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Law Schools
Scalia: Most Law Schools Will Have to Cut Tuition; Cutting Faculty Would ‘Be No Huge Disaster’
May 28, 2014
Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t agree with proposals to cut law-school education from three to two years, but that doesn’t mean he opposes reform. In a commencement speech to William & Mary law graduates earlier this month, Scalia said tuition will have to be cut at the “vast majority” of law schools. And that means some painful choices will have to be made. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and Above the Law note Scalia’s speech (PDF), posted online last Thursday. Scalia...
May 28, 2014
Justice Antonin Scalia doesn’t agree with proposals to cut law-school education from three to two years, but that doesn’t mean he opposes reform. In a commencement speech to William & Mary law graduates earlier this month, Scalia said tuition will have to be cut at the “vast majority” of law schools. And that means some painful choices will have to be made. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and Above the Law note Scalia’s speech (PDF), posted online last Thursday. Scalia...
Why Universities Should Bail Out Their Law Schools
May 23, 2014
Boston Globe op-ed: Bail Out Law Schools – But With Strings Attached, by Paula Monopoli (Maryland): When I joined the legal academy more than 20 years ago, American law schools were the cash cows of higher education. Revenue flowed from law schools to central administrations, and campuses were happy to let law schools oversee themselves. New programs sprang up by the dozens. Lots of new hires each year became the norm, and expensive symposia the order of the day. It never occurred to us that...
May 23, 2014
Boston Globe op-ed: Bail Out Law Schools – But With Strings Attached, by Paula Monopoli (Maryland): When I joined the legal academy more than 20 years ago, American law schools were the cash cows of higher education. Revenue flowed from law schools to central administrations, and campuses were happy to let law schools oversee themselves. New programs sprang up by the dozens. Lots of new hires each year became the norm, and expensive symposia the order of the day. It never occurred to us that...
ABA Report Lacking Solutions for Law Schools
March 5, 2014
Task force offers plenty of criticism — especially of faculty scholarship — without practical advice. Legal education certainly can improve, but the recommendations of the American Bar Association's Task Force on the Future of Legal Education are not the way to do it. The task force released its report and recommendations on Jan. 24, and they are a collection of ideas that will do little to make law schools better — and some would make them much worse. The report does make some...
March 5, 2014
Task force offers plenty of criticism — especially of faculty scholarship — without practical advice. Legal education certainly can improve, but the recommendations of the American Bar Association's Task Force on the Future of Legal Education are not the way to do it. The task force released its report and recommendations on Jan. 24, and they are a collection of ideas that will do little to make law schools better — and some would make them much worse. The report does make some...
Self-Interest in Law Schools
January 25, 2014
A few days ago, I had a post on the problem of inertia in law schools, and how inertia affects law school reform. Here is a new article on the same subject: Self-Interest and Sinecure: Why Law School can’t be “Fixed” from within by David Barnhizer. Abstract The issue of how best to do a legal education is being approached as if it were an intellectual and pedagogical question. Of course in a conceptual sense it is. But from a political and human perspective (law faculty, deans and lawyers)...
January 25, 2014
A few days ago, I had a post on the problem of inertia in law schools, and how inertia affects law school reform. Here is a new article on the same subject: Self-Interest and Sinecure: Why Law School can’t be “Fixed” from within by David Barnhizer. Abstract The issue of how best to do a legal education is being approached as if it were an intellectual and pedagogical question. Of course in a conceptual sense it is. But from a political and human perspective (law faculty, deans and lawyers)...
Nation’s Law Schools See Lowest Enrollment Since 1975
December 27, 2013
The number of entering law students nationwide dropped below 40,000 this fall for the first time in close to four decades. According to figures released by the American Bar Association, law schools enrolled 39,675 new students this fall—an 11 percent decrease from the 44,481 students who enrolled last fall. The last time law schools saw such low 1L enrollment was 1975, when there were 163 ABA-accredited law schools. There are 202 such schools today. Even more ominous for law schools administrators,...
December 27, 2013
The number of entering law students nationwide dropped below 40,000 this fall for the first time in close to four decades. According to figures released by the American Bar Association, law schools enrolled 39,675 new students this fall—an 11 percent decrease from the 44,481 students who enrolled last fall. The last time law schools saw such low 1L enrollment was 1975, when there were 163 ABA-accredited law schools. There are 202 such schools today. Even more ominous for law schools administrators,...
A Pyramid Collapse for Law Schools? Most are Losing Money This Year, Law Prof Says
November 28, 2013
Most law schools are operating at a deficit this year as they grapple with lower enrollment and try to lure more students with tuition discounts, concludes a law professor who studied the numbers. Just how many law schools are losing money? Eighty percent to eighty-five percent, according to the estimate by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, writing at the blog Lawyers, Guns & Money.Above the Law notes the article. Campos drew his conclusion after studying the budgets of 31 ABA-approved...
November 28, 2013
Most law schools are operating at a deficit this year as they grapple with lower enrollment and try to lure more students with tuition discounts, concludes a law professor who studied the numbers. Just how many law schools are losing money? Eighty percent to eighty-five percent, according to the estimate by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, writing at the blog Lawyers, Guns & Money.Above the Law notes the article. Campos drew his conclusion after studying the budgets of 31 ABA-approved...
New Blog Airs Law Schools’ Laundry
October 20, 2013
A trio of deans this month launched the first group blog written specifically by law school deans, with the intention of driving...
October 20, 2013
A trio of deans this month launched the first group blog written specifically by law school deans, with the intention of driving...
Market For New Lawyers Is Trying
September 10, 2013
It's a tough time for newly minted lawyers. Many graduates are having trouble finding jobs, and starting salaries are lower than they've been in years. Law schools are under mounting pressure to trim their programs so they don't continue to flood the market with unemployed lawyers, many of whom took on considerable debt to get their degrees. Perhaps not surprisingly, applications to law schools are down. It's “absolutely a buyer's market,” said Pete Boerner, managing partner in Texas for the legal...
September 10, 2013
It's a tough time for newly minted lawyers. Many graduates are having trouble finding jobs, and starting salaries are lower than they've been in years. Law schools are under mounting pressure to trim their programs so they don't continue to flood the market with unemployed lawyers, many of whom took on considerable debt to get their degrees. Perhaps not surprisingly, applications to law schools are down. It's “absolutely a buyer's market,” said Pete Boerner, managing partner in Texas for the legal...
Are Lawyers From Top Schools a Lot Happier About Their Career Choice? Statistically the Answer is No
September 6, 2013
Lawyers who graduated from elite law schools are only slightly happier about their career choice than their counterparts from lesser-ranked schools, according to a study of law grads who began their careers in 2000. Legal education critics have advanced the idea that students attend non-elite law schools because of optimism bias—they think they will get high-paying jobs to pay off their education loans, according to a summary of the findings at SSRN. When their optimism proves unjustified,...
September 6, 2013
Lawyers who graduated from elite law schools are only slightly happier about their career choice than their counterparts from lesser-ranked schools, according to a study of law grads who began their careers in 2000. Legal education critics have advanced the idea that students attend non-elite law schools because of optimism bias—they think they will get high-paying jobs to pay off their education loans, according to a summary of the findings at SSRN. When their optimism proves unjustified,...
Law Schools Gain Greater Autonomy
September 1, 2013
The American Bar Association is loosening its reins on law schools following years of criticism that its myriad rules have...
September 1, 2013
The American Bar Association is loosening its reins on law schools following years of criticism that its myriad rules have...
