Law Schools

Yale appeals decision forbidding designation of more gender-neutral bathrooms in law building

Updated: Yale Law School wants to make its single-user restrooms gender-neutral. But to meet Connecticut building code, it must have a certain number of bathrooms designated and assigned by sex. The state’s deputy building inspector refused the law school’s request for a code modification in December, and the finding was…

Jun 27, 2017 5:21 PM CDT

Charlotte School of Law receives state license restrictions; some say end may be near

Updated: Charlotte School of Law is not in compliance with state standards regarding financial resources, planning or stability, according to the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors committee, which handles state authorization and licensure for nonpublic, post-secondary degree granting institutions.

Jun 22, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

BYU Law School’s new legal design lab aims to find solutions to access-to-justice crisis

Brigham Young University on Monday announced that its law school is a launching a legal design lab, which for its first project will help pro se defendants in Utah answer civil lawsuits. “There’s a crisis in law right now, and it’s that legal services are very expensive,” Kimball Parker, the…

Jun 19, 2017 5:02 PM CDT

Those with good LSAT scores may be choosing to forgo law school, data indicates

Updated: Law schools have been seeing fewer applicants with LSAT scores of at least 160, while there has been an increase in students with scores between 120 and 149, reports Paul Caron, editor of TaxProf Blog. Between the 2010-11 and 2016-17 academic years, the percentage of law school applicants with…

Jun 13, 2017 9:00 AM CDT

Want to expand access to justice? Offer tiered training and differing practice licenses, profs say

Corrected: Civil legal assistance is elusive for low-income and even middle-class individuals. Eighty percent of low-income people in the United States can’t afford civil legal assistance, according to a Washington Post op-ed by two law professors. Meanwhile, 40 to 60 percent of the middle class have unmet legal needs.

Jun 7, 2017 8:00 AM CDT

Law school previously flagged by ABA receives provisional accreditation

Corrected: The University of North Texas Dallas College of Law has received provisional accreditation (PDF) from the American Bar Association, according to a press release from the school on Tuesday. “Our goal has always been to equip graduates with practice-ready competencies and the practical knowledge to pass the Texas Bar…

Jun 6, 2017 3:02 PM CDT

Fewer entry-level law profs hired for tenure-track jobs this year, according to self-reported data

Entry-level law school hiring for tenure-track positions appears to be at its lowest point since Northwestern Pritzker School of Law tax professor Sarah Lawsky started compiling this data in 2006. Lawsky received reports of only 62 tenure-track hires at U.S. law schools this year, down from a peak of 167…

Jun 5, 2017 4:15 PM CDT

Does California make it too difficult to pass the bar? Two profs link low scores to ethics issues

In California, would-be lawyers have to receive a score of 144 on the multistate portion of the bar exam to pass. That’s a higher threshold than in every other state except Delaware. Law schools in California say the state’s so-called “cut score” is too high, the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Jun 5, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Harvard Law names John Manning as its new dean

Eight years after being a finalist, John Manning has been selected as dean of Harvard Law School. Currently the school’s deputy dean, Manning replace Martha Minow effective July 1, the Harvard Crimson reports. Manning has been part of significant decisions made recently by the law school, the New York Times…

Jun 2, 2017 8:37 AM CDT

Vanderbilt law prof who taught Argentine LLM student backs his bid to take the bar exam

A case filed by an Argentine lawyer seeking to take the Tennessee bar exam “speaks to the essence of equity, equality and opportunity,” according to a Vanderbilt law professor who taught the lawyer when he was in the school’s LLM program. The case filed by the lawyer, Maximiliano Gluzman, is…

Jun 1, 2017 11:41 AM CDT

Yale isn’t No. 1 in alternate law school rankings

Yale Law School is No. 1 in the rankings released in March by U.S. News & World Report, but the school lost its top spot in alternate rankings by Above the Law. The ATL rankings put a priority on employment outcomes, though law school costs and alumni ratings are also…

Jun 1, 2017 10:57 AM CDT

ABA Legal Ed Section exploring a reorganization that would save time and money

An idea to combine three bodies in the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has been put into a report and shared with the group's council, which is meeting Friday in Portland, Oregon.

Jun 1, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

1Ls are in the driver’s seat as law schools look to poach talent

Faced with dwindling admissions, some law schools seek out overachieving 1Ls. Although the number of student transfers has been decreasing, law schools are interested in taking transfer students to bring in more revenue, according to higher-education consultants. It’s become a seller’s market for first-year students at the top of their class: They easily can move to a higher-ranked school or stay put and get bigger tuition discounts.

Jun 1, 2017 1:00 AM CDT

Northwestern considering GRE scores as an alternative to the LSAT

Although the issue of law schools accepting the Graduate Record Examination as an admissions test is still being considered by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law is the latest to consider those scores over the traditional Law School Admissions…

May 30, 2017 3:57 PM CDT

Arizona Summit ordered to post $1.5M bond to repay students if the school closes

Arizona Summit School of Law, part of the for-profit InfiLaw System, must post a $1.5 million bond, which would reimburse students if the school closes. “It’s just to protect the public, just in case,” Keith Blanchard, deputy director of the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education, told the Arizona…

May 26, 2017 1:38 PM CDT