U.S. News May Change Its Law School Ranking Methodology

No one argues with the theory of law school transparency, the issues lie in the means to achieve that goal. I believe that many of those calling for the increased amount and detail of the reported information do not have a true understanding of the challenges faced in collecting this information. While demanding more, they do not suggest which tools may be used to gather more thorough information, nor do they offer assistance in its collection. Law School Career Services Offices (CSO’s) cannot mandate, coerce, bribe, or otherwise direct their new graduates to answer the annual questionnaire. It is a completely voluntary exercise which only goodwill and nagging manages to elicit responses.

It is for this reason that small or solo CSO’s suffer most noticeably; they simply do not have manpower to make these repetitive outreach efforts. The helplessness and frustration is palpable in our CSO in January.

Without compulsion from an entity that still retains influence over these graduates, the task becomes one of sheer man-hours that can be dedicated to it. The pressure to provide responses for the entire class was already keenly felt, but now will have serious negative impacts on the classes of current students for whom the CSO is responsible. Time spent by the CSO staff in exhausting every avenue of collecting the graduate data takes away the availability of our counselors to meet with current students and address their more immediate needs.

Regardless of the reason that the graduates failed to respond, to presume that they are unemployed is inaccurate, misleading and extremely detrimental to all the constituencies that rely on this information. It serves the exact opposite function of transparency. Could it be that these graduates are indeed employed but merely too busy working in fulfilling and demanding legal jobs to respond? I sure hope so.

A secondary problem arises when the CSO has only some information that was gathered more informally and/or from third parties. With the pressure to report on all of the graduates, what level of certainty must be attained before the information can be reported? If a professor recalls a conversation with a graduate at a Bar reception, can that be entered as employment data?

I would ask for partnerships among the law schools, the various state bars, and the American Bar Association to determine how we can all reach out to the new graduates to obtain full and reliable information. Perhaps as part of the first-year CLE requirement? Perhaps as a condition of joining the ABA as an incentivized newly licensed attorney?

Refocusing the issue as one of a need to COLLECT this information more accurately and reliably is required before we all can move forward with the projected results of the statistical reporting.

Linda Wendling of NC 2:24PM June 27, 2011