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[methodsman]

Lately I have come into contact with a number of ex-lawyers in my line of work.  This experience leads me to believe that either: all but one received lobotomies, or lawyer school does not adequately prepare people for higher education administration.  Most of the time I can't follow their line of logic when they speak (and forget about it when there are two or more at a meeting; they just take over), and at the end of the day, no real direction or action points emerge from the participation.  Further, they are dreadfully awful at using and understanding data which most of them are charged to do to some degree.  I am more than willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and time to transition, but it seems that somehow having been a lawyer makes one more valuable that someone with a masters degree in higher education or even the social sciences.  Anyone else had this experience?

mm

[maybeitsmebut]

And, some insist on being called "Dr."

[irhack]

I once worked at a place with a law school that allowed employees to attend the law school with a 75% discount on their tuition, so we'd get a lot of "lawyers" floating around who never passed the bar and so continued working in administration. I don't miss that place at all.

[maybeitsmebut]

I kid you not, we have a JD in our department right now who does not have an undergrad degree or a master's degree in the subject area he teaches, or even the 18 grad-level credit hours required in the subject area and he is allowed to teach most of the classes in the concentration. He is also an assistant professor. No, seriously.

Too keep some anonymity here, he practiced law in peanut butter gargling, and our department is in bicycle repair. He does not have a large body of experience in bicycle repair either. Ok, so he isn't an administrator, but still he basically runs the program. His attitude of entitlement is really ticking me off. How is this even allowed?

[methodsman]

maybeitsmebut,

I think that what lawyer school does is teach people how to talk, persuasively, loudly and convincingly. It also teaches them the ability to lie--to themselves and to others.  It also teaches self-aggrandizement.  So we see them tucked into very nice little positions because they have honed the skill of talking their way in and up in a fashion that most honest people would not. That's at least my take on the situation.

mm

[oldfullprof]

Some people think a JD is an MBA, but it's not.  Because we once had a criminal justice component in our department, we have had JDs teaching sociology as adjuncts.  Not good.

[maybeitsmebut]

Oldfullprof - I won't even go into what they have this guy (JD) teaching. I really don't think he is even computer literate, ethical, or knows the subject. It is an odd situation. I do know that our Uni was in a precarious situation before, and brought this guy in to "assist." Bad choice. How he is still here, I have no idea.

So, methodsman, what happened to make you want to discuss this? I'm just curious.

[oldfullprof]

We have a fairly useless JD as one of our administrators.  They retired him inn place, then brought in another manager to do the three-quarters of his job he didn't do.  He must know where some bodies are burried.