Last week, I presented the first part of my written interview with Ethan Madore, 7Sage’s coordinator of their law school admissions consulting program. That column presented his answer to the first of my three questions and focused on how the changing law school admissions landscape has made getting into one’s school of choice more difficult than ever. What follows are Ethan’s answers to my remaining two questions. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to his answers below, but have otherwise presented his answers as he provided them.
GK: What lessons have you learned about how best to position candidates in light of the factors law schools are choosing to focus on?
EM: Many of the best candidates tell stories about wising-up. Among the flood of young graduates looking to law school as a way to learn how to write a blank check for social change, candidates with a sober understanding of what’s possible — and admirable — in the life of a lawyer really stand out.
And there are a lot of people who would make great law students and lawyers who get passed over because they don’t realize there’s a good deal of strategy in how you choose to present yourself. An application is a test. If you’re from a certain background, you probably already understand that. If not, it can really be a learning curve.
When our committee of admissions officers do their blind reviews on a fresh set of applications, you really see the difference the right narrative can make. Admissions officers are natural cynics and stereotypers. They’re there to recognize patterns and secure certain outcomes for the institutions that employ them. But they’re also human. They want to believe that their role as professional gatekeepers actually does contribute to the kind of change they want to see in the world. In the heart of hearts, they believe they’re there to elevate the worthy, punish the arrogant, and dole out hard-earned second chances.
When I read an application for the first time, I always underline the first moment I start to like a candidate. Usually, it’s a very small moment of self-description. Far too often, it comes at the very end of an application. But if you do that early enough to get a reader on your side, then there’s a lot you can do with the right narrative delivered to a sympathetic audience.
GK: Pragmatism is in short supply. As is resilience. But both are qualities that are essential to success in legal practice, especially as we stand on the precipice of an AI-driven shift in how legal services are delivered to clients. For me, Ethan’s answer is a reminder that screening for those who have demonstrated the ability to think and act pragmatically, or who have shown resilience in the face of challenges, is a good approach for all of us to take when evaluating others. Whether it is to build a 1L law school class, bring on a lateral partner or associate, or when choosing to partner with another lawyer on a client matter — spotting and acting on evidence that your counterparty embodies a pragmatic and resilient spirit is critical to a successful relationship. And if you can find something likeable about the person you are choosing to deal with, all the better.
GK: What challenges do you and your team at 7Sage look forward to tackling in the coming years?
EM: Universities have been adopting the ‘revenue model’ of education for decades. The median tenure for a law school dean is less than three years — that’s not enough time to see an entering class through graduation. What happens is that a new person comes in with a promise to raise a school’s ranking, which they do by maximizing the very limited factors measured by U.S. News. Maybe they cut academic programs to give scholarships to people with really high LSAT scores. Their LSAT median goes up, their ranking goes up. But the program doesn’t get better. And so in two years, there’s a crash. The school falls back down to where it was before — often lower. But that new dean, well, they’ve already already gotten a new job at a higher-ranked university on the basis of their “accomplishment.” The cycle repeats!
Of course that isn’t the problem 7Sage’s admissions program is trying to solve. But it’s the landscape we’re in. Our concern is for the individual: how do you climb this increasingly rickety ladder up into professional life? The more we can help people reflect on why they’re about to take this journey and explain themselves to these gatekeepers of professional life, the more they can make smart choices in the face of billion-dollar educational institutions.
Universities have embraced being businesses. You need to be a savvy, suspicious, disenchanted customer if you want what they’re selling. You need to talk to them the right way.
GK: I believe that many readers, like myself, are glad that they don’t have to navigate the law school admissions process in the current climate. At the same time, even though Ethan’s considered opinion about the flawed outcomes engendered by short-term thinking at law schools rings true, I think what is most important to remember is his advice to aspiring applicants. Namely, that it is important to be an informed consumer, while also confident in why they want to go to law school in the first place. As I watch my son work his way through the current application cycle with 7Sage’s help, I can’t help but be excited and proud to watch him take the brave next step towards a life of what I hope will be full of professional fulfillment and contributions to society.
My thanks to Ethan for the insights and cooperation, and I wish him continued success with his important work at 7Sage’s law school admissions consulting program. Hopefully this readership will share Ethan’s insights with aspiring law students and any current applicants they have in their lives. Our profession is ever-changing and it is in our collective best interest that the next generation of law school attendees is as capable and well-trained for a career in the law as can be. Law school admissions offices are the gatekeepers that help make that happen — and thoughtful consultants like Ethan and his colleagues help make the admissions process more successful for applicants as well as those making the decisions. I am always open to conducting interviews of this type with other IP thought leaders, so feel free to reach out if you have a compelling perspective to offer.
Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at [email protected] or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.