Law Schools

These law schools accepted and lost the most transfer students; is Harvard too eager?

Georgetown and George Washington University law schools are No. 1 and 2 for three years running—for accepting the most transfer students. Arizona State’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law was No. 3 on the list in 2014 and 2015. This year’s No. 4 may surprise you—Harvard Law School. Jerry Organ…

Jan 7, 2016 5:45 AM CST

Two law schools are added to list of universities getting greater federal scrutiny over finances

Updated: Two law schools have been added to a government list of universities that are being watched to make sure federal student aid is being used in a way that is accountable to students and taxpayers. The law schools are the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego and…

Jan 5, 2016 11:50 AM CST

Want to attend a law school with better job and bar-exam outcomes? It will cost you

Law students typically pay higher tuition to attend schools with better job and bar passage rates, according to an analysis of law school questionnaire data released by the ABA in December. Private and public law schools with the best job outcomes cost about 20 percent more, according to the analysis…

Jan 4, 2016 5:45 AM CST

New York’s attorney general and law clinics aid entrepreneurs

New York City is wooing more tech startups to headquarter there with a new, free program that offers expert legal advice for establishing a legally sound organization. Spearheaded by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York City Corporation Council, the program also gets help from two legal…

Jan 1, 2016 1:20 AM CST

Law school nonprofit buys Bill Henderson’s Lawyer Metrics company

A nonprofit group made up of about 200 law schools is acquiring the assets of Lawyer Metrics, a company formed in 2010 partly to help law firms use statistics to hire and retain the best legal talent. The Access Group announced the acquisition in a press release (PDF). Lawyer Metrics…

Dec 21, 2015 3:40 PM CST

ABA posts law school consumer info for 2015

Law school consumer information for the entering class of 2015 is now available on the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar’s website, the section said in a press release Wednesday. The information at the section’s website comes from the annual questionnaires ABA-approved law schools are required…

Dec 16, 2015 4:33 PM CST

Seton Hall basketball player is also a law student

A basketball player for the Seton Hall Pirates is also a 1L at the university’s law school. The player, Braeden Anderson, shifted his focus from a possible career in the NBA when he broke his neck in a 2013 car accident, the New York Times reports. Now he is placing…

Dec 15, 2015 6:15 AM CST

Yale law librarians dispute ‘wildly erroneous’ claim on Bluebook’s origin

It’s ironic, according to Yale law librarians, that The Bluebook style manual fosters accurate legal citations while the tale of its origin is “wildly erroneous.” The librarians—Fred Shapiro and Julie Graves Krishnaswami—say the style manual can be traced to a citation guide by the Yale Law Journal, not the Harvard…

Dec 8, 2015 11:53 AM CST

Proposal to eliminate ban on academic credit for paid externships moves forward

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has approved for notice and comment a proposed change in the law school accreditation standards that would eliminate the current ban on students receiving academic credit for paid externships. The council, which met Friday in…

Dec 7, 2015 2:47 PM CST

Harvard law prof whose portrait was defaced sees harm in ‘excessive vulnerability’ to slights

A Harvard law professor whose portrait was among those defaced with black tape says he is neither alarmed nor hurt by the incident. In an op-ed for the New York Times, law professor Randall Kennedy says the motives behind the incident are unclear and puzzling. The perpetrator may or may…

Dec 1, 2015 8:17 AM CST

California’s bar pass rate is at a 29-year low; these states also saw a drop

The percentage of people passing the California bar exam in July 2015 has dropped to 46.6 percent overall, down from 48.6 percent last July. The percentage is the lowest point since July 1986, when only 44.4 percent passed. The pass rate for first time test takers in California also dropped,…

Nov 24, 2015 8:35 AM CST

Law school offered buyouts to all its tenured faculty

Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington, dealt with a 28 percent drop in enrollment by offering buyouts to every one of its 17 professors. So far, four faculty members accepted the offer, the Inlander reports in a story noted by TaxProf Blog. Law school dean Jane Korn told…

Nov 23, 2015 7:53 AM CST

Florida Coastal law grad asking for discharge of $260K in federal student loans seeks SCOTUS review

A lawyer representing a Florida Coastal law grad with about $260,000 in federal student loan debt believes there is a good chance the U.S. Supreme Court will grant certiorari in the bankruptcy case. James Wilton of Ropes & Gray tells the US Law Week Blog that there is a circuit…

Nov 20, 2015 2:35 PM CST

Portraits of black Harvard law profs are defaced

Harvard law students are expressing frustration and sadness after learning on Thursday that portraits of black law professors had been defaced with black tape. Harvard University police opened an investigation, and Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow held a meeting attended by at least 350 people, according to student tweets.…

Nov 19, 2015 1:10 PM CST

Are law students driven by money? It’s not most important, survey finds

Why attend law school? A lucrative career wasn’t a primary motivation for surveyed graduates of one law school, although the survey indicated financial security is becoming more important. Northeastern University School of Law grads cited three top reasons they decided to go to law school: having a satisfying career, helping…

Nov 9, 2015 6:15 AM CST