Conservatives Need Not Apply

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 4/1/3 | JOHN O. MCGINNIS and MATTHEW SCHWARTZ

[WaveThatFlag]

From the claims of supporters of diversity one might think that law schools are sparing no effort to make sure that campuses ring with contentious voices.

In its upcoming Supreme Court case, the University of Michigan Law School justifies its very substantial preferences for selected racial and ethnic minorities on the ground that a "critical mass" of African-American and Hispanic students is needed to assure that all students have the benefit of a variety of views and experiences. But professors even more than students set the intellectual tone in university life. Generating ideas is their job. These same law schools almost uniformly lack a "critical mass" of conservatives to offer an alternative to the reigning liberal orthodoxy.

[WaveThatFlag]

The good news is that the majority of kids coming out of law school ARE conservative.

[Wallace T.]

What law schools have a predominance of conservative faculty, other than Northwestern and the University of Virginia? I suppose Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, which is owned by Pat Robertson, would qualify. I understand Tom Monaghan, the ownr of the Domino's Pizza chain, is in the process of establishing a conservative oriented law school. Does anybody know of any others?

[pittsburgh gop guy]

"The good news is that the majority of kids coming out of law school ARE conservative."

They are? Ya coulda fooled me. I happen to know people that prove otherwise, even some people that went to law school as conservative, but now to make a living they defend drug dealers, pimps and whores. Not to mention chase ambulances.

Lawyers are a huge part of the problem in America today. We don't need more, we need less of them. (sorry lawgirl and any other good freepers who happen to be barristers) And we need good conservative ones.

[BartMan1]

What an illuminating essay. The authors' work raises further questions:

1) What other faculty activity can be examined as a surrogate marker of political ideology, other than publicly available lists of donations to political parties ?

2) What are the political donation patterns of other faculty members -- particularly the business schools and economics departments ?

3) Would it be instructive to know what the political leanings are of certain other institutions' leaders , such as the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, etc ?

4) What are the political donation patterns of college and university administrators ?

[CatoRenasci]

The problem with law schools like Pat Robertson's and Managhan's is that you cannot get a decent job coming out of them, assuming they are even sufficiently accredited to allow you to take the bar in all states.

Unless you want to be a solo practicitioner, a small town lawyer where you grew up, or have a parent who is a partner in a law firm that will take you in, the employment record of a law school's graduates has to be an important factor in your decision which law school to attend.

The sad fact is that unless you attend one of the 25 or so "top ten" national law schools, you will have great difficulty (even as the top 5%/law review editor) getting a job at a major national or regional law firm or a reasonable federal or state judicial clerkship. My advice, after some 20+ years of practice, is to go to the best law school you can get into and finance/afford. If you had a choice between Harvard Law and $50,000 in debt vs. University of the Pacific Law School and no debt, you would be absolutely crazy not to go to Harvard.

In California, Stanford trumps everything, then Berkeley, then UCLA, then USC, then Hastings and UC Davis. From there, it isn't competitive.

In the South, Univesrity of Virignia, UNC-Chapel Hill and Vanderbuilt, are tops, followed by William & Mary and Washington & Lee. Emory and Wake Forest are wannabes

In the Midwest, there's Chicago, then Northwestern and Michigan, and then Notre Dame. Wisconson is also national.

In the Northeast, it's the usual suspects: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn, and Cornell, then Georgetown and NYU.

If you want to stay local, you could go to the best state university law school in your state.

[oyez]

I've always advised kids to stay in school no mater what, but these days from what I hear them say I tempted to tell the the get out and get a GED later on.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

A law student from the University of Alabama (here in Tuscaloosa) organized a support the troops rally on campus. We attended. The law student spoke at the rally, and told us that one of his professors had threatened to have him "investigated" for organizing the rally. So much for diversity.

[Sloth]

A friend of mine got his law degree from Stanford... he says that it's only 98% of lawyers who give all the rest a bad name. :)

[MHT]

In other words, the fact that they all think alike (LIBERAL!) is hidden by the appearance of all looking different. The democrat ideal of "inclusion", "diversity", or "looking like America" has been achieved. Now, as far as "thinking" like America....

