Top Law Schools

I am glad to see that senators are at least pretending to give a damn about what happens to us. The ABA needs to crack down and order more transparency from schools, interms of everything from scholarship defaults to bar passage rates and employment.

The ABA is also going to have to come up with a definition for "employed". I already blasted Robert Morse for copping out in response to a NY Times article, saying that, since the ABA had not written a definition, USNWR would not write one. That is unjust, and we won't have transparency until we loudly demand it as students...or should I say that, unless we demand it, it may be awhile before it comes. Can we afford to wait?

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... %20senator

We don't really have a choice.

That's true, but given that the NLJ250 now report their placement stats, it is the student's fault for picking a law school that doesn't place at least in the top 50 listed on that site. The information is now out there for applicants. Sure, there should be a little more transparency regarding in-house and non-biglaw jobs, but most of the top schools that place into biglaw are largely the same schools that place well into other areas.

I keep seeing this demand for more transparancy about jobs. Yes, that is good. However, C'mon, don't you think that most law students know that attending a law school in the bottom 150 isn't going to get you a job with a big or even a midsized law firm? You have to be living under a rock not to know that lower tiered schools won't provide a lot of job opportunities.

I wrote this earlier in another post. I completely stand by it because I firmly believe that the ABA is beyond redemption regarding law schools. Also, I feel very strongly about the issue because the ABA is allowing law schools to get richer with taxpayers funds (in the form of student loans) while using very unethical practices (massaged employment data).

The reality is that not much is going to change as long as the ABA is in charge of regulating law schools. Please write to your Senators, Representatives and the DoEd, and ask them to take away the ABA's accreditation and regulatory powers for law schools. It's the only way. A few short, simple letters can perhaps make a huge difference in your future legal career. It can actually just be the same letter, just change the mailing address. And it doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a few lines explaining the main point: no more ABA because it has failed to do its job while law schools benefit at the expense of taxpayers.

I think the focus on how schools report their employment statistics is a little overblown, sleazy as their methods may be. Maybe some people go to law school because they think there's a 90% chance they'll land a job, but I think more students are aware of the risks and think they can beat the odds. More accurate employment numbers won't do anything about the "I'm special" syndrome.