Law Schools

These law schools have the highest percentage of grads going straight to BigLaw

Columbia Law School tops a list of law schools with the highest percentage of graduates going straight to jobs in BigLaw. Columbia leads the list for the third year in a row, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports in a story noted by Above the Law. The NLJ created…

Mar 8, 2016 8:58 AM CST

Suit over allegedly misleading law-job stats goes to trial

In a trial that was scheduled to begin on Monday, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law with $170,000 in student debt is seeking damages against the law school for allegedly misleading job statistics. The suit by Anna Alaburda is one of two suits that are still pending out…

Mar 8, 2016 7:52 AM CST

Study finds widening gap in expected law school debt based on race and LSAT score

The increased cost of attending law school falls most heavily on blacks, Hispanics and those with low LSAT scores, according to results from a 2015 survey of law students. Overall, 44 percent of surveyed law students expect to owe more than $100,000 in student debt after graduation and 30 percent…

Mar 1, 2016 7:47 AM CST

Do you think there should be an LSAT cutoff score for law school admission?

Last month, we noted that data shows that lower LSAT scores and declining bar-pass rates have been going hand-in-hand in recent years. Jerry Organ, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis who looked at the score data, anticipates a continued decline in median…

Feb 24, 2016 12:25 PM CST

This law school will accept the GRE from applicants; will others follow?

Would-be lawyers applying to the University of Arizona College of Law have an alternative to the Law School Admission Test. The school has announced it will accept either the Graduate Record Examination or the LSAT, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and the…

Feb 24, 2016 6:15 AM CST

Profs object to law school press release mourning death of Scalia

Two Georgetown University law professors objected when the school issued a press release on Saturday saying the school “mourns the loss” of Justice Antonin Scalia, a 1957 graduate of the university who went on to Harvard Law School. The Washington Post and Above the Law (in posts here and here)…

Feb 19, 2016 8:26 AM CST

The bad business of ignoring the justice gap

Roughly two-thirds of those eligible for legal aid in Massachusetts (read: people in extreme poverty) are turned away because there aren’t enough legal aid attorneys. Approximately 80 percent of all individuals in civil court represent themselves—in matters that will change their lives in drastic ways. Whether our law schools have…

Feb 18, 2016 8:00 AM CST

Northwestern to offer more financial aid to law school students and alumni

A $100 million gift announced last year has helped put Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in a position to offer more financial aid to students and alumni. Along with record-breaking contributions by others, the money will help fund $2 million in annual initiatives including a two-year interest-free period on…

Feb 16, 2016 3:35 PM CST

ABA committee recommends tougher, simpler bar passage accreditation standard

An ABA committee has voted to recommend the adoption of a tougher but simpler bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposed new standard (PDF), approved Friday by the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s Standards Review Committee, a law school would have…

Feb 16, 2016 3:25 PM CST

Tougher, simpler bar-passage requirements for law schools to be considered by ABA committee

An ABA committee on Friday will take up a proposal that would toughen—and greatly simplify—the bar passage requirements of the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposal, a law school would have to demonstrate that 75 percent of its graduates who took a bar exam within two years of their…

Feb 11, 2016 10:45 AM CST

Crane collapse kills 1, injures 3 and hits New York legal community hard

The collapse of a more than 500-foot-high construction crane in Lower Manhattan on Friday morning killed a man in a parked vehicle, injured three pedestrians and also hit New York City’s legal community hard, closing a law school, a courthouse and two legal aid offices. It appears that no one…

Feb 5, 2016 3:00 PM CST

These law schools had the highest percentage of employed students not using their degrees

Two law schools in Puerto Rico top a list of schools that produced the largest percentage of graduates who aren’t using their law degrees in their jobs. The schools were ranked based on the percentage of their employed grads who don’t have positions in which passing the bar is required…

Feb 4, 2016 8:35 AM CST

Can once-obscure ‘borrower defense’ help law grads erase student debt?

A once-obscure federal law is being cited by more than 7,500 borrowers who are applying to have their student debt erased because their schools allegedly used illegal recruiting tactics. The law provides for forgiveness of debt borrowed from the federal government’s Direct Loan program when schools violate a state law…

Feb 4, 2016 5:45 AM CST

Moody’s downgrades rating of California Western School of Law

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the bond rating on California Western School of Law in San Diego to reflect “materially worse than previously projected operating deficits.” Moody’s downgraded the stand-alone school’s bonds from Baa3 from Baa1, according to a press release. The Washington Post reports on the negative outlook for…

Feb 2, 2016 9:03 AM CST

Texas Tech adopts SMART brain training for its 1Ls

The first year of law school can be akin to middle school. Anxiety and self-doubt abound: How should I study? What do I need to remember? Why was that lady carrying scales onto a train again?

Feb 1, 2016 3:30 AM CST