American Bar Association to Investigate Law School and Law Firm Rankings

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You understand your publication and the ranking system it employs is pure evil, right? I mean, you have to know that the data that comes to you is a farse, and that by inflating ranks based on per-student expenditures in real dollars, you're encouraging massive tuition hikes and providing incentive for law schools to be frivolous with their gigantic profit margins. Hand in hand with the ABA, this publication has mislead thousands of our nations bright young minds directly into one of the worst decisions any of them has ever made. Bravo.

Greg of MI 12:08AM July 17, 2011

Appreciate if any reader knows of a preeminent law firm in Miami specializing in emplyment & labor. I trust U.S. News & World Report however, I cannot wait until the October issue.

Elena Alonso of FL 5:09PM April 16, 2010

Great post as for me. It would be great to read something more concerning that topic. Thanks for posting that info.

Steave of AL 10:48PM March 09, 2010

The watered down value of a law degree highlights the situation that many law students face at overcrowded schools. The result is a negative or barely positive NPV (Net Present Value) for the degree. It's difficult to calculate because of all the misleading employment data but the NPV at larger schools like Fordham is likely to be lower than at schools such as Wake Forest. The overall NPV at a school like Fordham (calculated with post graduate legal work salaries) may be one of the lowest in the top 50 or 60 schools.

James of NY 6:29PM March 01, 2010

US News should take into account the watered down value of a law degree. Some schools issue a large number of degrees to full and part time students. The value of the degree is likely to be less than a smaller school or one that does not have a tremendous part time program.
Compare Fordham law (ranked 30-34) with a full time enrollment of 1229 and a part time enrollment of 307 with lower ranked Wake Forest (ranked 40)full time 463 and no part time program. Wake Forest has a stronger academic program and has fewer students to place. Fordham has a difficulty placing all their students and many do not end up in the legal field at all. The part time program also lowers the quality of students receiving the degree which has an additional watered down effect when valued in the marketplace.
If the watered down value is not accounted for in the rankings it would allow schools to remain tuition hogs and continue to devalue the degree.

James of NY 6:23PM March 01, 2010

The fact is that there are so FEW jobs for new lawyers, even in a GOOD market, that it is imperative that all law students and law school applicants be alert to the scam by schools that sell useless degrees!!
Check out:
http://lawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2010/02/this-kiplingers-article-on-yahoo.html

Astounded at the numbers of CA 2:46AM February 27, 2010

"The bottom line is that U.S. News believes that the law school rankings provide much-needed consumer information for prospective law students, especially in light of the ever rising cost of earning a J.D. degree and the current tough market for new law school graduates."
U.S.News should compile employment statistics directly from the students. Some schools are clearly providing false data in hopes of attracting a higher ranking and more applications. The average starting salaries and employed at graduation numbers determine whether a student attends a law school.
U.S. News should look at a law schools official employment data and also have the students respond to a email survey. Each student survey can be assigned a number from the law school to protect private data. This would allow U.S. News to have a more accurate report of employment statistics.

James of NY 11:31PM February 26, 2010

USNWR rankings for law schools are of limited value because it reports employment data that is close to useless. A school with a 90% employment rate might simply do a good job of placing its weakest graduates in regional Starbucks stores. Law school is often a $100+k gamble and money SHOULD be a part of the employment equation. Sure, you don't want to penalize a school for sending graduates to non-profit/government/clerkship (do-gooder category) positions. So don't. Report the 25% percentile, median, and 75th percentile SALARIES for the pool of graduates excluding all the people employed in the do-gooder category.

NOYB of KS 7:16PM February 17, 2010

Instead of wasting everyone's time investigating rankings they are powerless to stop, what the ABA should be investigating are (1) the false, misleading employment data law schools use to move up the U.S. News rankings and entice young adults into taking on $100K+ of debt and (2) the continued outsourcing of America's legal work to India.

George Recco of NY 5:59PM February 12, 2010