Podcast: "Everything"

In this short episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the widespread notion that, even beyond whatever specific and concrete challenges we each may be facing, there is an added factor of "everything" (in today's society, in life) that can sometimes feel crushing. Then he gives some advice.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.

Mike: This is Mike Spivey with the Spivey Consulting Group. I wanted to do a post on something we called, at our last week’s firm-wide professional development retreat, the category of "everything." But it's not everything admissions. So if you're here for admissions, I actually do think this is very important to hear, but it's not the nuanced admission trick. It's hopefully larger and more sustaining than that. We had two people on Zoom, Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino, who are part of our firm, but also do coaching for adults, coaching for lawyers. Jordana has her psychology degree from Yale and helps a lot with mental well-being. That's her field.

They talked about the stress on the students and the stress on the law firms, for that matter, and what the stressors are. And there's the economy, there's the dwindling hiring market right now. But then they put this other category in called "everything." That relates to applicants, too. That relates to me, and my friends, and your parents, and adults, and society in general. I love the way Dr. Gabor Maté—who was on our podcast, so you can listen to him—but I loved the way he worded it in his new book, The Myth of Normal. If you wanted to create in a lab, as an experiment, a society that's the most prone to anxiety, the most prone to jealousy, the most prone to depression, to addiction, to all kinds of harmful mental health deleterious outcomes, this is the society you would create. This one right here. And that includes social media, that includes comparing your outcomes to others.

So here's my point, that everything in the world right now is at a super-heightened state, and I've followed the rhythms of message boards and cycles for my entire adult professional career. Around now is when people will get the most vicious, the most hostile, the most attacking, and the most anxious. The anxiety is completely understandable. Anxiety is caused by uncertainty. This isn't the hardest cycle ever, but it's certainly the most uncertain cycle ever.

It's slower. U.S. News has now delayed their rankings release indefinitely, which means even though law schools have to make admits, they still might be waiting for their embargoed copy. So they received an embargoed copy, but then they were told they're going to get an updated sheet, and they never got it. Uncertainty in law schools, uncertainty in my friends that work at law schools. Huge, steep, incredible uncertainty for you all if you're an applicant. There's not much you can do about the uncertainty. There's nothing I can do about it. Other than monitor very carefully, which is why we track these rankings. Rankings are ridiculous, but they impact behavior, so we track them carefully. And the second we know something, we will let you know.

But what I would say is, the best time to focus on, okay, what really matters beyond the rankings, beyond if I get into the 14th ranked school but not the 12th ranked school, or the 75th ranked school but not the 55th ranked school, is going to be what you make of what you do. My favorite thing in the world—I don't know if this is healthy or not—my best motivator in the world has always been when people doubted me. I love it when someone tells me I can't do something. So if a law school hasn't gotten back to you, if a law school has denied you, and they're saying, “Look, you’re part of a great cohort of applications, but you can't be here,” there’s fuel for your fire. Let that motivate you. Who are they to tell you you can't do something?

In my long career now, over time, I knew thousands of people, thousands upon thousands who went to schools that weren't their dream schools, that now have gone on to do incredible things. Incredible things, amazing things. Not just helping themselves, not just helping their families, but helping others. The schools that told them "no" got it wrong. The schools that told you "no"—prove them wrong. Take that "everything" stress bucket—if you can, say, “You know what? As an individual data point, I can still be upbeat and cheer on other people this cycle,” others won't. You're going to see it. People just get more and more hostile online. "I'm miserable about my life. So I'm going to post something about you to try to make you feel miserable or to try to make me feel miserable." That person that does that, and you see it around now, has a long life ahead of them and a rough three years of law school ahead of them. When you still see people cheering each other on, on message boards, on social media, those people have the best lives ahead of them. Someone else's gain is not your loss, and your gain is not someone else's loss.

The job market's going to get better—you're in the luckiest position if you're applying now, because this is going to be a tough 12 to 18 months, but then it should rebound like it always does. This thing is always on a pendulum. Rankings will come out. Schools will make many more admits. If you think about admits off the waitlist, I’m talking about 50, five zero percent of admits still have to be made because law schools get 30-40% of their matriculating class off the waitlist. That might not seem like it now, and might not seem like it next week, but focus on yourself and let go of the "everything" in the world if you can. I'm trying to. I try hard. And I hope that when things pick up, what we see on Reddit, what we see on Twitter, and on message boards, on LSData chat, etc., is that with every admit—and they're coming—people are cheering each other on and rooting for each other, and that yours is coming too.

So no hidden admissions advice, just something on my mind this morning. Something that I hope is helpful. Stay upbeat, stay positive—still a long way to go, right? We're in April, so we have admits May, June, July, and even August. Hang in there.

This is Mike Spivey of the Spivey Consulting Group.