[Cicero]

The law schools are a huge problem. They are turning out lawyers who are to the profession of law much as today's journalists are to the profession of journalism. Which is to say that they are mostly left-wing ideological liars. There is very little respect for the basic principles of common law, for natural law, for the constitution, or for any of the traditional guidelines. Fortunately some of them are too focused on making money to bother corrupting the law any further. Sure, there are some good lawyers out there, but very few of them learned any real moral principles or respect for the constitution in law school.

[NCLaw441]

My impression, coming out of a very liberal law school (University of North Carolina) in 1988, was that the great majority of graduates were pretty liberal in their thinking (althought they wanted to be hired by high-powered,i.e., high paying, law firms). There was, however, a strong showing of conservatives, as well, tempered by the liberal flame of ivory tower professors, bent on destroying, or "converting" us conservatives. It was so fun to mock and cajole the libs in courses such as constitutional law and torts. Back then, we commonly referred to the liberals as "bleeders" (as in bleeding hearts), and on especially liberal-rant-filled days, we spoke of "liberal blood baths." Those conservatives not killed by liberal thinking were made stronger.....

[WaveThatFlag]

In California, Stanford trumps everything, then Berkeley

So... are there, um, any liberal professors at Berkeley Law School?

[Montfort]

I graduated from University of Virginia law school in teh early 90s, and I did not get the feeling that the faculty were overwhelmingly conservative, except as compared to the far-out-leftist faculties of so many other top law schools.

Yes, our business law professors tended to think that capitalism and the US Constitution were a good thing, overall, which made them pretty conservative. And the law school did host excellent Federalist Society seminars in which some of our faculty participated, so I guess it was an outright bastion of the right wing when compared to some other top law schools.

Still, my sense about most of my fellow students was that they were center-left folks who wanted to "do well while doing good." They were very supportive of our public interest fellowships fund which helped to subsidize law students who chose to forego big summer salaries and spend their summer internships working for "public interest" organizations. Most "public interest" jobs are not for conservative causes. This may have changed in recent years, so perhaps someone has gotten a Student Funded Fellowship while working for a pro-life organization or for teh Rutherford Foundation (which is in Charlottesville).

I got the impression that the ideal person for most people at that law school, when I attended, would be a rich, articulate Democrat. In DC, rich Democrats have always been in style, and the law school definiteley partakes of DC tastes and styles.

I attended a Student Legal Forum dinner at a former Dean's house. He was married to a DuPont heiress, like a suprising number of prominent men in Virginia of his era. There must have been a generation there when the DuPonts had a lot of daughters. He went on and on about how great Bobby Kennedy had been. Bobby Kennedy had been a President of the Student Legal Forum when he was at UVA, and another Kennedy was head of it one year while I was there or right after I graduated. Kennedys are good at getting big name speakers, but you can imagine that the speakers are not going to be Clarence Thomas or Newt Gingrich.

Basically, my point is that UVA may be conservative for a top law school, but it is not an overwhelmingly conservative school, with Freepers (and Freeper-like people) amounting to anything like 51 percent of its students and faculty.

[CatoRenasci]

The more interesting question is whether there are any moderate (let alone conservtive) professors at Boalt Hall, the University of California at Berkeley's law school. The answer is maybe one or two moderates, no conservatives anymore.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Ping

[homeagain balkansvet]

You're clearly on drugs. I and the other three public Republicans at my law school were practically ridden out of the school on a rail.

[WaveThatFlag]

Could you clarify a bit? And try to avoid the unecessarily insulting language while you're at it? Thanks.

[Henrietta]

"The good news is that the majority of kids coming out of law school ARE conservative."

I'm afraid you are mistaken. The legal profession is overwhelmingly leftist, and we don't get that way sometime after law school; my colleagues entered law schools leftists and came out the same way. The student body is overwhelmingly leftist, and very intolerant of anything but leftist ideas.

[Henrietta]

I think both I and homeagain balkansvet would like to know where you got the idea that people coming out of law school were conservative. Can you explain?

[WaveThatFlag]

I know a lot of young lawyers. Why did they want to become lawyers? Because they wanted to make a lot of money.