While I know it has been extremely difficult for recent law-school graduates to find employment this year, the data in Kara Baskin’s story was not accurate. Ninety-two percent of our class of 2008 was employed within six months after graduation.
All law schools are required to survey their recent graduates regarding their employment status and provide that data to the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) every February. We are required to report all types of employment, which includes legal, non-legal, temporary, and permanent positions.
Northeastern, in collaboration with the other Massachusetts law schools, had a number of special programs this year for graduates still seeking employment. We also continue to provide career counseling, guidance, and support to all of our graduates. We understand how hard it is for them during these challenging times.
Randi Friedman
Assistant Dean/Director of Career Services
Northeastern University School of Law
Kara Baskin makes no distinction between those who go to law school to make money and those who want to help vulnerable people. There are so many poor people who need help in this country. It is shameful that this article does not encourage these young lawyers to just begin practicing. Prairie doctors used to accept livestock as payment for health care. Why do these conformist lawyers only seek work at corporate law firms? Who wants to work 60 hours a week and endure pressure to bill more hours? Is that how human suffering is reduced?
No wonder there is so much government corruption. Lawyers who are licensed to correct abuses — officers of the courts, if you will — have no clue or desire to solve problems. They wait for the wealthy and powerful to tell them what to do. That’s how universities train young lawyers?
Roy Bercaw
Cambridge
Great, but not the greatest
Thanks for the coverage of one of Boston’s — and baseball’s — best and most colorful pitchers. As any of us who saw him pitch can attest, Luis Tiant certainly belongs in the Hall of Fame. But a correction is in order: speaking of Hall of Fame pitchers, how can anyone forget that it was the great Bob Gibson, not Tiant, who led the Major Leagues with an even more miniscule 1.12 ERA in 1968 (Tiant finished second in this category) — the lowest mark since 1914. It was a feat that not only helped lead the Cardinals to a National League pennant and a World Series berth, but earned Gibson both a Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award that year. His was considered to be one of the most dominant single seasons by any pitcher in history, so it says something about Tiant’s spectacular year that just about the only pitcher to have a better 1968 than “Looie” was Gibson. Not too shabby.
Roxanne Euben
Brookline
What you see is what you get
I first met Deval Patrick walking around the convention center back in 2006, when he was introducing himself to anyone who cared. Here we are a few years later and that little-known outsider has become the consummate insider. Together we can change, eh?
Patrick lacked Politics 101 skills in early 2006 and apparently, after getting elected, still lacks those skills. Even you, the Phoenix, gave him a D-plus. What he’s said, how he’s reacted to criticism, who he appoints to hack jobs, his arrogance, his tone deafness to political reality — it all points to him being as inept as he seems. He gets an F from this guy, because he’s doing such an F-ing bad job as governor.
Sal Giarratani
Roslindale
