree to which a law school will protect your delicate world-view, not the least of which is how difficult it will be to maintain that world view when your God allows your future go up in brimstone-scented flames of eternal and unforgivable debt.

Also: lolreligion.

Yeah, don't think you quite understand what I've been talking about this whole time. Thanks for the effort! =)

Also: lolbatman

[Chupavida]

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[kalvano]

This thread is awesome.

And that article that was posted about the rise and fall of Ave Maria is quite interesting. Even if you haven't been following the thread or are interested in Ave Maria, you should check out the story.

[redsoxfan77]

What is hard to understand about your desire to attend a conservative Catholic law school? Several of your posts made it quite clear that it was one, if not the determining, factor in your decision.

It's a factor. It's not the determining one most likely, but yeah it's a consideration.

The point that has been made in this thread by nearly every poster is that where legal practice and law school are concerned, there are far more important factors than the degree to which a university aligns itself with your particular ideology.

And this is something that I haven't disagreed with. The way it was expressed I might take issue with. Usually if the arguments showed little or no though. IE saying Ave sucks with nothing to back it up.

You should be worrying about whether or not you'll get a job after graduation, not whether or not you'll have a chance to attend mass in the main auditorium every sunday, or whether or not your professors agree with you that giving condoms away in Africa to mitigate the spread of HIV is an abomination in the eyes of God. Take the pragmatic approach: Have you looked at the kinds of lawyers the church employs, and where they graduated from? I'd be willing to wager that when all those child molestation lawsuits come knocking, the Pope doesn't draw on Ave Maria grads to staff the legal team, but rather looks to firms employing lawyers who attended heathen institutions like Harvard or Yale. I seem to remember an article about that recently, it might behoove you to take a look at it.

Who says I'm not thinking about employment after graduation? I'm stilled puzzled why people seem so afraid to say screw it, I'll toss the dice and start my own practice. As for other comments I found this to be interesting. --LinkRemoved-- Good thing that they'll go to the firms first. You are spot on about that heathen comment though. I mean with such heathens such as Avery Dulles, and John F. Kennedy graduating from Harvard and that flaming heretic Clarence Thomas graduating from Yale it does appear that the Devil is again loose in New England.

And Batman is way cooler than God.

Pssshhhh.

[Grizz]

I'm stilled puzzled why people seem so afraid to say screw it, I'll toss the dice and start my own practice.

In one sentence, law school doesn't teach you how to practice law.

Also, gargantuan malpractice risk, lack of capital to start a business, no network of clients, no network of attorneys to bring clients.

But mainly you have no idea how to actually practice law.

[General Tso]

I'm stilled puzzled why people seem so afraid to say screw it, I'll toss the dice and start my own practice.

In one sentence, law school doesn't teach you how to practice law.

Also, gargantuan malpractice risk, lack of capital to start a business, no network of clients, no network of attorneys to bring clients.

But mainly you have no idea how to actually practice law.

how large is the risk of malpractice? my feeling is that legal malpractice is probably quite rare...

[Mickey Quicknumbers]

I'm stilled puzzled why people seem so afraid to say screw it, I'll toss the dice and start my own practice.

In one sentence, law school doesn't teach you how to practice law.

Also, gargantuan malpractice risk, lack of capital to start a business, no network of clients, no network of attorneys to bring clients.

But mainly you have no idea how to actually practice law.

how large is the risk of malpractice? my feeling is that legal malpractice is probably quite rare...

For someone who has no freaking clue how they're doing? Probably higher than you would think.

[redsoxfan77]

Ok, so lack of knowledge of how to actually practice law and malpractice seem to be the biggest fears. I guess I find that surprising, but it makes sense.

[dresden doll]

Ok, so lack of knowledge of how to actually practice law and malpractice seem to be the biggest fears. I guess I find that surprising, but it makes sense.

And lack of client base. Why would anyone pick you when there's a billion experienced solo practitioners to choose from? Also, where's your capital for starting the business?

[redsoxfan77]

And lack of client base. Why would anyone pick you when there's a billion experienced solo practitioners to choose from? Also, where's your capital for starting the business?

Things to keep in mind to be sure. It would seem though that I really don't have anymore questions about Ave now. Thanks everyone.

[sundance95]

how large is the risk of malpractice? my feeling is that legal malpractice is probably quite rare...

Having worked in midlaw as a paralegal, I can tell you that there are thousands of terrible, terrible attorneys, and they commit malpractice quite frequently-but their clients are usually too clueless to do anything about it.

[General Tso]

how large is the risk of malpractice? my feeling is that legal malpractice is probably quite rare...

Having worked in midlaw as a paralegal, I can tell you that there are thousands of terrible, terrible attorneys, and they commit malpractice quite frequently-but their clients are usually too clueless to do anything about it.

My thoughts exactly, having worked in a small firm and having seen many many mistakes. Most of these mom-and-pop clients will barely part with $3,000 for a will, do you really think they are going to dole out tens of thousands on a malpractice suit?

There are real challenges with opening a solo practice, but malpractice is probably a minor risk.

[dutchtowner]

Un/Valid critiques are

1. Job prospects being God-awful. Fairly valid. 82% job placement after 9 months could be better as could salary. Is it "God-awful" I would say not. Then again I apparently notice a fairy tale like mentality of what happens after law school. That this great $150,000 a year job is brought to you by a knight on a white horse. To paraphrase another on the threads here. It's the job market during a depression not the special olympics.

4. There is no alumni network, and based on the first 3 reasons, there never will be one to any notable degree- A partially valid critique. I actually used that argument to explain why initially jobs would be harder to find after Ave. What is not valid is basing the future alumni network based on 3 years worth of history. That is actually quite nonsensical.

5. a school with no mobility in a state where networking is the key to getting a job, critique 4 gets a whole lot scarier - Not particularly valid. Recycled arguments that had been valid, but ignores the actual mobility of the Ave student.

7. it is one of the few law schools in the nation without top-quality staff - Not a valid response. This statement is not backed up in any way and cannot be, given your ignorance of many of the programs that have member ship in the ABA. What would have been a valid response is that there is not a well recognized staff.

It is clear from reading your response that you have little or no actual relevant knowledge of the program and have just based your assumptions on unfit rumors. The only actual valid critiques that you had made were ones I had previously mentioned myself in this very same thread. At least you seem to be trying to contribute to the conversation. It's just that your ignorance is keeping you from adding anything worthwhile.

I don't feel like rebutting all these, so i'm just going to post some more of my ignorance for you

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... maria.html

here's a good article, if you don't actually feel like reading, can take note that Ave Maria's peer assessment scores were dead-last in the nation last year
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/20 ... d-ave.html

and perhaps a brief history of the school:
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?p=6541640

thanks for these links. I came here looking for info on this particular school and am glad to have found this thread; it helped me avoid a mistake. I'll apply elsewhere.

Dutch