Things have been improving since the first day. Somewhat.

I almost made the terrible mistake of taking Business Bankruptcy. It's not every day you get to take a course from Ken Klee, UCLA's resident energy healer. But I thought it would be fun, like federal income tax was fun. Instead it was fun, like bad-sushi food poisoning is fun.

I swapped Bankruptcy for Evidence and Advanced Legal Research. Evidence involves watching a lot of TV and movie clips, which I'm grateful for, since I don't get out much.

ALR is sort of the summer-camp version of a law school course. It's taught by the law librarians, not professors. So, they still live with some vague idea that their job performance matters to their continued employment. I'm going to bet $1 it ends up being one of the two most useful courses I take in law school.

OCIP is in full swing. I can't really chronicle all the fashion disasters. Quick tip for women: tall ladies shouldn't wear giant heels. And nobody should wear open toed shoes. Quick tip for guys: if you can fit your whole hand in between your shirt collar and your neck, it may be too large.

I overheard one 2L in the JD/MBA program explaining to a mere JD candidate that he expects his joint degree to fetch an extra $10K over the usual $135K offered to JDs. Dude, on behalf of everyone else in the law school, please shut the hell up.

All of you who are trooping to interviews, I don't want to rain on your parade, but do pause to ask yourself something. Why do big firms recruit on campus? Answer: because they have a lot of seats to fill. Why do they have a lot of seats to fill? There's two possibilities. Either they're growing at a really astonishing rate, or – how do I put this delicately – they have a lot of attrition.

While growth may explain some of it, law firms don't grow by adding associates, because new associates don't have any clients, and hence any revenue. That's why big firms grow through mergers: when you add partners, you add their clients.

That leaves attrition as the only logical option. And why is there so much attrition? You know these jobs pay a lot of money. So associates aren't quitting because of that. Why, then? Any ideas?

Anyone?

Last weekend I was in Las Vegas for the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) convention. I went because I'm interested in practicing in plaintiff-side consumer law.

I was one of the very few UCLA people there. And this is true in general: if you ever investigate plaintiff litigation firms, you will very rarely see UCLA or USC lawyers there. That industry is dominated by Loyola grads, with Southwestern and Pepperdine close behind. This has always puzzled me. Why do UCLA grads go out for public interest jobs in droves (we gotta protect the little guy, after all) but not plaintiff work (which often involves protecting the little guy)? I can guarantee you it pays better.

The LuValle store has added Chick-O-Sticks. These are only 15 cents, and offer an incredibly delicious combination of toasted coconut and peanut butter. Like a Zagnut. Or a coconut-ified Butterfinger. Did I mention it's 15 cents? What can you get at law school that's only 15 cents? Please, buy as many as you can, so they'll continue to stock them. They're on the candy shelves near the register, in the lower right corner. Yesterday, I'd never heard of the Chick-O-Stick. Now, I want to marry it.

11 Sep 06