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Against the Tide - Enhanced Edition by Debbie Hagan
Non-Fiction
This is an Enhanced Podcast and must be accessed on iTunes or with a newer-model iPod. It will not play on any other software or device.
Corrupt business owners, unscrupulous local politicians, impossible odds and a highly unconventional student body are just a few of the obstacles faced by Lawrence R. Velvel, as he packs up his home of 16 years and heads north to become Dean of a brand new law school in Lowell, Massachusetts. When nothing in Lowell turns out to be what it first appears, Velvel and a handful of law students are forced to choose between giving up on their life long dream, and attempting the impossible.
This page turning story of the little law school that did is a classic David and Goliath tale, pitting the working class taxi drivers, bank tellers and contractors with the dream of creating a better life for themselves, against wealthy business men, former US Senators, even The American Bar Association. It is a tale of the everyman overcoming adversity and achieving the impossible. It is a true story.
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 3.0 United States License.
Audio Quality: 
Out of 9 ratings
Narration Quality:
Out of 9 ratings
Writing Quality: 
Out of 9 ratings
Overall Rating:
Out of 9 ratings
By: psionandy
I found this book by accident. I was looking for some podiobooks and so did a search on the word 'award'. So when I started listening to this one I had no idea what it was about. By then end of the second episode I was hooked. It's a roller-coaster of a story about people fighting imposible odds and over comming them. I even had to fight the urge to google the Massachusetts school of law, as I didn't want to find out how it ended... to get that level of suspense in a book about a law school is truly amazing..... As to the pictures, they did make it easier to follow and worked well. Thank you for this great book.By: Woody
I am still in Shakespeare's camp as far as lawyers are concerned, but this is one of the few books I have recommended to every one of my friends and family (at least the ones that would listen). I find it hard be sympathetic with anything that has to do with lawyers and law schools (that make yet more lawyers), but this book is much more than just a sob story about law schools and lawyers, it demonstrates just how convoluted our legal system has become. The fox really is in charge of the chicken coup...By: Shirley A Burns
I truly enjoyed the book, the music was much, much to loud. Very good points and I felt like a part of history as it unfolded. Thanks for a job well done. "S"
Chapters
| Title | Description | Date Created |
| Chapter 1, Merrimack Valley, Northern Massachusetts, Part 1 (13.5 MB) | Chapter 1, part 1 of Debbie Hagan's page turner introduces us to the Merrimack Valley: to the Tyngsboro Fire Department as they battle a suspicious barn fire, to an ambitious local determined to make it big, whatever the cost, and finally to Diane Sullivan, a $60 dollar a week bank teller by day, indefatigable student by night, with one last shot at fulfilling her dreams. | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 1, Merrimack Valley, Northern Massachusetts, Part 2 (16.69 MB) | Juggling multiple jobs, family and impossible hours is a small price to pay for Diane Sullivan and her fellow students at Commonwealth School of Law. They have one dream... to create a better future for themselves and their families by becoming an attorney. No price seems to large for these determined, if unconventional law students, and they have placed their trust, their money, and their future in the hands of Commonwealth School of Law's President, Michael Boland. But is anything at Commonwealth, including, Michael Boland, what it first appears? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 2, The Dean, Part 1 (17.11 MB) | "Draft card burnings, anti-war protests, feminist marches, racial riots, and political assassinations punctuated the year 1968". The son of Russian immigrants, Lawrence Velvel matures from a precocious Chicago teenager, to a law professor at the racially divided University of Kansas and finds himself thrust into the midst of one of the most turbulent times in our nations history. | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 2, The Dean, Part 2 (20.66 MB) | Amidst the national uproar of the Vietnam War, the sentencing of The Chicago Seven, and the horror of Kent State, Velvel finds himself labeled as an "enemy of the state" in conservative, 1960's Kansas. | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 3, Black Saturday, Part 1 (15.76 MB) | Packing up home, family and a sixteen year career in Washington DC, Velvel heads north to Lowell, Massachusetts to begin his new life as Dean of Commonwealth School of Law. But would the new dean succeed in fixing the ailing CSL, or did the schools' president, Michael Boland, have other plans? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 3, Black Saturday, Part 2 (14.68 MB) | As President Michael Boland's past begins to come to light and his paranoia increases, Velvel finds his career, even his future, at stake. Could he, and the determined CSL students, attempt the impossible? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 4, Birth of a Law School, Part 1 (17.06 MB) | Exhausted, broke, and disillusioned, Commonwealth students don't know were to turn next. Velvel, on the other hand, is staking everything he owns on a new law school. Is there room for both in The Merrimack Valley? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 4, Birth of a Law School, Part 2 (14.89 MB) | After months of endless, determined work The Massachusetts School of Law finally opens its doors. But soon after, former senator, Paul Tsongas, determined to bring a law school to Lowell, joins the board at their rival, Commonwealth. Can the outsiders at MSL overcome the increasingly powerful and politically connected board at CSL, or would all their work be for naught? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 5, Forged by Fire, Part 1 (13.52 MB) | Amidst intense pressure on MSL to merge with Commonwealth, former Senator Paul Tsongas, Chairman of Commonwealth's Board of Trustees, is named Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Regents. Tsongas' new position places him in charge of determining which school would be approved in the Merrimack Region, MSL or Commonwealth. If MSL refuses the merger, does it have a chance? | Aug 28, 2006 |
