Online learning gains favor, diversity in SCOTUS clerkship, and office dress code challenges

?? Good morning. In today's Legal File: Law students report online learning gains, but in-person still wins out. Jackson selects a diverse set of lawyers to serve as clerks at the Supreme Court. Return-to-office after two years throws up the question of 'what to wear' for summer associates. Employment law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp hires former Seyfarth Shaw partner as head of litigation.

?? Law students report online learning gains, but in-person still wins out

A survey of law students by AccessLex Institute and Gallup this spring indicated that schools improved their online offerings during the two-year pandemic and that students are more open to hybrid classes or learning remotely.

In-person instruction still takes the prize: Among surveyed students who took most or all of their classes remotely this year, 72% rated their program as either good or excellent, compared to 78% of those who took classes in person.

But that’s a much smaller gap than in 2021, when 57% of online J.D. students and 76% of in-person students gave their program high marks.

More 2022 respondents also said they would highly recommend an online J.D. program to family and friends — from 11% a year ago to 16% in the latest survey.

Universities and colleges have faced more than 250 lawsuits from students seeking tuition refunds stemming from the switch to remote learning in the spring of 2020, many of which have been dismissed.

?? Jackson's first Supreme Court clerks include judiciary workplace reform advocate

U.S. Supreme Court Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson has selected a diverse set of lawyers to serve as her first four law clerks, including one who has advocated for the judiciary to do more to prevent sexual harassment.

The hires include Claire Madill, who has been working in Florida as a public defender, a role Jackson once served in, and who co-founded Law Clerks for Workplace Accountability.

Two other hires clerked for Jackson previously: Kerrel Murray, in district court, and Natalie Salmanowitz, in the D.C. Circuit.

Murray is a Stanford Law School graduate and an associate professor at Columbia Law School who writes on constitutional law, election law and race and the law. Salmanowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is a law clerk at Hogan Lovells.

Jackson also is hiring Michael Qian, a Stanford law graduate and associate at Morrison & Foerster who earlier clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020.

?? As law firm summer associates return to office, the Great Wardrobe Debate rages

With law firms welcoming summer associates back in person this month after a two-year hiatus, the eager-to-impress newcomers have one big question: What to wear?

For aspiring lawyers, choosing the right clothing isn’t just about vanity or self-expression. It’s also a way to telegraph a message: I belong here.

Making the transition from student schlumpy to lawyer-like has always been a challenge for summer associates, but two years in sweats and Uggs is making it even harder.

Hogan Lovells U.S. hiring partner Carin Carithers said the firm, which is hosting 84 summer associates this year, does not have a dress code, and that “suggested attire is largely determined by each office.”

“Since our transition to hybrid working, many of our people have been wearing attire that falls into the category of business casual, though we do have some offices where jeans are commonplace,” she said. “Of course, when our lawyers are headed to court or other client-facing functions, we continue to dress in business-appropriate attire.”

?? Plaintiffs' firm Sanford Heisler picks up former Seyfarth Shaw lawyer

Nancy Rafuse, who was a partner at Seyfarth Shaw until December, has joined plaintiffs' employment law firm?Sanford Heisler Sharp?as its head of litigation, the firm said.

Rafuse, a veteran of several large law firms, moves to a firm that has established a reputation for suing them. Sanford Heisler Sharp has brought employment discrimination lawsuits against global firms like?Morrison Foerster, Proskauer Rose and?Jones Day.

Sanford Heisler has six offices, but Rafuse will be working from Atlanta, where the firm said it currently does not have an outpost.

Before Rafuse was a partner at Seyfarth Shaw, she worked at Polsinelli and Paul Hastings, and ran her own firm, Rafuse Hill & Hodges, for more than 10 years.

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