Publisher's Notebook

Gov. Bob McDonnell received one of the highest awards given by the University of Notre Dame last week.

The Notre Dame Alumni Association presented the governor with the 2012 Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Award. McDonnell graduated from the school in 1976.

Established in 1985, the Cavanaugh Award is conferred on an alumnus/alumna (living or deceased) who is performing or has performed outstanding service in the field of government, patriotism, public service, local, state or national politics.

Past recipients have included former Arizona governor and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ’60, Gov. John Gilligan of Ohio ’43 and U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., ’68.

McDonnell, who practiced law in Virginia Beach before his election as Attorney General and then governor, is the second Cavanaugh recipient to hail from Hampton Roads.

In 2002, the Cavanaugh Award went to the late Philip L. Russo, who served as a Norfolk circuit judge from 1970 to 1992. Judge Russo earned his law degree from Notre Dame in 1949. He died in 2006.

Years ago, lawyers majored in law in college then took the bar and went on to their legal careers.

Anymore, of course, a degree from a law school is required to sit for the bar.

Here’s one from the Everything Old is New Again file.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, a Northwestern University law professor and a Chicago lawyer have penned a column arguing that we should cut out law school and allow undergraduates to major in law.

Their reasons: This measure would cut the costs of education, increase the number of lawyers, lower the fees charged by lawyers and serve the public better.

You make the call.

You might read this item, recall your own misspent undergraduate days and be glad you applied to law school in the pre-Facebook era.

A whole lot of law school admissions officials have been going online to review their applicants’ digital trail to determine whether to say thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

Kaplan Test Prep just conducted a survey of law schools and some 41 percent of admissions officers admitted that they had Googled the names of applicants.

Thirty-seven percent said they had been on Facebook, seeking information.

The survey was conducted by phone this past summer. A total of 200 ABA-accredited law schools were contacted, with responses recorded from 128 of them.

The bad news for a student with something sketchy circulating in the ether is that this stuff matters. Almost a third – 32 percent – of the admissions officers said that information learned online had hurt an applicant’s chances of admission.

What are the admissions people looking for when they Google or Facebook? Many bar licensing groups – including the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners – impose character and fitness tests as part of their vetting process. So, in two words, they are looking for good judgment.

Jeff Thomas, director of Kaplan’s pre-law programs, said in a release, “Clearly, an applicant’s digital trail can be an indicator of whether or not he or she possesses this quality.”

Forewarned is forearmed.

Back in 2007, Sen. John Kerry was attending a forum at the University of Florida, when a student named Andrew Meyer started asking the former Democratic presidential candidate a number of agitated questions.

Why hadn’t President Bush been impeached, he asked. And why had he conceded to Bush? Meyer was so wound up that security officers started to escort him outside. Kerry started to answer Meyer, who demanded to hear the responses.

Meyer was wrestled to the ground, uttering these immortal words: “Don’t tase me bro!”

Millions of YouTube viewings later, this phrase became a pop cult fixture. Meyer was charged with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest; the charges later were dropped.

So whatever happened to Meyer? The Washington Post’s Lifestyle magazine asked that very question.

Answer: He’s going to be a lawyer. Meyer graduated from UF and was admitted to the Florida International University law school, where he is now a second-year student.

Give Meyer credit for being an entrepreneur: After the incident, he trademarked the phrase “Don’t Tase Me Bro” and has a website where you can buy a T-shirt for $15.

(T-shirt artwork above is from Meyer’s site, design by Phil Fung).

It’s September, so law students are back in school, ready to learn lots and start looking for an elusive summer clerkship (2Ls) or an elusive job offer (3Ls).

The 1Ls are just trying to survive, and according to Above the Law, newbies at two different law schools are having trouble coping with, um, their lockers.

Anyone who made it through high school should be passingly familiar with having a locker and locker etiquette. Maybe some of these 1Ls are having flashbacks at having been stuffed into one.

At Washington University in St. Louis, the administration had to email instructions, including a video, on how to open the law school lockers.

And at Duke’s law school, there is a squatter’s battle going on. One student grabbed a locker another student had reserved, put his/her stuff in there, then put on a combination lock on it.

The aggrieved party of the second part responded as only a brand-new law student can: “Please remove your lock and any valuables. I do not want to have to commit a tort against you.”

OK, Mr./Ms. Hot-Shot 1L, here’s your first quiz: By posting that note, have you already committed a tort? Please discuss.

Just what is going on at the University of Virginia law school?

Students are in the middle of exam period, but distractions abound.

Above the Law has been following Mr. Jefferson’s law school, and reports, that among other things:

• A 3L claimed that he had been racially profiled and harassed by University police, then admitted he made up the whole story. UVa’s storied honor system may or may not apply.

• A 2L was arrested by U-cops last Friday and charged with stalking and assault on his ex-girlfriend.

Stay tuned.

It’s graduation season, and all across Virginia, indeed the country, schools will be holding commencement ceremonies, conferring degrees and welcoming new members of the community of educated individuals.

Some law schools graduate their students with everyone else, and some schools hold a separate ceremony. Doesn’t seem to be any real pattern.

At Washington & Lee, for example, the law school had its ceremony last week. American Bar Association President Carolyn Lamm was the commencement speaker.

Back in 1985, Sen. John Warner was our law school commencement speaker. I remember that he railed against a lawyer with a license plate, “I Sue 4 U” and not much else.

After seeing that Lamm, who practices in DC, was at W&L, I wondered who else was giving the address at other law schools.

U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer spoke at the University of Richmond law ceremonies, also held last weekend. A very quick Google search, and here you have a couple this weekend: Former Pennsylvania Gov. and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is at Penn State. U.S. Sen. Scott Brown goes back to his alma mater, Boston College law. And retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will speak to the law class at the school where she is chancellor, William & Mary.

The following weekend? The U.Va. law school also has tapped a U.S. Senator who is an alum, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. At Vermont Law School, former Gov. Howard Dean will give the commencement address. Whether he’ll scream at the end has not been announced.

About 40,000 people will graduate from law school this month and next, and according to the Wall Street Journal, they face one of the worst hiring markets for new lawyers in a generation.

One of the problems is supply and demand. Law school enrollments and graduation rates have steady reasonably steady. But law firms and a host of other employers have cut hiring during the recession.