Law deans respond to US News Law School Rankings

Above the Law points out, in this article, that the recently released US News Law School Rankings tend to cause considerable discomfort to the deans of any law school that has slipped in the rankings, because of a well founded fear that the results may cause them to lose their jobs. The proof, says the article, is in fervour with which these deans explain their dropping rank. Washington University School of Law slipped in the rankings, and its dean offered the excuse that new and more stringent transparency requirements were to blame for the shift, saying: ‘The drop is a direct result of a change in the way employment placement is defined and reported by the American Bar Association, as well as the very difficult marketplace for jobs faced by all graduates in the class of 2010’. Meanwhile the University of Connecticut School of Law continued its fall, slipping from #52 to #62 in a few years. Dean Jeremy Paul tried to explain the plummet, by saying: ‘Our preliminary assessment indicates that we suffered in the rankings as a result of two challenges we have faced in recent years. Law school applications in our region have fallen off, and our scholarship budgets have been insufficient for us to recruit all the bright students we wish to attract. Moreover, the job market for attorneys in our region has been particularly hard hit by the recent recession, and Connecticut has been a bit slower in emerging from the downturn.’

Law deans respond to US News Law School Rankings abovethelaw.com Thu, Mar 15, 2012