In the 1960s, Buddhist monks engaged in self immolation (called Bonzo) as a means of protest. It was dramatic. The image was horrific and people took notice. The downside was that it was a one-shot deal.
Via ATL, we learned that an unemployed law school graduate, Ethan Haines, has gone on a hunger strike. Not to end war. Not to end human suffering. His is a higher calling.
My name is Ethan Haines. I stand in place of countless law students and recent graduates who have been disillusioned by law school employment statistics, commercial school rankings, and antiquated career counseling programs. I designated myself class representative since these students are not able to come forward themselves, for fear that vocalizing their concerns will negatively affect their careers.
On August 5, 2010, I began a hunger strike to bring awareness to the concerns of my classmates, as detailed in the Notice I forwarded to law school administrators at ten of the nation\’s top law schools.
This website will chronicle my hunger strike, dealings with law school administrators, and feature personal stories from law students and recent law graduates. This will not be an easy feat, but I am committed to inspiring change because you deserve to have your stories told and your concerns addressed.
“Being the change I want to see…”
Ethan Haines
J.D. Class Representative
Inspiring change is a worthy thing to do. Certainly, law schools have done far less than they could to promote transparency and honesty in those whose money supports the critical scholarship of lawprofs and serves as a profit center for the Academies’ less monied disciplines, like animal husbandry. As those of us who observe the phenomenon of new lawyers entering the profession are well aware, this is no way to get rich.
But I don’t get the sense that Ethan understands what he’s getting himself into. He’s got a blog and inviting stories of other recent law grads of their misery and deception. He’s twitting about his hunger strike. He’s sent “notice” to ten law schools demanding that they meet his two conditions:
(1) Agree to comply with Law School Transparency’s (LST) employment disclosure request or state whether it anticipates declining their request. Provide written confirmation of your intent to comply with LST’s request.
(2) Agree to audit your career counseling programs for effectiveness, resourcefulness, and accuracy. Provide written confirmation of your intent to comply with this request.
Well, okay. Not quite stop the war, but it’s something. Yet there’s no real indication that Ethan gets the point of a hunger strike.
Ethan, it’s about dying. It’s about not eating ever again unless your demands are met. It’s about depriving yourself of food until you reach the point that you starve to death. Starve. Not just get really, really hungry. Not just become uncomfortable. Not just get so light headed that you can’t play with your game cube. Dying.
Are you really prepared to die for the cause, Ethan?
Let’s agree that things are pretty bad for law school grads, especially those who went to law school for all the wrong reasons and were so taken by the law porn and promise of wealth and fame. It’s incredibly dishonest, and takes advantage of young students and ignorant parents who harbor the inexplicable belief that their little baby, out of all the law students on the student loan line, will be the one to get the brass ring and pull down $160k and a corner office at Biglaw.
Nasty, lying law schools. We got it. We’re with you.
But is this really worth dying for?
Let me offer an alternative plan. If you really don’t mind going hungry, how about taking that very expensive and otherwise unusable education and putting it to work for other people who are hungry. You know, some sort of hungry helping hungry protest. There are literally millions of Americans in desperate need of legal assistance, both in criminal and civil arenas, who could really use your help.
A lot of these people, like you today, are hungry. The only difference is that they aren’t hungry by choice. They just don’t have anything to eat. There are no Cheetos in the cupboard whispering, “Ethan, eat me, eat me.”
If you really think that transparency in law school careers is worth your life, then make a statement and do something big. Huge. Death is death, Ethan, and if your plan is to die for your cause, then do it right.
But if you really aren’t in it for eternity, as I suspect you aren’t, then maybe you could accomplish more by cutting the nonsense and putting your efforts into something meaningful. As long as you’re going to be hungry anyway, don’t waste it.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Absurd. I tried to remain calm, but this makes me really angry. Whether intentionally or not, this kid is analogizing diminished career prospects and law schools that are less than honest in their marketing with some of the worst human rights atrocities in history. I’m sure it is a real problem for him and something that needs to be addressed, but melodrama doesn’t help, it hurts the cause.
Each of us must search our hearts for those things we consider worth dying for. lol.
Good post Scott. I know I’m not living in the midst of the reality of being turned away from law firms when I thought I had a high-paying job coming, but I can put myself in these students’ shoes because I am a human being. I’m sorry for what they are going through, as it’s no fun being disillusioned, but I am disappointed in the apparent lack of understanding that this world takes a lot of work. I worked for a year to find my 1st job, and had to hustle to find it. It wasn’t even my dream job, but it was my start in the right direction. I’ve experienced hungry times since, believe me, but I know that no one owes me anything. I’m having a hard time understanding why there’s no acknowledgment of the fact that there are no guarantees in our lives, that employers don’t owe us jobs and that we are ultimately responsible for paving our way. Again, I acknowledge I don’t have all the facts, but I remain a bit confused.
I just read a statement Ethan made to another blawger. Hs hunger strike includes, no joke, an allowance to drink juice. That’s like a monk taking an absolute vow of celibacy, but allowing himself unlimited blowjobs.
This would have been such a great comment had it only not spun into social media equivocation. Come on, Nancy, woman up.
Would you begrudge a monk a blowjob?
What do you mean?
All what facts? What could possibly be confusing about this?
Ah, I see where you’re coming from now. I wrote that because I hadn’t read Ethan’s original post. Having read it a few minutes ago, I withdraw my “equivocation.”
Are you sure?
Yep! 🙂
OK, Scott, here I go again thinking that things are actually simpler than some people want us to believe.
