Law Schools

Law grads say Texas A&M wouldn’t recognize them as alumni after purchase of their school

Thirty-two law graduates from Texas Wesleyan University have filed a lawsuit that claims Texas A&M University failed to accept them as A&M alumni after purchasing their school in 2013. The would-be class action says Texas Wesleyan is no longer easily located on lists of accredited schools because of the takeover…

Aug 14, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Judge is expected to block layoff of professor at Charleston School of Law

A judge in Charleston County, South Carolina, is expected to issue an injunction barring the Charleston School of Law from laying off a law professor who claimed she was fired for opposing the sale of the school to InfiLaw. Lawyers for law professor Nancy Zisk told the Wall Street Journal…

Aug 5, 2015 11:06 AM CDT

After some ado over class attendance, ABA House backs changes in law school accreditation standards

Corrected: The ABA House of Delegates concurred Tuesday with the action of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar’s governing council to make a dozen changes in the law school accreditation standards. Most of the changes were either technical corrections or clarifications of revisions made during the…

Aug 4, 2015 4:45 PM CDT

Law schools should refine debt counseling and cut education costs, says report adopted by ABA House

The ABA House of Delegates on Tuesday adopted the recommendations of the Task Force on the Financing of Legal Education in its passage of Resolution 110 (PDF). Task force chair and former ABA president Dennis Archer told the House that the report (PDF) offered a “five-part practical and constructive” solution…

Aug 4, 2015 1:30 PM CDT

Top 10 ways to manage your finances and navigate student debt

Everybody from Moses to David Letterman has had a top 10 list. But Edward N. Tucker, a CPA and founding partner at the Baltimore accounting firm Ellin & Tucker who also serves as secretary of the governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar,…

Aug 2, 2015 4:22 PM CDT

Legal ed council votes to keep ban on academic credit for paid externships

For the second time in little more than a year, the governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has rejected a proposal to lift the ban in the law school accreditation standards on students receiving academic credit for paid externships. But the council,…

Aug 1, 2015 10:28 PM CDT

Shrinking number of law graduates boosts employment rate for class of 2014

The employment rate for law graduates increased for the first time since 2007, thanks partly to a smaller number of law grads. The employment rate for the class of 2014 was 86.7 percent, up from 84.5 percent last year, according to a press release by the National Association for Law…

Jul 30, 2015 7:22 AM CDT

NYU Law School will research decline in civil jury trials with $2M gift

The New York University School of Law will conduct research on civil juries with $2 million in initial funding from trial lawyer Stephen Susman of the Susman Godfrey law firm. The new Civil Jury Project will also promote discussion about the decline in civil jury trials, the impact of the…

Jul 29, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

California bar exam to be one day shorter, but could be just as difficult

California bar officials have voted to cut the length of the state’s bar exam from three days to two. The change, approved unanimously Monday by the State Bar of California’s board of trustees, will take effect in July 2017, Above the Law reports. The two-day exam will include one day…

Jul 28, 2015 1:00 PM CDT

About 85 percent of law students at California’s unaccredited schools drop out

Attending an unaccredited law school is a risky endeavor in California, even though graduates of such schools may take the state bar exam and become lawyers. About 85 percent of students who enroll in the state’s 22 unaccredited schools drop out before graduation, the Los Angeles Times reports in its…

Jul 27, 2015 7:48 AM CDT

This law school will give 100% scholarships to all of its students; it’s not too late to apply

Updated: Indiana Tech Law School is offering 100 percent scholarships to all students enrolled there next year after failing to win provisional accreditation in June from the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Law dean Charles Cercone tells the ABA Journal that anyone enrolled in the…

Jul 23, 2015 9:15 AM CDT

Law student barred from school under no-contact order gets new hearing

An Illinois appeals court has ordered a new hearing for a University of Illinois law student banned from campus for two years because of his interactions with a female student. The appeals court said the trial court improperly considered evidence outside the record in November 2013 when it barred law…

Jul 23, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Educators and young lawyer take opposing sides at hearing over academic credit for paid externships

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has approved six proposed changes to the law school accreditation standards for notice and comment. But only one—a proposal to eliminate the current ban on students receiving academic credit for paid externships—drew any testimony at…

Jul 16, 2015 4:52 PM CDT

How law firms are innovating when it comes to hiring

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said at the outset of the Obama Administration. And yet, for many organizations, inertial forces are very difficult to overcome and crises—like what the Great Recession meant for law firms—fail to inspire innovation. So it…

Jul 15, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

Chemerinsky: Scalia’s truculent style is a bad influence

Justice Antonin Scalia’s nasty barbs are a bad influence on law students, according to an op-ed by University of California at Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Chemerinsky says he has always taught students in debate and law that nastiness is a crutch for those…

Jul 15, 2015 7:04 AM CDT