Legal Profession Commons^™

Big Law’S Prisoner’S Dilemma: The Race To The Bottom In Legal Recruitment, Nicholas M. Kriak

University of Miami Business Law Review

The acceleration of Big Law’s recruitment timeline has transformed entry into the legal profession into a collective-action crisis, a modern Prisoner’s Dilemma in which each law firm acts rationally to recruit earlier, yet the collective result is an irrational system that harms all stakeholders. As competition intensifies, the profession’s foundation erodes: the process undermines law schools’ educational purpose, pressures students to commit before meaningful development, and yields inefficiencies for law firms and clients alike. What began as a race for the “best and brightest” has devolved into a race to the bottom that rewards pedigree over potential and speed over …

Unlocking Affixes In The Esl Community College Classroom: The Language Of Law, Science, And Technology, Patricia George-Hunter Edd

Journal of English Learner Education

Since vocabulary plays a significant role in second language acquisition, expansive vocabulary targets should be set and pursued. This paper explores the results of introducing affixes to develop vocabulary and increase motivation for beginner to intermediate-level English language learners (ELLs) pursuing academic disciplines in law, science, and technology at a New York City community college. Participants included 23 ELLs with diverse linguistic, educational, and sociocultural backgrounds enrolled in an online synchronous Integrative Language Seminar (ILS) designed to develop all areas of English language proficiency. Pre‑, post‑, delayed tests, questionnaires, and post‑intervention interviews were conducted and analyzed to establish the language …

Closing Remarks, Jelani Jefferson Exum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Thank you so much, Judge Bellacosa. Your message is truly inspiring. And it is an honor for us to receive an A+ grade from you!

Let me turn it back to you, our alumni judges. I am so glad you could join us tonight and allow us to recognize your professional achievements. And of course, with so many potential employers in the room, I can’t help myself . . . . Many of you hire 1L interns and clerks. I encourage all of you to take on our amazing students and give them an opportunity of a lifetime to …

Keynote Address, The Honorable Joseph William Bellacosa

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

First things first, thank you for the convocation, Judge Edwards, for the very kind introduction, Judge Vyskocil, for the table setting menu from Cardozo Professor John Barrett, and especially to you, Dean Jelani Jefferson Exum, for your kind invitation to be part of this special program honoring judicial alumni of our alma mater. And a hearty congratulations to our alma mater and all of us judicial alumni on the 100th Anniversary celebration.

Dean, I recall that you encouraged me to participate tonight, a special privilege, with a thoughtful request for “brief remarks.”

Introducing The Honorable Joseph William Bellacosa, The Honorable Mary Kay Vyskocil

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Good evening, I am Mary Kay Vyskocil, class of 1983, now a judge in the Southern District of New York.

I am a very proud alumna of St. John’s Law School and am so humbled to be with this impressive gathering of alumni who have served our state and our country as members of the judiciary. The law school provided all of us with the sound legal foundation we needed to handle the important work of the judiciary and I, for one, am very grateful for the education I received at the law school, the friends I made while …

Continued: Celebrating Alumni In The Judiciary, Jelani Jefferson Exum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Thank you, John. I now have the honor of introducing the Honorable Mary Kay Vyskocil, class of 1983, former President of the St. John’s Law Alumni Association Board of Directors, and co-founder of its Manhattan Chapter.

Honorable Mary Kay Vyskocil serves as a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, a position she has held since December 20, 2019. Prior to her promotion to the district court, Judge Vyskocil served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the same district from 2016 to 2019.

Alumni In The Judiciary, John Q. Barrett

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Good evening, friends. Happy 100th birthday. Thank you for being here. And thank you for all that you do for St. John’s University School of Law, including making us so proud.

I will begin by repeating what I just said about why we are here tonight. We are here in our school’s centennial year to celebrate all of you, plus all other alumni, who have served or do serve as judges.

You might not realize that judges played a central role in St. John’s Law’s founding.

Continued: Celebrating Alumni In The Judiciary, Jelani Jefferson Exum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Thank you, Judge. It is now my privilege to introduce Professor John Q. Barrett, the Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law. Professor Barrett is a nationally recognized scholar of Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Legal History. He is also the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center, where his work focuses on Justice Robert Jackson’s legacy and the Nuremberg Trials.

Opening Remarks: Celebrating Alumni In The Judiciary, Jelani Jefferson Exum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Good evening and welcome! I am deeply honored to address such a distinguished group of alumni, our alumni who serve as judges— perhaps the most important role a lawyer can have. Law professors may argue with that, but I think tonight we can let the judges have it!

