Berkeley / Boalt
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Boston College
Application Period: Mid-September – March 1

Boston University
Binding Early Decision Deadlines: December 1
Application Period: September 15 – March 1

Chicago
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Columbia
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Cornell
Early Action Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Duke
Early Decision Deadline: November 4 (Round I) and January 7 (Round II)
Application Period: September – February 15

Emory
Application Period: September – March 1.

Fordham
Early Decision Deadline: October 15
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

George Washington
Early Decision Deadline: December 15
Application Period: October 1 – March 31

Georgetown
Early Decision Deadline: March 1
Application Period: October 1 – March 1

Harvard
Application Period: September 15 – February 1

Illinois
Early Decision Period: October 31
Application Period: September 15 – March 1

Iowa
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Michigan
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15.

Minnesota
Early Action Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – April 1

New York University
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 15

Northwestern
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Notre Dame
Early Decision Deadline: November 1
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

Stanford
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

UCLA
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 1

University of Pennsylvania
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

USC / Gould
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

U Texas-Austin
Early Decision Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September – February 1

U Virginia
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

University of Washington
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

Vanderbilt
Application Period: September 10 – March 15.

Washington and Lee
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Washington University in St. Louis
Application Period: late September – March 1 (recommended deadline; applications accepted after this date on space-available basis)

William and Mary
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Yale
Application Period: September 15 – February 15

The tournament was organized into three rounds, each of which involved a different negotiation scenario.  While the scenarios were fictional, they touched upon very timely issues, such as websites offering downloadable television shows and intellectual property rights for Internet news stories.  Teams were judged based on their preparation, flexibility, teamwork, and self-analysis, in addition to their skill at achieving an outcome that both served their clients’ interests and helped improve relations with the other party.  A team of two first-year law students from Boston College Law School won the competition and will advance to the ABA’s National Negotiation Competition, to be held in Atlanta, GA.

HLS students Adam Brown ’11 and Jacob Slowik ’12, who made up Harvard’s team, found the tournament to be very helpful in honing their negotiation skills.  “All of the teams were very professional and it was a pleasure to discuss strategies and tactics at the conclusion of the competition,” said Slowik.  “Overall, it was a very useful day for my own development as a negotiator.”

Brown, who was named Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Professor of Law in 2006, is not new to the role of administrator as he previously served as the associate dean of academic affairs under two different deans.  A graduate of Harvard Law School and a member of the Boston College community for nearly 40 years, Brown has served his fellow Bay Staters on numerous occasions.  In the mid-1990s he was appointed by Governor Weld to serve as chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics Committee. Brown also held the post of Legislative Assistant to the Governor of Massachusetts and Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts.

To date, Brown has written over 40 law review articles that have been published in law school journals from around the country.  His newer work focuses on the legality of the federal government’s actions to counter terrorist acts.  Brown has also penned countless articles regarding the federal grant-in-aid system and the authority of federal courts.

In response to accepting the interim deanship, Brown declared that, “teachers have to adapt to a rapidly changing legal environment and to the needs of the American legal profession, and students are obviously challenged by a difficult job market. I look forward to working with my colleagues to do everything we can to meet those challenges.”

In South Florida, the University of Miami School of Law recently conducted a filing session to interview and screen applicants, and to facilitate application paperwork.

“As lawyers, none of us can administer field medicine, and we aren’t logistics experts,” said JoNel Newman, the director of the law school’s Health and Elder Law Clinic.  “But this is a way we can help.  It may not be as dramatic, but it’s equally-important – and will have a lasting impact on Haitian families.”

Farther north, Boston College Law School has been offering similar legal counsel to Haitian immigrants, as students, faculty and alumni have worked on clarifying immigration law, enhancing communication and organizing free legal clinics.

Associate Professor Daniel Kanstroom nearly echoed Newman in articulating the response by the law school community: “It’s not as traumatic as responding to the crisis on the ground, but the legal community is scrambling to figure out the best way to proceed.”

The South Florida area and Greater Boston have the largest and third largest populations of Haitian immigrants in the United States, respectively.

In a letter to 1L and 2L students, BC Law School’s Associate Dean, Michael Cassidy, said: “We have not, within several decades, offered summer law courses here at the law school.”  However, after hearing some student input, Cassidy indicated that the administration is weighing summer study and that “some students might find this option very attractive.”  The letter was printed in an Above the Law article.

As part of the school’s consideration, the administration created an online survey to more accurately measure student interest.

And while the BC Law course offerings are just being deliberated at this point, Cassidy did signify that the classes, taken perhaps while students work non-legal jobs, could be for credit and could help accelerate degrees.

