Is Law School a Losing Game?

The New York Times has a lengthy indictment of law school education and law schools.  If you are considering going to law school, this is a must read article.  It’s available today without registration, but the NYT usually puts their articles behind a registration wall after a short period of unrestricted visibility.  If you cannot read the article without registering, I recommend you register – it’s free, because the article is worth the few key strokes of registration.

New York Times:  “He spent it [$250,000] on a law degree. And from every angle, this now looks like a catastrophic investment. . . . a generation of J.D.’s face the grimmest job market in decades. . . . But improbably enough, law schools have concluded that life for newly minted grads is getting sweeter . . . . “Enron-type accounting standards have become the norm,” says William Henderson of Indiana University, one of many exasperated law professors who are asking the American Bar Association to overhaul the way law schools assess themselves. “Every time I look at this data, I feel dirty.”

Most Schools Would Like Law School Transparency to Just Go Away

Above the Law:  “Law School Transparency, has requested all ABA-accredited schools to provide useful information to prospective law students — information that neither the ABA nor U.S. News currently collects.  Without the regulatory hammer of ABA . . . or the public shaming of U.S News . . . LST is up against some long odds. . . . thus far, 188 law schools have completely ignored their efforts to report simple facts on the employment prospects of law school graduates.”

See the National Law Journal story called “Law schools give cold shoulder to transparency project.”

Law School Employment Data Under Fire

A National Jurist story examines the omission, misrepresentation and manipulation of some law schools’ law grad work statistics.  The story says:

“U.S. News changes rankings to avoid manipulation over employment data.  But critics argue that the data is ‘junk’ to begin with and change is needed.  ‘It’s clear that more law schools have decided whether to report their graduation employment based on how their actual percentage will compare to the estimate U.S. News will make for them,’ wrote Robert Morse [Director of Data Research at U.S. News]  . . .  . Morse said that 74 law schools did not report their at-graduation employment, up from 38 … in 2005.”

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