But, seriously—today, perhaps more than ever, we recognize how profoundly judges—especially those who graduated from St. John’s Law—shape our profession with distinction and unwavering integrity. Your excellence on the bench—your courtroom presence, your thoughtful judgments and opinions, and your steadfast dedication to St. John’s Law—all reflect tremendously upon our law school …

Beyond Thinking Like A Lawyer: Lonergan's Transcendental Method And The Formation Of Ethical Lawyers, Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

San Jose - Lonergan Chair in Catholic Philosophy

Law schools have long promised to teach students to "think like lawyers."1 We teach students to read cases carefully, identify legally significant facts, extract rules from precedent, distinguish adverse authority, construct arguments, and predict how courts are likely to resolve disputes. These are indispensable skills. But they leave open a more fundamental question: What kind of lawyer are we teaching our students to become?2 Legal education is extraordinarily good at teaching students how to determine what the law is and what the law allows. We are perhaps less intentional about teaching them to ask what, as lawyers, they ought to …

First-Generation Women In The Law, Cardozo Women's Law Initiative, Cardozo First Generation Law Society (C1gs), New York Women's Bar Association

2026–2027 Flyers

A panel discussion on the Unwritten Rules of the Legal Industry.

What Matters For Bar Success: Doctrinal Performance, Coursework Exposure, And First-Time Bar Passage, Jason Scott, Rob Hunter, Andrea Pals

AccessLex Institute Research

This study examines how enrollment and academic performance in doctrinal law courses relate to first-time bar passage. Drawing on a large, multi-institutional data set, we estimate the associations between doctrinal GPA, course completion, credit accumulation, and first-time bar passage using regression adjustment and doubly robust methods designed to reduce selection bias. Across all models, performance in doctrinal coursework emerges as the strongest and most consistent predictor of first-time bar passage, far outweighing the influence of credit accumulation or course completion. Although greater exposure to doctrinal and skills-based coursework is positively associated with bar passage, these effects are comparatively modest, reinforcing …

Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Getting Money Out Of Politics By Putting Money Into Politics: A Few Modest Proposals To Reform Seattle’S Democracy Voucher Program, Decker O’Donnell

Seattle University Law Review

Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program offers an unconventional response to the growing influence of money in American elections: rather than restricting political spending, it seeks to amplify the participation of ordinary voters by providing publicly funded vouchers that residents may assign to participating candidates. This Article examines the program’s development, operation, and constitutional foundation within the modern campaign-finance framework established by Buckley v. Valeo and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. It argues that democracy vouchers provide a constitutionally viable means of broadening participation in campaign financing while mitigating the influence of wealthy donors. The Article identifies two weaknesses in the current system: …

Legal Malpractice In Washington: Use Of The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Angelo Tadrous

Seattle University Law Review

Legal malpractice claims are difficult to prove. They are difficult to prove because many jurisdictions require that a plaintiff prove that, but for the lawyer’s misconduct, the client would have fared better. Thus, in a malpractice suit, a plaintiff must try a case within a case. Despite this difficulty, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of the Rules of Professional Conduct when litigating a malpractice case. Washington State is one of these jurisdictions. The Washington Supreme Court held in Hizey v. Carpenter that the Rules of Professional Conduct may not be referred to during trial. This Note argues that this prohibition …

Converting Buildings Is Hard: Why Seattle’S Municipal Government Should Streamline Commercial-To-Residential Conversions, Tyler M. King

Seattle University Law Review

The conversion of commercial buildings into housing is a promising solution to the growing housing crisis in many urban areas. However, despite its potential benefits, the process of repurposing commercial spaces is often stymied by complex zoning codes, high conversion costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. This Article argues that the local and state governments in Seattle should adopt more streamlined policies and offer greater incentives to developers to facilitate these conversions. By reforming zoning regulations and providing targeted financial support, municipalities can reduce the barriers to conversion and unlock the potential of underutilized commercial properties. This article examines the legal and …

Who Decides The Dead? Interpreting Washington’S Disposition Of Remains Statute, Wyatt Young

Seattle University Law Review

Washington’s disposition-of-remains statute, RCW 68.50.160, is designed to honor a decedent’s expressed wishes regarding the control and disposition of their body after death. Yet recent litigation reveals a critical gap between the statute’s intent-centered design and its practical enforceability. In Larotonda v. Blackburn, a trial court acknowledged that irreparable harm would occur if a decedent’s burial wishes were ignored but nonetheless denied relief on the grounds that the individual designated to carry out those wishes lacked standing. The result was a legal paradox: a statute that recognizes decedent autonomy in theory but withholds any meaningful mechanism for its enforcement …

Closing Symposium Remarks: Reflections On A Legacy That Endures, Jelani Jefferson Exum

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

I am back again, but this time, to give my closing remarks and to reflect on this extraordinary day. I think that is a fitting word for it. I want to take a moment to reflect on our experience together and to celebrate the enduring power and purpose of scholarship at St. John’s Law. This has been a wonderful opportunity to hear from our faculty, to engage with one another, and to witness the profound ways in which scholarship shapes the law, the academy, and society.

