Law Schools

Law schools in Rust Belt are in a ‘survival of the fittest’ mode, law prof asserts

Law schools in Rust Belt states are battling for students amid a declining applicant base and losses in traditional legal employment opportunities, according to a paper released this month by a law professor. In a paper at SSRN, Cleveland-Marshall emeritus law professor David Barnhizer concludes that law schools in the…

Mar 31, 2016 8:25 AM CDT

Law student convicted for stealing laptop is accused of altering the verdict slip

A Suffolk University law student convicted of stealing a laptop from his school is accused of changing the verdict slip and using the altered document to try to obtain a diploma. The former law student, 33-year-old David Scher of Brighton, Massachusetts, pleaded not guilty to the allegations on Wednesday, report…

Mar 30, 2016 2:16 PM CDT

Law grad who obtained secretarial job can cancel bar-study loan in bankruptcy, judge rules

A bankruptcy judge in Brooklyn, New York, has ruled that a Pace University law grad can cancel the unpaid portion of a $15,000 loan to study for the bar exam. The decision (PDF) by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carla Craig conflicts with an April 2010 decision by an Alabama bankruptcy judge,…

Mar 28, 2016 7:14 AM CDT

Student admitted by mistake can’t compel law school to award LLM degree, appeals court says

A law student mistakenly admitted to a master’s program for foreign law students can’t compel the Touro College Jacob B. Fuchsberg Law Center to award him an LLM degree, a New York appeals court has ruled. The Appellate Division, First Department, ruled against LLM student Leodegario Salvador in a March…

Mar 28, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Jury rejects law grad’s case over claim that Thomas Jefferson job stats were inflated

A California jury on Thursday rejected a claim by a 2008 graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law that she was entitled to damages because the San Diego institution inflated job-placement data concerning its alumni. Plaintiff Anna Alaburda said she has been unable to find full-time work as a lawyer…

Mar 24, 2016 4:15 PM CDT

Was law school worth it? Only 20% of recent grads strongly agree, pilot study says

A pilot study of law graduates from seven law schools quantifies the decline in satisfaction with the decision to go to law school. The pilot study (PDF) found that only 38 percent of recent grads said they had a “good job” waiting for them at graduation, and only 20 percent…

Mar 24, 2016 10:43 AM CDT

How much did you pay in law school tuition?

This month, U.S. News & World report published not only its rankings of the nation’s law schools but data about the tuition and fees charged by these schools. The law school with the most expensive annual tuition? Columbia Law School, which charges $62,700 per year. The least-expensive route to a…

Mar 23, 2016 2:33 PM CDT

Which law schools charge the most and least?

Columbia University’s law school had the highest annual tuition among 99 private law schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report. The law school charged $62,700, according to U.S. News & World Report. The lowest-cost of the 99 private law schools, on the other hand, was Brigham Young University’s Clark…

Mar 21, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Legal Ed Section’s council proposes tighter bar-passage requirement for law school accreditation

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has tentatively approved a proposal that would tighten and simplify the bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposal (PDF), a law school would have to show that at least 75…

Mar 16, 2016 11:40 AM CDT

Yale Law School remains No. 1 in US News rankings

Yale Law School remains at the top of the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News released the rankings on Wednesday. They don’t differ from the top 10 listed in an article that appeared briefly online last week in what may have been a mix-up by magazine…

Mar 16, 2016 7:08 AM CDT

Women could be majority of law students in 2017; these schools have 100-plus female majorities

If trends continue, women will outnumber men in law schools in 2017, according to a legal blog’s analysis of ABA statistics. According to Associate’s Mind, the percentage decline in students attending law school is greater for men than women. From 2011 to 2015, the number of men attending law school…

Mar 16, 2016 6:15 AM CDT

Berkeley law dean resigns but remains on faculty after sex harassment allegations

At first report, University of California at Berkeley law dean Sujit Choudhry was taking a leave of absence after he was accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant. Since then, Choudhry submitted his resignation as dean, and it was immediately accepted, report the Recorder (sub. req.), the Washington Post…

Mar 11, 2016 9:17 AM CST

UC Berkeley law dean takes indefinite leave amid sex harassment allegations

University of California at Berkeley law dean Sujit Choudhry took an indefinite leave of absence on Wednesday, a day after his former assistant filed a lawsuit claiming he sexually harassed her. Choudhry will remain a faculty member and will be paid for that position, report the Associated Press, the National…

Mar 10, 2016 8:10 AM CST

Did US News accidentally leak its law school rankings?

Updated: A portion of an article announcing new law school rankings by U.S. News & World Report appeared briefly online on Tuesday before it was quickly removed. The mystery article may have been posted as a result of a mix-up by magazine staffers, suggests Above the Law, which published a…

Mar 9, 2016 8:16 AM CST

Law degrees give the biggest pay boost to students with these college majors

Humanities majors get a median $45,000 boost in annual earnings with a law degree, compared to a median $29,000 boost for those majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics—the so-called STEM majors, according to estimates in a new study. Humanities majors more than double their earnings with a law degree,…

Mar 9, 2016 5:45 AM CST