View Karen Sloan's original article here. Posted by LST on December 31, 2011.
Excerpt:
[Top 10 Legal Education Stories]
1. PANTS ON FIRE
… [U.S. News rankings] pressure got the better of some administrators at Villanova University School of Law, who admitted in February to goosing the numbers reported to the American Bar Association and U.S. News for years. … [LSAC] now is considering whether to audit the figures law schools report, and the ABA is mulling tougher penalties for schools that lie.2. SUE YOUR SCHOOL
Instead of asking alumni for money, maybe law schools should ask graduates to pledge not to sue them. 2011 will go down as the year law students got litigious — at least against their alma maters. … This could be the first sign of a litigation wave. The lawyers involved in the New York Law School and Cooley cases are looking for plaintiffs for class actions against another 15 schools.3. U.S. SENATORS GIVE THE ABA THE STINKEYE
… A number of U.S. senators this year zeroed in on the American Bar Association’s oversight of law schools — or what they apparently see as a lack thereof. For months, senators including Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) fired off letters to the ABA expressing concern over the accuracy of the job information law schools release and requesting detailed information about student loan defaults, accreditation policies and more. The ABA insisted that it shares those concerns, but more often than not the senators were unsatisfied with its responses. Boxer and Coburn in October asked the U.S. Department of Education to compile a decade’s worth of law school data. Rumors have been swirling that the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold hearings on law schools next year. Stay tuned.4. ANYBODY WANT TO GO TO LAW SCHOOL?
It was bound to happen. Applications to American Bar Association-accredited law schools declined by 10 percent in 2011 after increasing during each of the previous two years as recent college graduates sought to ride out the dismal job market in law school. …5. SHOW ME THE DATA!
The movement to improve law school consumer information started when the legal job market dried up several years ago, but really hit its stride during 2011. Law School Transparency — a nonprofit founded by two Vanderbilt University Law School graduates — lobbied individual schools and the American Bar Association to improve the reporting of job and salary data, and saw results. …8. THE GRAY LADY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
Law school is expensive and some law graduates struggle to repay their loans. Not all law students will retain their merit-based scholarships. Law school curricula center on theory rather than practical skills. None of this was news in the legal world, but a series of front-page articles by David Segal of The New York Times brought long-standing critiques of legal education to a wider audience. This, in turn, prompted handwringing by law professors and administrators, who alternately acknowledged problems identified by the Times and dismissed the coverage as overly simplistic and negative. Legal academics were particularly galled by a Nov. 19 piece that painted them as ivory tower-dwelling chin strokers who neglect to teach their students how to practice law.9. NO TENURE, NO LSAT
Slowly but surely, the American Bar Association is changing its process for accrediting law schools. A review committee discussed proposals including elimination of what many see as a venerable requirement that law schools protect tenure — an idea that raised the ire of many a law professor but that would give schools more flexibility to offer low-cost education. …