Althouse: We happy few...

August 9, 2011

We happy few...

... we law professors.

30 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Band of Brothers is sexist.; 8/9/11, 10:24 AM
traditionalguy said...: Henry V at Agincourt was not about Law School.

Law School is about a Paper Chase.

And Law professors seldom go into battles out numbered 5 to 1, and emerge with a victory that kills 10,000 enemies at a cost of 25 dead of their own.

Shakespeare uber alles.; 8/9/11, 10:29 AM
Peano said...: Coddled and insulated from reality. Takes a special kind of person to find contentment in that environment.; 8/9/11, 10:30 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Great job - I think a lot here are envious. Given how many show up for the few full time jobs that open up every year across the country, the pay and the security are likely both too high.

Ann was lucky when she got into the field, and I suspect knows that. Many believe that we are in a pretty good bubble when it comes to law school students and graduates, and as such, it is likely to pop before too long. Ann, with her seniority at a state university should be fine, but I don't think that I would want to be a new tenure track law prof at a 4th+ tier law school right now.; 8/9/11, 10:32 AM
Sprezzatura said...: "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress."

Presumably a congress full of lawyers is especially useless.

And yet, the lawprofs pumping out these folks are quite happy w/ themselves. What else would you expect?; 8/9/11, 10:40 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Reynolds the King, Althouse and Volokh,
Bainbridge and Lessig, Balkin and Caron...

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his bandwidth with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.; 8/9/11, 10:49 AM
Carol_Herman said...: You think that's a lot of money? Mere bupkis to a talent few who can win cases, "civilly," for clients. And, they do it on contingency.

Used to do it by class action. But all the retail trade has run away from the stock market.

So who can you shake down?

Now, if you love to teach there's a reward that's PRICELSS! You're doing something that parents at home culdn't do. And, even faith doesn't bring out so much.

It's wear you take a piece of coal, and make it shine like a diamond.

You can see "shine" in the lights of those kidlings' eyes.

For great pay, though, you have to search out a partner on wall street. Baubles carried on the arms of billionaires. Not worth being one of them.; 8/9/11, 10:53 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/11, 10:57 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/11, 11:00 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Sixty Grit, I am sure Bainbridge poked himself at least once or twice with a wine bottle corkscrew. And rumor has it Reynolds got a mild burn once makeing lamb on his BBQ.; 8/9/11, 11:15 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/11, 11:18 AM
Anonymous said...: They sure don't hold their manhoods cheap.; 8/9/11, 11:30 AM
Triangle Man said...: There are plenty of risks: repetitive strain injury, back pain from ergonomically sub-optimal workstations, physical inactivity related heart disease and obesity.; 8/9/11, 11:36 AM
chuckR said...: We'll pay a bonus if you produce fewer lawyers. They are so annoying when begging for slip'n'falls on the tube.; 8/9/11, 11:53 AM
chickelit said...: "Proverbs 16:18"

That cryptic message was printed on the underside of my In-N-Oot Burger drink cup this morning.

Go figure.; 8/9/11, 11:56 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Sixty Grit said...
Reynolds has allegedly turned his liver to a fatty lump of crud due to his self-admitted constant state of inebriation.

Ouch. You seem a bit angry at Reynolds. Why?; 8/9/11, 12:02 PM
traditionalguy said...: Lawyers are made the way eunuchs were made from captured boys by Turkish sultans.

They whack of all of it and insert a plug in the ureter. After 2 weeks the plug is pulled out and 1 in a 100 survive to be the Sultans private men.; 8/9/11, 12:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: When I told my father, as I was graduating from law school, that I wanted to be a law professor, he said, "That's a cop out."; 8/9/11, 12:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Dad was right.; 8/9/11, 12:17 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Glenn Reynolds is an entrepreneur. He's branched out of academia. And, he figured out the Internet. Where he's a key player ... in something that's infinite, in its fashion. But most people would starve to death, if they called a blog a place where you could make a living.

A long time ago someone said Glenn Reynolds brings in $40,000 a month ... as a side job to his academic career. With InstaPundit.

I also think paper-chase-schmaypper chase. This isn't like dancing for money around a pole.

Given a classroom ... most people would die of fright to have to go in front of it. And, "discourse."

However, we've been celebrating the stand up comedians. So why not teachers? Don't you have to love something about the stage ... to willingly prepare to go out there and strut your stuff?

If you think every single class is alike, I'd beg to differ. Every single teacher has to mourn the last school day ... because there go the memories ...

Till next time. And,you begin, again, from scratch.

Gosh. I can remember "adults" coming back to see their old teachers, when I was just a young kid ... And, how those old teachers would glow. While most of the students couldn't understand that once released from school ... we'd ever want to go back "just to see someone."

You have to become an adult to see this view.

I know. I know. I've lost some of you. So, I'll restate it as this: You've got to love to teach for it to be practical.

It has nothing to do with the love of money. Which we all have. It has something to do with being PRICELESS!; 8/9/11, 12:46 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Ann, tell Google of your double-post. I ran into this problem, today. And, deleted the "shadow."

But the problem with Google is there ... So far, just in the background.; 8/9/11, 12:47 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: ...we Althouse commenters.

Looks like your traffic is off!; 8/9/11, 1:04 PM
Sprezzatura said...: "he said, "That's a cop out.""

Well at least he didn't rip your diploma in half, and then give half of it to your bro.; 8/9/11, 2:03 PM
The Drill SGT said...: traditionalguy said...
Henry V at Agincourt was not about Law School.

I don't know, I always thought Henry was talking about lawyers when he said:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."; 8/9/11, 3:47 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Tenured law professors report a high level of job satisfaction, with 81% reporting that the job is "exactly" or "pretty much" the job they had envisioned:"

Well, I would be dismissing you all over the place if after spending all those years watching the job being done right in front of you, you then said it wasn't what you expected.

I would expect teaching and homemaking are the occupations with the least surprises to those who take them up.; 8/9/11, 3:52 PM
traditionalguy said...: Drill sgt...Agincourt was 100% about probate law. Henry was told that his ancestors that were the Norman French conqueror were the heirs at law of France.

So due process of law took him to France to serve his writs, fortunately accompanied by a Band of Brothers.

He had no more chance of winning at Agincourt than Sarah the Alaskan has at GOPcourt, but the battle went surprisingly well, by the grace of God and a muddy, water covered field.

And we all know who sends the rain.; 8/9/11, 4:12 PM
Peano said...: When I told my father, as I was graduating from law school, that I wanted to be a law professor, he said, "That's a cop out."

I am going to be a college professor!; 8/9/11, 4:40 PM
The Drill SGT said...: @traditionalguy said...

I can work with that.

After the battle, he pressed his suit and after binding arbitration, he came away with:

- a Divestiture of France
- an affirmation of his claims
- For the Dauphin, a gift of Scorn/Defiance, and of course, loss of his inheritance
- his principal Demand, the Princess Royal :); 8/9/11, 4:40 PM
Fred4Pres said...: traditionalguy: So can we count on snow flying for Sarah!; 8/9/11, 5:42 PM
traditionalguy said...: Fred for Pres...We can count on some unusually good situations to follow Sarah around. That has been happening for her all along.

Will it snow? God knows.; 8/9/11, 9:28 PM