Components of the LST Standard

Thanks to everyone who has contacted us over the last week to voice support. We’ve tried to keep up with all of the comments popping up on sites like Above The Law and the ABA Journal, but because we want to centralize the discussion we are going to respond as often as we can here at LST. Many of you are raising important issues about various parts of this project, and we want your voices to be heard. All stakeholders should have the chance to comment and be taken seriously, and since we are moving through this process rather quickly it makes sense to address as many concerns as we can now.

Our article is long, so we do not expect everyone to read it. However, we think it’s important to highlight why the proposed standard looks like it does for those of you who don’t have the time to read the article. We expect and want your criticism. The components of this standard are, at the moment, fluid, so it’s going to take a lot of discussion to be sure that the standard is optimized for wide-scale adoption. In the coming weeks we will discuss each component in greater detail, addressing your concerns along with the ones we outline in our article.

The LST standard actually calls for two distinct lists, not just one. Both of these lists are anonymous; graduates’ names are purposely left out of the picture. In fact, if we receive names from you we will redact them. The design of the two lists also ensures that people cannot link rows together (except in somewhat rare situations). This protects the privacy of employers who are not registered on NALP and/or don’t publish starting salaries. Separating salary out from other identifiable information also protects the privacy of individual graduates who don’t want their jobs lined up with salaries. The central goal is that both lists account for every graduate in a class for a particular graduation year, no matter what they do (or don’t do). As has been reported in the press, the most important quality of the new standard is that it does not hide outcomes in aggregate forms like the current ABA and U.S. News standards.

Without further ado, here are the two lists we’ve been talking about:

Job List
1. Employer Type
2. Employer Name
3. Position
4. Credentials
5. Full-Time / Part-Time
6. Office Location (City, State, Country)
7. Salary Source
8. Journal

Salary List
1. Employer Type
2. Office Location (City, State, Country)
3. Full-Time / Part-Time
4. Salary

So what happens if a graduate is unemployed or pursuing another degree? The individual’s row should indicate this in the “Employer Type” field. We will explain the guidelines in greater detail in a later post (UPDATED: view guidelines here).

As always, your comments and concerns are greatly important and appreciated.