Education Dept. to cut 1,300 jobs

 The US Education Department is facing unprecedented workforce disruption, with potential layoffs of approximately 50% of its 4,400 employees. This isn't just a departmental shift - it's a potential seismic change in educational policy and infrastructure.

As a professional in any sector, this should raise critical questions:
- How will these changes impact educational standards?
- What implications does this have for future workforce development?
- Are we witnessing a fundamental restructuring of educational governance?

The proposed massive workforce reduction signals a significant government strategy to streamline federal operations. While efficiency can be positive, we must carefully consider the potential long-term consequences on educational quality and accessibility.

Key considerations for professionals:
1. Stay informed about governmental policy shifts
2. Understand potential ripple effects in education and workforce training
3. Be prepared for potential systemic changes

This isn't just a government issue - it's a national conversation about our educational future.

Law firm summer associate hiring hit an all-time low in 2024, as firms took a "conservative" recruiting approach, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

The total number of summer associate offers was down slightly compared with the 11-year low of 2023, while the median number of summer associate offers per law firm office fell to six in 2024 from seven in 2023 — the lowest since NALP began tracking that figure in 1993. The average number of summer associate offers, that law firms made to second-year law students, held steady at 22.

The number of summer associate offers tracked by NALP indicates that the hiring market has not rebounded from last year’s slump.

U.S. law firms have focused their recent hiring efforts on experienced laterals and reduced their summer associate and associate hiring amid uncertain demand and declining lawyer productivity, a January report from the Thomson Reuters Institute found. The institute shares a parent company with Reuters.

Additionally, firms are still adjusting to a hiring surge in 2021 and 2022, fueled by a spike in demand for legal services as the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane, which left them overstaffed, said NALP executive director Nikia Gray. The lower summer associate hiring comes at a time when law firm profits are strong but client demand is slowing.

The new NALP figures, which focus on hiring practices at more than 180 law firms, also show that traditional on-campus interviews are no longer the primary vehicle for summer associate hiring and that law firms are locking down those hires earlier than ever to compete for the best recruits.

More than half of this year’s incoming summer associates (56%) received their offers outside of law schools’ formal recruiting events, through either direct recruiting, referrals, or resume collections. That’s up from 47% in 2023.

This year, only 24% of summer associate offers came through on-campus interviews conducted in mid-to-late summer. Another 20% of offers were extended through early interview programs, which are a relatively new type of recruiting event put on by law schools in spring or early summer to get students in front of law firms before OCIs.

The new data offers further evidence that summer associate hiring is earlier and more decentralized than ever. The shift to online interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier for law firms to connect with students outside of formal interviewing programs, the report notes. Previously, law firms would come to law school campuses in late July and August for in-person interviews. NALP also did away with its voluntary recruiting guidelines in 2018, giving law firms more flexibility in how they hire law students.

Shifting to earlier recruiting "has proven necessary to continue to secure top talent," said Erika Gardiner, McDermott Will & Emery's director of talent acquisition for law students and associates.

 The European Union will impose counter tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28.33 billion) worth of U.S. goods from next month in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium, the European Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.

The commission said it will end the current suspension of tariffs on U.S. products on April 1 and will also put forward a new package of countermeasures on U.S. goods by mid-April.

"This matches the economic scope of the U.S. tariffs. Our countermeasures will be introduced in two steps. Starting with 1 April and fully in place as of 13 April," Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement.

"We are ready to engage in meaningful dialogue. I have entrusted Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic to resume his talks to explore better solutions with the U.S.," von der Leyen added.

U.S. President Donald Trump's increased tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium imports took effect on Wednesday as prior exemptions, duty free quotas and product exclusions expired.

 Elon Musk kicked off his appeal to try to restore his $56 billion payday from Tesla on Tuesday, claiming a lower court judge made multiple legal errors in rescinding the record compensation.

The 2018 pay package resulted in spectacular growth for the electric vehicle maker and yet it was determined by the lower Court of Chancery to be unfair to shareholders, who voted twice to approve the plan, Musk argued.

"That counterintuitive result defies settled principles of Delaware law, sound corporate governance, and common sense," said the opening appeal brief by Musk and the current and former Tesla directors who are defendants in the case.

In January 2024, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick rescinded the pay package of stock options, calling it "unfathomable." She said it was unfair to Tesla shareholders because the directors who approved it were beholden to Musk and Tesla withheld key information from investors before they voted to approve it.

In June, Tesla got shareholder approval for the pay package for a second time, but the judge rejected that as grounds for reversing her ruling.