Bar Prep As A Balancing Act: The Process, Pitfalls, And Payoffs Of Juggling Multiple Commercial Bar Review Resources, Tiffane Cochran, Andrea M. Pals

AccessLex Institute Research

AccessLex Institute® undertook a study to understand how Spring 2025 law graduates leveraged commercial bar review resources to prepare for the July 2025 bar exam. Across three surveys administered in April 2025, August 2025, and January 2026, we explored the graduates’ intended and actual use of commercial bar review resources, their approaches to allocating time among bar review resources, and whether those approaches resulted in bar exam success. The data yield a few key observations:

• Nearly all respondents used a commercial bar review course in combination with one to three supplemental resources, ramping up the number of hours they spent …

Not A Pretty Picture: Race, Gender, And Inequality In The Legal Profession And Legal Education, Tanina Rostain

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Responding to renewed interest in law school as a path to a career “to do well and do good,” this essay examines Nelson, Dinovitzer, Garth, Sterling, Wilkins, Dawe, and Michelson’s The Making of Lawyers’ Careers and its account of inequality and opportunity in the American legal profession. Based on a 20-year study of more than 2,000 lawyers, the book traces how credentials, race, gender, class, and law school selectivity profoundly shape career trajectories. The essay situates those findings within the divide in private practice between corporate practice and people law and interrogates the professional ideology—rooted in the lawyer’s traditional role …

Who’S The Lawyer Now? Professional Identity In A Genai World, Aric K. Short

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the legal profession and, more fundamentally, lawyers’ professional identities. As AI systems increasingly perform tasks traditionally associated with legal practice, the article argues that technological competence and adaptability have become essential components of professional identity formation. It contends that lawyers must move beyond viewing AI as merely a tool for efficiency and instead confront the ways in which it is transforming expectations of competence, professional responsibility, and legal expertise.

The article further explores what may remain uniquely human in legal practice as AI capabilities expand. It argues that practical wisdom, …

One Year's Seeding: Looking Back On The Last Seven Years Of Maine's Progress Toward Rural Justice, Christopher Northrop, Seth Main

Maine Law Review

Nationally, the crisis in access to legal services in rural areas continues to grow despite significant attention and efforts to reverse this troubling trend. This Article explores Maine’s efforts to address our legal deserts. The Article’s starting point is a retrospective look at our 2019 national symposium on rural justice and accompanying Maine Law Review issue. We will try to measure successes and failures, while also addressing the significant impact caused by the intervening pandemic. The Article will then shift to an analysis of the current landscape, focusing on the role of the University of Maine School of Law. We …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Reimagining Legal Education: The Transformative Power Of Small-Group Instruction, Michael I. Meyerson

Seattle University Law Review

Legal education is failing its students. Those entering their first year of law school have greater anxiety and less developed reading and writing skills than ever before. The traditional large Socratic class, which was never the most effective teaching method, has become increasingly counterproductive.

This Article contends that small-group instruction provides the opportunity for superior teaching, especially for first-year law students. Recent scholarship in active learning, educational psychology, and students’ mental health demonstrates the limitations of the traditional large Socratic class experience. Building on that theoretical foundation and informed by sustained classroom experience, this Article argues that small-group pedagogy more …

Land Without Legacy: The Case For Market-Based Appraisals On Hawaiian Home Lands, Alexis C. Owens

Seattle University Law Review

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 (HHCA) was enacted to restore Native Hawaiians to ancestral lands and promote long term economic self-sufficiency. More than a century later, that promise remains unfulfilled. This Note argues that a central but overlooked barrier lies in the HHCA’s mandated use of the replacement cost appraisal method, which systematically undervalues homestead properties by excluding market forces. In one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States, this approach suppresses home equity, the primary means of intergenerational wealth building, and restricts beneficiaries’ access to credit and financial stability. By severing the connection between …

International Law’S Forgotten Refugees—Palestinian Refugees In Egypt

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines the legal and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian refugees who have fled to Egypt amidst the ongoing violence in Gaza. While escaping active conflict, these refugees face systemic barriers to employment and education, rendering their living conditions precarious and unsustainable. The unique legal status of Palestinian refugees stems from the fact that they have been excluded from the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, leaving them without any meaningful international protection. This exclusion is rooted in the political complexities of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and reflects a fragmented legal framework that prioritizes limited humanitarian aid over …

How The Dod Discourages Military Families From Seeking Mental Health Counseling, Christina Welch

Seattle University Law Review

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) administration of the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) presents significant barriers to mental health care access for military spouses and children. This paper explores how the EFMP, though designed to support military families with special needs, inadvertently creates barriers to mental health treatment. Military family members often do not seek mental health treatment to avoid the program's mandatory enrollment requirements. Military family members often view enrollment in the program undesirable because enrollment can restrict the pool of potential future duty assignment locations that are available to service members.

The lack of comprehensive data collection by …

2025, Richard Delgado

Seattle University Law Review

"In a cutting and provocative social critique in one of the more extended Rodrigo Chronicles, Richard Delgado in 2025 employs skillful narrative—one of CRT’s many contributions to legal scholarship —to tell a gripping story of just how far the nation has descended into darkness with President Trump’s re-election. In Delgado’s vision, law professors—along with other political opponents of the President: immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, the underserved—have targets on their backs."

-excerpt from Kevin Johnson's review of 2025