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In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco interviews Natalie Blazer, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer at the University of Virginia School of Law, on the upcoming 2025-2026 admissions cycle, how applicants should be thinking about and taking into account relevant current events, and advice for prospective law students preparing to submit their applications. They discuss predictions for the 2025-26 cycle (1:56), rising LSAT and GPA medians (20:22, 27:45), changes they've made to their application this year (12:30), the new student loan cap (30:26), how admissions offices are considering applicants writing about politics and protest in the current political climate (4:18), how they evaluate applicants who have been unable to get a job after graduating from college (7:36), whether writing about AI is overdone (36:34), advice for the "Why UVA" essay (13:05), and much more. As a brief disclaimer, Dean Blazer speaks for herself and often for UVA Law in this episode; her opinions do not reflect those of all admissions officers.

In addition to her work at UVA Law, Natalie has served as Director of J.D. Admissions at Georgetown University Law Center and was Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia Law School. She hosts the UVA Law podcast Admissible, which "offers insights into the world of law school admissions and a behind-the-scenes look at life as a law student through interviews with students, faculty, alumni and staff."

We've interviewed Natalie twice for Status Check before, and though we weren't able to get to all of the questions that Redditors requested we ask, we answered many of them in these past episodes:

Please note: At the time that we recorded this episode, we noted that August 2025 LSAT registrants were up 27% relative to August 2024 registrants but that that number would come down over the days of the test administration. Ultimately, August LSAT registrants landed at a 23.7% increase vs. last year.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.

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Bill Treanor on 30+ Years as a Law School Dean & Standing Up to Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike interviews William ("Bill") Treanor on his long and recently-concluded tenure as Dean of Georgetown University Law Center as well as his experiences and perspectives from a 40-year career. Bill talks about the the biggest changes he's seen during his time in legal education (16:06), the coming changes he foresees in the short-term future both good (19:22) and bad (20:56), his proudest accomplishments as a law school dean (41:57), the biggest challenges law students face today (24:27), and how he reacted and famously responded to the letter from Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin threatening not to hire Georgetown Law graduates if the school was found to be teaching a curriculum involving diversity, equity, and inclusion (1:33).

Dean Treanor's response to then-Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin is below. You can also read it in full here.

Header: Georgetown Law, William M. Treanor, Dean and Executive Vice President, Paul Regis Dean Leadership Chair, March 6, 2025, Addressed to: Edward R. Martin, Jr., Interim United States Attorney, District of Columbia Judiciary Center, 555 4th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. Contents of Letter: Dear Interim United States Attorney Martin: I write in response to your letter dated February 17, 2025, which you sent to me via email on March 3, 2025. As a Catholic and Jesuit institution, Georgetown University was founded on the principle that serious and sustained discourse among people of different faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical, and spiritual understanding. For us at Georgetown, this principle is a moral and educational imperative. It is a principle that defines our mission as a Catholic and Jesuit institution. Georgetown University also prohibits discrimination and harassment in its programs and activities and takes seriously its obligations to comply with all federal and local laws. Your letter challenges Georgetown’s ability to define our mission as an educational institution. It inquires about Georgetown Law’s curriculum and classroom teaching, asks whether diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of the curriculum, and asserts that your office will not hire individuals from schools where you find the curriculum “unacceptable.” The First Amendment, however, guarantees that the government cannot direct what Georgetown and its faculty teach and how to teach it. The Supreme Court has continually affirmed that among the freedoms central to a university’s First Amendment rights are its abilities to determine, on academic grounds, who may teach, what to teach, and how to teach it. Georgetown University Law Center 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20001-2075 This is a bedrock principle of constitutional law – recognized not only by the courts, but by the administration in which you serve. The Department of Education confirmed last week that it cannot restrict First Amendment rights and that it is statutorily prohibited from “exercising control over the content of school curricula.” Your letter informs me that your office will deny our students and graduates government employment opportunities until you, as Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, approve of our curriculum. Given the First Amendment’s protection of a university’s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University’s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution. Georgetown Law has one of the preeminent faculties in the country, fostering groundbreaking scholarship, educating students in a wide variety of perspectives, and thriving on the robust exchange of ideas. Georgetown Law faculty have educated world leaders, members of Congress, and Justice Department officials, from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We pride ourselves on providing an excellent graduate and professional education, built upon the Catholic and Jesuit tradition. Georgetown-educated attorneys have, for decades, served this country capably and selflessly in offices such as yours, and we have confidence that tradition will continue. We look forward to your confirming that any Georgetown-affiliated candidates for employment with your office will receive full and fair consideration. Sincerely, [Signature] William M. Treanor Dean and Executive Vice President Paul Regis Dean Leadership Chair 2

Other topics they discuss include the value (and lack of value) of the Socratic method (16:30), experiential learning in law school (16:06) and the potential effects of a current proposal before the ABA (20:56), the growing field of law and technology (19:22), the prospect of government taking accrediting authority from independent organizations (21:57), the current and coming impacts of AI on legal education and practice (23:43, 46:58), how law firms have learned from past recessions and overreactions (29:33), Bill's take on the current surge in law school applicants (30:36), his advice for prospective law students today (33:48), and his thoughts on the law school rankings (35:18).

Bill Treanor served as Dean of Georgetown University Law Center for 15 years, prior to which he served as Dean of Fordham University School of Law for almost 20 years. His accomplishments at Georgetown were innumerable—you can read more about him and his impressive career here.

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Podcast: "Everything"

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