Volume 13, Issue 12 | August 2022
The Newsletter of the Carnegie Mellon University Pre-Law Program
News
82% of young attorneys happy with career
A recent joint survey done by the NALP Foundation and NALP called the “Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction, for the Class of 2018,” found that 82% of those surveyed were satisfied with their legal careers..

Why the strong law graduate employment data should make us cautious
The National Association of Law Placement (NALP) recently released employment data for the class of 2021. The most critical factor captured by the data is the alignment between law school enrollments and the legal job market. This balance is a departure from a decade ago when law schools were minting far more graduates than the legal job market could absorb.

Clarence Thomas won’t teach at GW Law this fall after student petition
Clarence Thomas will not be teaching a constitutional law seminar at George Washington University School of Law this fall after more than 11,000 students and community members signed a petition asking for his removal.

68% of 3L’s prefer distance learning
Despite all of the complaints during the COVID shutdown in 2020-21, it turns out a majority of law students like distance education — or at least want more options.
Events

Applying to Law School Info Session
Wednesday September 14, 2022
8 p.m, EST
Zoom
Join Policorner.org for a free zoom event with former Director of Admissions at Yale Law School, Todd Rothman, and Touro University prelaw advisor, Tom Rozinski, for an info session on applying to law school. The session will cover the nuts and bolts of applying to law school, as well as an overview of newly-released data from last year's application cycle.

START SMART LAW: Introduction to Startup Law
Thursday, September 22, 2022
5:00 - 6:30 p.m. EST
Virtual
Presenters: David Lehman, K&L Gates & Reed McManigle, CMU
Join us for a lightning round of Q&A with top startup and intellectual property lawyers. We will kick off the evening with a quick overview of the most common startup legal issues: contract law, IP protection, raising capital, entity formation and employment law and exit planning. Then you’ll get to ask YOUR most pressing legal questions.

START SMART LAW: How to Handle Your (and Others') Intellectual Property
October 6, 2022
5:00 - 6:30 p.m. EST, Zoom
Presenters:David Lehman, K&L Gates; Lauren Murray, K&L Gates; Reed McManigle, CMU
Intellectual Property is an asset to be protected. This session will cover how to deal with IP issues including:
  • Different ways to protect your company’s IP (copyrights, trade secrets, patents, trademarks, etc)
  • Do you really need a patent?
  • Difference between a provisional patent and a formal patent filing
  • Developing a patent strategy
  • How to handle IP created by class projects when one or more of the student team members want to pursue commercialization
  • Tips on searching the US Patent Office Database (for prior ‘art’ e.g. existing patents)
  • What to expect after filing a patent (time and expenses)
Opportunities

Widener Law Commonwealth Pre-Law Webinars
This fall the Widener Law Commonwealth is running a Creating a Competitive Application webinar series to help students get a better understanding of the law school admissions process. The webinars are not specific to WLC and are relevant to anyone interested in applying to law school. 
 
They are also hosting an Open House and several Online Information Sessions for students interested in attending WLC. You are welcome to join us for any of these events. 
 
As the only law school in Pennsylvania's capital, Widener Law Commonwealth provides students with a personal, practical, and professional education to jumpstart their legal careers.
Advice
Your most important law school conversations
There are many important conversations that take place during law school. and are all essential parts of the law school experience. But the most important conversations are the ones you have with yourself.

The top three tips to pass the MPRE
Taking the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) soon and not sure where to start? We’ve compiled our top three tips to help you pass the MPRE on the first try.

Law school application timeline: What should I be doing now?
Another law school application cycle is about to begin. Will this cycle be as crazy competitive as last year? We don’t know yet. But we do know that you can at least control your part of it. You can get organized, perfect your documents and turn them in during the early part of the rolling admissions cycle.

Ready for school? Not just yet…
We all think of buying highlighters and textbooks as the sum of our “back to school” obligations, but what other actions can law students take to truly be prepared for the fall semester? In this article we’ll cover three back-to-school steps to have you ready to succeed this fall.
About Us
Pre-Law Advising Office
Dr. Joseph E. Devine
University Pre-Law Advisor
For an appointment, call 412-268-2831 or email jd0x@andrew.cmu.edu)

Thomas M. Kerr, Jr. Student Pre-Law Society
Sheldon Yawson
Psychology
President, Thomas M. Kerr, Jr. Student Pre-Law Society