Legal Education

Northwestern enters top 10 in latest US News law school rankings; Harvard drops to No. 3

Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law has entered the top 10 in law school rankings released on Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.

Mar 14, 2017 8:56 AM CDT

Arizona Summit law school to affiliate with historically black college

Corrected: The for-profit Arizona Summit School of Law, which is part of the InfiLaw consortium, announced Friday that it will sign an affiliation agreement with Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college in Florida. The law school campus will remain in Arizona, according to a press release. Summit has an existing…

Mar 10, 2017 8:48 AM CST

Penn law school gets $2.2 million from Koch family foundation

The Charles Koch Foundation has donated $2.2 million to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The money reportedly will help fund a center focused on fairness in criminal justice.

Mar 10, 2017 7:00 AM CST

Harvard Law will accept GRE as entrance exam

Harvard Law School will accept the Graduate Record Examination in lieu of the Law School Admissions Test, starting this fall. The change is part of a strategy to expand law school access domestically and internationally.

Mar 9, 2017 8:35 AM CST

Pitt law dean will no longer appear on TV station over alleged bias against Middle Eastern prof

A University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor says he was passed over as a guest on a local CBS affiliate news show, because he is Iraqi-American and a Muslim. And in the wake of these allegations William M. Carter Jr., dean of the law school and a constitutional scholar,…

Mar 8, 2017 4:35 PM CST

Law students plan to spend spring break representing immigrant families pro bono

Law students at Southern Methodist University aren’t going far from the school’s Dallas campus this spring break. In fact, their destination is about five hours away: The Karnes City Family Detention Center, southeast of San Antonio. According to an SMU press release, a team of eight law students led by…

Mar 7, 2017 4:45 PM CST

Popular blogger and scholar tapped as Pepperdine law dean; he plans to keep blogging

Paul L. Caron, a professor at Pepperdine School of Law, has been selected as its new dean. The tax law scholar also blogs at TaxProf Blog, and owns and publishes the Law Professor Blogs Network. Besides tax matters, the Tax Prof Blog also has many posts on various challenges in…

Mar 7, 2017 9:39 AM CST

Which law school is producing the most BigLaw associates?

Columbia Law School has the highest percentage of 2016 graduates hired by large law firms, according to information released by the National Law Journal.

Mar 7, 2017 7:00 AM CST

Free LSAT prep courses to be offered by Khan Academy: Could state bar exam help come later?

Khan Academy, a nonprofit online platform known for its large library of interactive math courses, today announced it will offer free LSAT practice materials, working with the Law School Admissions Council. Many LSAT prep courses now are offered by for-profit groups for a fee. “We’re always looking for ways to…

Feb 28, 2017 5:15 PM CST

Will delaying the exam, adding training help Arizona Summit students pass the bar?

Corrected: A year ago, Kelly Blake was stressed out. The Arizona Summit School of Law graduate was studying for the state bar and suspected that her chance at passing was about 50 percent.

Feb 27, 2017 8:30 AM CST

California State Bar investigating former Los Angeles city attorney

Updated: The State Bar of California has filed discipline charges against former Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, the Los Angeles Times reported. The charges stem from a death penalty case Trutanich handled in 1985, well before he was elected city attorney in 2009, the State Bar of California said…

Feb 23, 2017 5:55 PM CST

Heather Gerken, known for federalism scholarship, is first woman to become Yale law dean

Yale law professor Heather Gerken will become dean of the law school beginning July 1. Gerken will be the first female law dean and first federalism scholar at Yale Law School, the Volokh Conspiracy, a blog published in the Washington Post, reports. She also is an expert in election law…

Feb 22, 2017 2:31 PM CST

Any LSAT alternatives must be validated through new process, according to proposed rule revision

There’s still no official green light for ABA-accredited law schools to rely on entrance exams other than the Law School Admissions Test, but a recently proposed standards revision suggests how a validation process for LSAT alternatives should be developed. Under the proposed revision (PDF) to Standard 503, the Council of…

Feb 14, 2017 4:10 PM CST

Indiana University law profs are among those targeted by white supremacist group

Professors at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law were among academics targeted by a white supremacist group on that campus and as many as 30 universities across the country. Indiana University contacted the FBI after fliers were posted on campus that were “clearly meant to intimidate, threaten, scare, and provoke…

Feb 8, 2017 2:42 PM CST

Affluent students get law school merit scholarships while others foot the bill, study finds

Law schools have become more generous with merit scholarships, and the money has been flowing to privileged students whose parents are college-educated, according to a report released by the Law School Survey of Student Engagement. Individuals whose parents had no college experience were the least likely to receive merit scholarships,…

Feb 8, 2017 2:31 PM CST