My understanding in going to law school was that I would get a 3 year legal education in order to take a bar exam. From my vantage point, they did that. Sure, we all have gripes about our law schools and the state of legal education, but ultimately I was allowed to take the bar exam.
Sure, they had the “career services” office that kindly scheduled some interviews and posted various job openings on a bulletin board, but I didn’t take them too seriously. Most of us searched independently for a regular salary.
At no point did I think that my, or any other, law school had a duty to find me a job or give me the premium Glengarry leads. There is no entitlement to a job, and I never saw that as a condition to my paying tuition. They did, however, make it clear that good grades mean more opportunities when job-seeking.
You could tell that they tried to do things to bump themselves in the rankings, and everyone seemed to understand that this was a means of marketing, and nothing more. It was transparent because it was obvious.
I did not have big law grades. My law school was average (per most ranking services). I was not on law review or moot court. I went to work initially for the government because I spent a lot of time researching their available jobs online, calling, and applying for jobs. Evidently, this method of job seeking is the modern equivalent of smoking while carrying a baby.
Therefore, I resolve to maintain a balanced (but somewhat high in red meat) diet until the government awards me the PowerBall jackpot. No, I don’t plan to buy a ticket, I just feel like they owe it to me for not providing me with better insight into the PowerBall process, methodology, history, and chances.
Geez, Eric. When they were handing out the entitlement gene, you got screwed. I’d sue.
Absolutely. I’ll start with St. Francis Hospital and then attach my preschool teacher, Ms. Fountain. They obviously conspired in this matter.
We have inexplicably stumbled upon the solution to the priest shortage. Where does one get in line? (I’m asking for my guy friends)
I’m impressed that you managed to write 500 words on this topic without using the word “narcissistic.”
I think you’re all being way too cynical. He’s making a serious contribution.
He’s not only going to go hungry for a little while (except for that juice thing). He’s also going to maintain a website, sell self-promotional t-shirts and the like, and accept donations (because someone has to pay for all that food he won’t be eating?).
Sure, all you see is that he’s a narcissist. Nonsense. He’s a profiteer, advancing his career on the backs of those who actually suffer from the sense of entitlement rather than seeing it as a marketing ploy.
Man can, indeed, survive on juice alone.
I like to see initiative, in any form, but I don’t get the point of this. Since the end of 2008, the legal trade press have been brimming with stories about law firm layoffs and increased unemployment in the legal profession. There are at least 5 blogs that specifically address the difficulties that third tier grads, in particular, face in the job market. Yet applications to law schools are UP.
As for what placement offices are doing – well, how about asking students what THEY are doing? Last February, I spoke at a law school event on starting a law practice. The panel included at least 5 other local practitioners with firms of 5 or more attorneys, who actually had many connections with the community (one of the firms was actively seeking new blood). Thus, even if students weren’t interested in starting a firm, they might have been able to find a job. The career office promoted the event with posters, emails and even radio. Yet only 3 students of a class of 200 attended the event. The career offices can only do so much. And while I’ll admit that some are clueless, many of the career people I’ve met are very savvy about prospects and eager to help. But they can’t write the letters for students, they can’t hold their hands and make the contacts. Students need to take the initiative. Sad to say, by going on a hunger strike, this student is doing more that’s proactive (albeit misguided) than the majority of grads that I’ve seen.
That word gets thrown around so much it doesn’t really mean anything anymore.
Only 3 out of a class of 200? Maybe there were busy bemoaning their fate on their blogs? Seriously, what a sad (and real) commentary.
Notice that I didn’t use the “N” word at all, not even in reply to Mark. Nope, not using it.
But he’s giving 30% away. And they are pre-shrunk.
I wish this guy success in his career – not as a lawyer, but as a marketer. The T-shirts he’s selling indicate that Ethan is looking for a 6-figure salary. Most people starting their own law firm aren’t counting on a 6-figure income their first year in practice, are they? On the other hand, one might be able to make that kind of money selling T-shirts and taking handouts.
Hi, Scott- It took many years for me to learn the name of the monk pictured in your entry. He was Thich Quang Duc, who on June 11, 1963, in protest of persecution of Buddhists, followed the centuries-old practice among some Buddhists of self-immolation, doing so in Saigon.
Though I do not think I would carry out such a form of protest, it appears that he had reached a high level of mindfulness.
I spoke not long ago with an American-born Buddhist monk who told me that he was inspired very much by Thich Quang Duc quite sometime before this American-born monk decided to become a monk.
I wonder whether this young man is still breast feeding.
Hey Jon. Thanks for the background. He must have reached an extraorindarily level of mindfulness given how he sat there peacefully as he burned. It’s really one of the most amazing images ever.
Marilou:
I think that blowjobs are more likely the cause of, and not the solution for, this priest shortage that you reference.
Misery and Lego.
Decades passed for me to learn how at once to be mindful of countless people’s misery and to do my share helping to alleviate misery, while also finding a way to enjoy life lest I become useless in helping others. I ultimately recognized that if I wait
Carolyn, I agree with you. As applications have gone up, my patience with surprised graduates, 1Ls who are certain they won’t be contributing to the jobless statistic, and students who aren’t willing to take advantage of existing resources and opportunities is wearing thin.
It’s too bad law schools aren’t more like business schools in their preference for students who have worked in the real world for a few years. I think if they were we might see students making informed decisions about going to law school and taking control of their careers while in school and upon graduation.
I’m pretty sure a program where you get by on nothing but fruit juice and water is called a “diet,” not a hunger strike.
I wouldn’t know from such things. I keep my boyish figure by strict adherence to the dougnut burger diet (from the people who brought you chocolate covered bacon).