Most of the top schools are already on the road and ready to wrap up in mid-November, so we recommend looking into the travel schedules for programs of interest and planning accordingly. Keeping in mind that these schedules are updated and amended throughout the fall, here are some of the top programs’ itineraries for the remaining weeks ahead:

Berkeley / Boalt:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/199.htm

Boston College:
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/meta-elements/pdf/recruiting_calendar_20093.pdf

Chicago:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/events/admissions

Columbia:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/jd_Intro/visiting/ontheroad

Duke:
http://www.law.duke.edu/admis/travel/

George Washington University:
http://www.law.gwu.edu/Admissions/JD/Pages/Recruitment_Schedule.aspx

Harvard:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/visit/recruiting.html

Michigan:
http://www.law.umich.edu/prospectivestudents/admissions/Pages/meetus.aspx

Minnesota:
http://www.law.umn.edu/prospective/recruiting.html

New York University:
http://www.law.nyu.edu/admissions/jdadmissions/visitingnyu/offcampusvisitsandlsacforums/index.htm

Notre Dame:
http://law.nd.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid/recruitment-schedule

UCLA:
http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=887

University of Pennsylvania:
http://www.law.upenn.edu/prospective/recschedule.html

University of Washington:
http://www.law.washington.edu/Admissions/Recruit.aspx

USC / Gould:
http://lawweb.usc.edu/how/jd/recruitingSchedule.cfm

Vanderbilt:
http://law.vanderbilt.edu/prospective-students/admissions/campus-visit-calendar/index.aspx

Yale:
http://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/recruiting.htm

Need more law school information?  Make sure to check in with the Law Blog next week for further details.

At Boston College Law School on Friday, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Ben Bernanke delivered the commencement address, choosing to talk about unpredictability in life and the necessity of maintaining an optimistic outlook throughout the good times and the bad.  He reassured his audience that their legal education makes them highly employable in several popular job sectors, including at the Federal Reserve, and they have much to look forward to once the U.S. economy emerges from the recession.  Former California Governor Joseph “Gray” Davis spoke at Columbia Law School’s 148th graduation ceremony on Thursday May 21.

Graduating NYU School of Law students attended commencement exercises at Yankee Stadium on May 13, where they graduated alongside all other graduate students at NYU.  A more intimate law school convocation and reception followed on May 15.  Also on May 15, commencement was held at William & Mary and USC Gould law schools.  Robert E. Scott, who is currently the Alfred McCormack Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, delivered the commencement speech at W&M, a fitting choice given his long history with the school.  Mr. Scott was editor-in-chief of the William & Mary Law Review while a student there in the late 1960s, and briefly taught at the law school before taking a tenure-track position at the University of Virginia Law School in 1974.  Gould’s commencement exercises included speeches by Dean Robert K. Rasmussen, who encouraged students to live up to the school’s core values of public service and a lifelong passion for learning, and third-year Class President Paula Mayeda, who celebrated the perseverance demonstrated by her classmates during their three years of law school.  The commencement address was given by California Attorney General and former Governor of California, Edmund “Jerry” Brown, Jr., who called on the graduating students to use the critical thinking skills gained through their legal education to remake a broken society.

In the coming weeks, Harvard Law School, the University of Chicago Law School and many others will hold their commencement exercises and bid adieu to the class of 2009.

Berkeley / Boalt
Application Period: October 1 – February 1

Boston College
Application Period: Mid-September – March 1

Boston University
Application Period: September 1 through March 1

Chicago
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Columbia
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Cornell
Early Action Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Duke
Early Decision Deadline: November 5 (Round I) and January 7 (Round II)
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Emory
Application Period: mid October – March 1.

Fordham
Early Decision Deadline: October 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

Harvard
Application Period: September 24 – February 1

Illinois
Early Decision Deadline: October 31
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Iowa
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

George Washington
Early Decision Deadline: December 15
Application Period: October 1 – March 31

Georgetown
Early Decision Deadline: March 1
Application Period: October 1 – March 1

Michigan
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – February 15.

Minnesota
Early Action Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September 1 – April 1

New York University
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 1

Northwestern
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

Notre Dame
Early Decision Deadline: November 10
Application Period: September 1 – February 15

Stanford
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

UCLA
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: September – February 1

University of Pennsylvania
Early Decision Deadline: November 15
Application Period: October 1 – February 15

USC / Gould
Application Period: September 1 – February 1

U Texas-Austin
Early Decision Deadline: November 1
Application Period: September – February 1

U Virginia
Early Decision Deadline: December 1
Application Period: August – March 1

University of Washington
Application Period: October 1 – January 15

Vanderbilt
Application Period: September 6 – March 15.

Washington and Lee
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Washington University in St. Louis
Application Period: September 15 – March 1 (recommended deadline; applications accepted after this date on space-available basis)

William and Mary
Application Period: September 1 – March 1

Yale
Application Period: early October – February 15

Personal statement: Please provide us with a personal statement that reflects on your capacity for legal study and your desire to enter the legal profession. In crafting your essay, you may choose to address one of the following topics, to the extend you believe it reflects on your characters and fitness to study the law: a) a major life experience that has colored your world view; b) significant course work undertaken in college which reflects on your ability to succeed as a law student; c) unique personal characteristics or traits that you will bring to the BC Law community.