If the technologically empowered lawyer is the advocate of the future, it follows that technology-friendly students will better meet the demands of this new world. Oh, and it doesn`t hurt that STEM graduates are seen as a more demanding basic education and achieve better results in the “rigorous” environment of legal education. Professor Robert Anderson of Pepperdine University School of Law recently compiled data on undergraduate majors, GPAs, and LSAT scores and found that the only other majors — aside from the STEM majors mentioned above — that exceeded the 160% average on LSAT were classics and linguistics. Check out the rest of Professor Anderson`s findings below (click to enlarge): For neo-romantic lawyers, we need people who, 100 years ago, were drawn to the law at the upper end of the legal profession. These neo-romantics dream of better societies that function well. They understand the dangers of missteps in a world where the margin of error is measured in fractions of a millisecond. They move fluidly from the present to the deep past and vice versa. This is a law school candidate who is rare, if any, today. These are the people we seek for our intellectual advice. First of all, we have a high demand for “treatment lawyers”. These lawyers effectively combine man and machine to produce the standardized, systematized and routine legal work that makes up the bulk of the legal services market. Second, we have a much lower need for neo-romantics.
Each system has only a high-end design work. We need lawyers who can act in this area. After all, we need tailor-made lawyers. Legal services in this field are even more human than machines. They require a higher level of human and technical skills than design lawyers, as they must provide the client with a unique combination for each case. You may be surprised when I tell you that law schools represent a variety of professional and academic backgrounds. Contrary to popular belief, you don`t need a background in the humanities, humanities, or social sciences to attend law school and succeed. In fact, training or graduating in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) field from the admission phase when you enroll in your Doctor of Laws program can serve to your advantage. As a STEM graduate, I believe this is absolutely true in schools across this country, but especially in the William S. Boyd School of Law.
Get an LSAT score of 165+ and T-30 starts ignoring that average on your part. If you get a 168+, it basically ensures you get into WUSTL. I only have undergraduate research and random jobs (a gap year), and I did well without legal experience. I didn`t ride in a T-14 (waiting list at 3 out of 7), but hey, you never know! For tailored lawyers, I think we also need some of what law schools attract, and then continue to mutilate again. We need people who want to be the modern version of lawyers we have always wanted to train in law schools. In fact, we need the same feedback we thought we`d get decades ago. Blended adaptation over these decades has leaned toward people who can embrace technology. These students can transmit the intellectual and the technical, but the last spark may still be missing. If we want to show leadership – if we want our law schools to show leadership – then I hope we can do it. Let`s review the ranks of our undergraduate institutions and find the few students who have the talent, desire, and willingness to use their four years of college to pursue these foundations of civilizational knowledge. Let`s give them the path to the best we can offer. And then, in law school, let`s not leave them with a “you” will discover approach.
Let us guide you through the most challenging we can offer. Let`s show what seven years can really do for this lawyer and for society. If we do that, then we can truly say that we are professionals. The good news is that more and more STEM majors have graduated from college over the past decade, and some of them might be persuaded to attend law school in the future — if the money is right, of course. Who knows, maybe STEM majors could be the key to ending the stultifying of the legal profession once and for all. Good luck with your law school applications, everyone. And for neo-romantics. We need to develop new ways of studying law. We need more people who are well placed to address the issues that require us most as individuals and advocates. It is, in Nock`s words, the advocates who will demonstrate the “inner and spiritual grace of maturity.” One would think that the legal profession – and law schools – would make a concerted effort to attract students with STEM backgrounds to the industry.
A background in mathematics and science is not only useful for improving delivery capability, but also extremely useful for understanding the complexities of large, complex global companies. And as law evolves from a clubby profession, from a guild based on pedigree, reputation, and stasis, to a diverse, client-centric, metric-driven industry driven by innovation, lawyers need more than just “knowledge of the law” to create value. Even conservative state bars recognize this; More than half of them prescribe “technological awareness” as an element of professional competence. It`s easy to appreciate the value that STEM graduates can add to an institution. But is it fair to encourage a disproportionate number (assuming we know the right number) to attend law school? Is it fair that we focus more on STEM graduates? Adcoms tend to vary in their consideration of your lower STEM-related GPAs, but this will soften the blow, but don`t be fooled. 3.12 The GPA isn`t that low, the Ivy Leagues/T14s are probably out of the question without a super high LSAT score of 170s. That is the reality that you are facing, I know someone suggested intellectual property law and patent law, but you have to keep in mind that the people who do this have experience in the industry, in my experience, PhDs like to go back to law school to do patent law. I recommend looking at intellectual property law, which is limited to people with a bachelor`s degree in STEM and is a very lucrative field. Your LSAT score can compensate for your low GPA. So go to LSAT and you still have a good chance. Why aren`t law schools doing a better job of attracting STEM graduates, especially since difficult candidates have the highest LSAT scores among university majors? Some law school deans attribute the fault, at least in part, to U.S.
news rankings, which give equal weight to the GPA and LSAT scores for ranking purposes. The catch, the academy says, is that scientific GPAs tend to be lower than those of other majors, so law schools are “penalized” for admitting STEM majors with lower GPAs. Ranking is important, especially in a declining law school market.
