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Full-Text Articles in Legal Profession
Shining The Spotlight On Unpaid Law Student Workers, Susan Harthill
Shining The Spotlight On Unpaid Law Student Workers, Susan Harthill
Susan Harthill
Shining the Spotlight on UNPAID LAW STUDENT Workers Susan Harthill Abstract Law students who ‘intern’ at for-profit law firms across the United States do a fair day’s work but do not always get a fair day’s pay. Unpaid student interns have long been a well-utilized labor source in the non-profit world, public agencies, and in certain for-profit sectors, such as entertainment and media. Indeed, some unpaid internships are mutually beneficial arrangements for the student and the employer; the student gets hands-on training in an industry that might be difficult to break into, has useful work experience on her resume, and …
Bad Briefs, Bad Law, Bad Markets: Documenting The Poor Quality Of Plaintiffs’ Briefs, Its Impact On The Law, And The Market Failure It Reflects, Scott A. Moss
Scott A Moss
For a major field, employment discrimination suffers surprisingly low-quality plaintiff’s lawyering. This Article details a study of several hundred summary judgment briefs, finding as follows: (1) the vast majority of plaintiffs’ briefs omit available caselaw rebutting key defense arguments, many falling far below basic professional standards with incoherent writing or no meaningful research; (2) low-quality briefs lose at over double the rate of good briefs; and (3) bad briefs skew caselaw evolution, because even controlling for won/loss rate, bad plaintiffs’ briefs far more often yield decisions crediting debatable defenses. These findings are puzzling; in a major legal service market, how …