Law School Transparency is a nonprofit legal education policy organization. Our mission is to improve consumer information and to usher in consumer-oriented reforms to the current law school model. We operate independently of any legal institutions, legal employers, or academic reports related to the legal market. Read FAQ.
Law School Transparency’s primary goal is to help inform prospective law students about the value of a U.S. law degree, using dialogue and advocacy to improve the quality and presentation of post-graduation employment outcomes. Achieving this goal has taken on many forms. Some of our work is geared at improving the discussion and awareness among law school administrators and faculty. When effective, this leads to greater accountability and action on behalf of law school deans, whether they are operating as individual school representatives or as committee members of the ABA Section of Legal Education, which is charged with regulating legal education in the U.S. From time to time we assist law school faculty in the production of scholarship related to law school transparency, which seeks to further the debate among legal educators. We have also taken our advocacy efforts into the public realm to urge other stakeholders to get involved.
Achieving LST’s goal means not only raising awareness about these issues, but also working from within to propose solutions and promote responsible methods of educating prospective law students. A significant portion of our advocacy is geared towards encouraging the ABA Section of Legal Education to improve its oversight by raising the level of basic consumer information schools should disclose to prospective law students. We maintain contact with Section committee members and participate in hearings, podcasts, and other fora as they present themselves.
LST’s secondary goal is to present existing employment information in a manner that is more transparent and meaningful for people deciding whether or where to attend law school. To this end, our website functions as an employment information and data clearinghouse. Through the data clearinghouse and targeted critiques of how individual schools present employment information, we aim to help prospective law students sort through existing data to understand some aspects of beginning a career after graduation. We rely heavily on input from our readers and individual law school applicants who have taken an interest in our work.
LST’s current work focuses on creating a new reporting standard in conjunction with the ABA Section of Legal Education and the National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP). Our work with these organizations began shortly after we sought voluntary compliance with a new standard, and it continues today. We also encourage efforts by prospective law students to contact schools and seek more meaningful employment information, using their acceptances as leverage. This website provides guidance on how to request information, as well as how to file complaints with the ABA Section of Legal Education if you believe a school has violated the ABA accreditation standards.
We encourage you to examine the information on our website and to let us know if you are in a position to help. Visitors to this website can serve an important role by contributing what you know and what you can do. A number of legal professionals have offered us their time, and as our network grows we hope to continue improving discussion about reform.
Law School Transparency is a Tennessee non-profit corporation made up of volunteers from across the legal profession. Our staff and advisory board are made up of a mixture of attorneys, faculty, and current law students. Through a combined effort and continued advocacy we hope to convince more law schools that improving employment transparency will provide a valuable contribution to the legal profession.
As always, we appreciate any comments you might have on ways to build upon or improve our efforts to obtain information. Please send us any comments you may have.