New Nonprofit Asks Law Schools for Detailed Salary, Job Information
A nonprofit group called Law School Transparency has sent a letter to law deans and administrators seeking information about the types of jobs obtained by graduates and the pay that they earn.
Two Vanderbilt law students, Patrick Lynch and Kyle McEntee, formed the nonprofit to ferret out more jobs data that will show how much value graduates get from their law degrees. The letter, sent to the deans of all ABA-accredited and provisionally accredited law schools, seeks information about types of employers, salaries and salary sources for the class of 2010, as of February 2011.
According to the letter, employment data reported to the ABA and U.S. News & World Report is aggregated, making it difficult to answer meaningful questions about employment prospects.
It explains the benefits of cooperation in the jobs survey this way: “Better information about where graduates go can highlight law schools that have successfully developed niches in particular geographical markets, job sectors, or fields of law. This will help direct prospectives to the schools that can best serve their individual professional goals. At the national level, greater clarity about hiring statistics and starting salaries can help improve the financial preparedness of future lawyers by giving them the information they need to make accurate risk assessments.”
The letter asks law schools that decline to report the data to explain why. The results will be published on the Law School Transparency website.
Also see:
ABA Journal Podcast: Lowering the Stakes: How Law Schools Can Help Next Gen Lawyers Take Gamble Out of Hefty Tuition