| Chapter 5, Forged by Fire, Part 2 (11.77 MB) | As Commonwealth struggles to survive, and Tsongas tries to wield his influence to bring a Law School to Lowell, Velvel and MSL find themselves drawn into a bigger and tougher battle than they had ever imagined. | Sep 10, 2006 |
| Chapter 5, Forged by Fire, Part 3 (13.72 MB) | Whoosh! At 12:38 am on October 22, 1989, the MSL library explodes into flames. The evidence points soundly to arson, but who hates MSL so much that they are willing to risk their safety and future in an attempt to burn down the building? And could their hatred succeed in keeping MSL from graduating their first law school class? | Feb 11, 2007 |
| Chapter 6, American Bar Association, Part 1 (12.49 MB) | Despite a longstanding history of classism and snobbery in the legal profession, Velvel becomes more determined than ever to create a school that would belie commonly accepted stereotypes about and who and what makes up a lawyer. Meanwhile MSL's first graduating class ventures out into the world, building practices, beginning families, and finally living their dream of becoming a lawyer. | Sep 10, 2006 |
| Chapter 6, American Bar Association, Part 2 (11.71 MB) | By the spring of 1991 MSL's enrollment had surged and the school had put down a million dollars on a beautiful new red brick building. It was time, thought Velvel and Coyne, to seek accreditation from the ABA. But the more they learn about the ABA's long history of keeping "the undesirables" out of legal education the more it is clear that in no way did MSL fit the rigid ABA mold. | Sep 24, 2006 |
| Chapter 6, American Bar Association, Part 3 (16.53 MB) | Could MSL satisfy the ABA standards without sacrificing everything MSl stands for, or in order to survive must they turn MSL into another eilitist law school? Although the ABA claimed to applaud innovative and diverse law schools, a visit by the ABA's James White soon makes it clear to Velvel that any deviation from the ABA's standards, especially the deviations that defined MSL's mission, would not be tolerated. Velvel and his board see no choice but to take their grievance directly to the ABA's accreditation renewal hearing at The U. S. Department of Education. | Sep 24, 2006 |
| Chapter 7, ABA Inspection, Part 1 (15.69 MB) | In 1992 the faculty at MSL spent six months researching and writing a 500 page self study that they considered a valuable discourse on legal education. Entitled "The Deeply Unsatisfactory Nature of Legal Education Today". But would their hard work turn the tide in the favor, or would it serve to further alienate MSL from the powers that be of the ABA? | Sep 24, 2006 |
| Chapter 7, ABA Inspection, Part 2 (14.21 MB) | The ABA report finally arrives and what Velvel reads makes him physically ill. Never content to suffer the slings and arrows however, Velvel and the MSL faculty swiftly switch back into offensive gear. Meanwhile the mystery of the law school fire appears to be solved, and Michael Boland appears on the scene once more, this time in a far different role. | Sep 27, 2006 |
| Chapter 7, ABA Inspection, Part 3 (13.43 MB) | From the Board of Governors, to The Department of Justice, to The Department of Education, and finally to the ABA House of Delegates, MSL pursues their accreditation case against the ABA. Has the case been stacked against them from the start, or has the tide begun to turn? | Oct 6, 2006 |
| Chapter 8, MSL vs ABA, Part 1 (12.12 MB) | In a dimly lit modern court room, MSL's anti-trust case against the ABA finally begins. The Judge, J. William Ditter Jr. claims to never have thought about the issues involved in MSL's conspiracy suit, however it soon becomes clear that Ditter is far from open to MSL's suit. Is Judge Ditter, as Velvel claims, determined to do in MSL? | Oct 13, 2006 |
| Chapter 8, MSL vs ABA, Part 2 (18.99 MB) | When a lawyer from The US Department of Justice informs MSL that not only had the DOJ procured evidence that proved the ABA's antitrust conspiracy, but that the judge presiding over MSL's antitrust case had not fully disclosed his involvement with the ABA accreditation process, Velvel and his colleagues do everything they legally can to try and save their case. | Oct 13, 2006 |
| Chapter 8, MSL vs ABA, Part 3 (14.32 MB) | MSL takes its case all the way to the White House, and believes it finally has an ally in the form of the Anti-Trust Division of The United States Department of Justice. With the DOJ firmly on their side, MSL must finally prevail...but would they? | Oct 22, 2006 |
| Chapter 9, The Tide Starts To Turn, Part 1 (16.08 MB) | MSL continues to fight the ABA in the courts as well as with the US Department of Justice, but time and again finds that political agendas and incompetence thwarting their efforts. Finally MSL turns to Senator Ted Kennedy just as Congress is preparing to renew The Higher Education Act. | Nov 7, 2006 |
| Chapter 9, The Tide Starts To Turn, Part 2 (16.92 MB) | At his invitation, MSL brings their case to Senator Kennedy's office one more time, but come to realize that their initial faith in justice amounted to no more than pure naivete. Beaten, but not defeated, MSL realizes that if it is to survive, it must embark on a series of new strategies aimed at increasing both the schools excellence and its appeal to law students nation wide. | Nov 7, 2006 |
| Chapter 9, The Tide Starts To Turn, Part 3 (17.05 MB) | By the spring of 2000 the tide appeared to finally have turned. Fourteen years after it had first opened its doors, MSL boasted 1500 graduates who had gone on to careers in law, politics, real estate, education, law enforcement... the list goes on and on. Despite the fact that the ABA had grown more powerful than ever, MSL had won the war. | Nov 18, 2006 |