The pay package had awarded Musk options to buy around 303 million Tesla shares at around $23 each if the company hit performance and valuation goals. Tesla stock closed Tuesday at $230.58.

Tesla has said creating a new pay package of similar value could result in a charge of $25 billion, making the appeal an important avenue for restoring Musk's compensation and keeping his attention on Tesla.

Musk has said that he wants a greater stake in Tesla or he might develop products outside of the company. The appeal comes as he is dedicating time to President Donald Trump's government efficiency effort, known as DOGE, which has sparked demonstrations outside Tesla dealerships. The stock has fallen sharply in recent weeks.

In the appeal brief, Musk and the other defendants said McCormick wrongly applied a very difficult legal standard known as entire fairness to assess the pay package.

She arrived at that standard by finding Musk, who owned 21.9% of the stock at the time the board approved the pay package, controlled the pay negotiations, according to the brief. In addition, she wrongly determined that ordinary business relationships among directors made them conflicted and she erroneously faulted Tesla's disclosures ahead of the 2018 shareholder vote, according to the brief.

Applying the entire fairness standard amounted to granting a "license to sue" to Tesla shareholders, the brief said. The lawsuit was brought by Richard Tornetta, a Tesla investor who owned nine shares when he filed the case in 2018. The lawsuit benefits Tesla, not Tornetta, in what is known as a derivative suit.

Musk blasted the pay decision and has encouraged other companies to follow Tesla and SpaceX and reincorporate out of Delaware. A handful have left the state or said they might, including Meta Platforms, opens new tab(META.O), opens new tab, TripAdvisor (TRIP.O), which opens a new tab, and Trump's media company.

Fears that a trickle of companies will turn into a stampede, which has been dubbed "DExit," prompted the state's legislature to consider amending its corporate law to better protect controlling shareholders from lawsuits.

The House passed a bill to avert a government shutdown, sending it to the Senate at 12:01 a.m. Saturday deadline nears.

The White House pushed Republicans to vote for the measure, helping to overcome lingering GOP concerns over the legislation. It will need Democratic votes to pass the Senate.

 Consumer Price Index (CPI) Preview – Inflation Update 📊

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is expected to show progress on inflation, with headline numbers estimated between 0.23% and 0.3% for the month.

🔹 Headline CPI YoY Expected: 2.8% – 2.9% 📉
🔹 Core CPI MoM Expected: 0.3%
🔹 Core CPI YoY Expected: 3.1% – 3.2% (down from 3.3%)

📉 Key Factors Driving Inflation Down:
✅ Energy Prices fell ~6% in February, helping lower both headline & core CPI
✅ Used Car Prices dropped 0.7%, which could further ease inflation
✅ Shelter Costs (44% of Core CPI) may come in lighter, dictating the extent of the core inflation decline

💡 Bottom Line:
Both headline & core inflation are expected to decline, but shelter costs will be the biggest factor in determining how much progress is made.

“The Department of Education. Who needs it?” seems to be the message coming out of Donald Trump’s White House.

A few weeks ago, soon after President Donald Trump took office, multiple outlets reported that the Trump administration was preparing an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education responsible for managing access to student loans that help fund the college degrees of millions of Americans.

While that order has yet to come, CNN is reporting that employees of the Department of Education have been asked to vacate the offices by 6 pm ET and that leaders plan to cut the workforce of the agency by half. Up to 4,000 workers could lose their jobs as a result of these cuts.

Here we will look at the fate of the loans and the prospects of securing them given the administration’s latest move to remake the federal government.

The confusion for borrowers that could follow if the Department of Education is eliminated

Regardless, given the sheer number of people who take out student loans each year and those who continue to hold their education debts, dismantling the Department of Education would cause confusion for borrowers. According to the Education Data Initiative, as of 2024, 42.7 million borrowers owe around $1.69 trillion in federal student loan debt.

If these cuts to the workforce are the first step in dismantling the Department of Education, what will happen to student debt? For those who believe the change could lead to the elimination of outstanding debts... don’t get your hopes up. Additionally, for those seeking out trusted information about their student loans, including repayment plans, the migration of the information to another website could limit access to the resources currently available on the department’s website.

Instead, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), which administers federal student loans, would be moved to another department and continue to carry out its functions. The situation highlights how the headline about the department being dismantled is a bit misleading, considering that many of the services it provides would simply be placed under the jurisdiction of other government agencies. Newsweek reported that one possible destination for the FSA could be the Department of the Treasury, based on information received from Betsy Mayotte, who currently serves as the president and founder of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.