Failing Law Schools Does Not Mean A Failing Profession

There is a new book about law school education that is getting a lot of attention these days.  The book, Failing Law Schools (University of Chicago Press, June 15, 2012), by Professor Brian Tamanaha of Washington University Law School, is a critique of American law schools and the professor’s views of the declining values of the degrees those schools offer.  There is a lot in this book for law schools and the ABA, as the accrediting organization for law schools in America, to take long serious looks at, and I am all for that.  I certainly am as concerned as anyone about the out-of-control costs of legal education in this country and the huge student loan debt that it is a burden to so many law graduates—including my own daughter.  Too many of these students cannot even find jobs in this down economy, and they are in the worst positions.

Some of the factors identified in the book (and summarized in the National Law Journal  article of June 18, 2012) for the rising costs of law educations are: the government-insured student loan programs, which allow law schools to keep raising tuition and have it paid for; the practice by many large universities of having law school tuition pay for undergraduate programs and other professional programs; and high law school tuition funding the scholarship programs that are in existence for the sole purpose of competing for the students with the highest GPAs and LSAT scores.  In other words, the students in the lower portions of the law school classes are paying extraordinarily high tuition to fund scholarships for the students at the top—-the very ones who will have little or no student loan debt and who will be making the highest salaries immediately out of law school.  If you find something wrong with that, you are not alone.

So, there is a lot for law schools and the ABA to think about.  There has been something broken in the system for a long time—a system that is far too controlled by what US News & World Report and its ranking system has to say.  It appears that Professor Tamanaha is firing a shot over the bow and is getting a lot of support for change.  That would be a good thing.

The bad thing, however, would be for the readers of Failing Law Schools to conclude that there is no value in going to law school.  That would be a mistake.  Even the author admits that his analysis is all about money and does not take into account the other benefits of a law degree like performing important work for the public good, having an interesting and stimulating professional life, and using a law education to do many fulfilling jobs outside the actual practice of law.  I blogged on those intangible benefits earlier this year, and I invite you to click on the following link to review that information:  https://bestfriendsatthebar.com/is-going-to-law-school-worth-it/

However, the author does not make this point loud enough for my taste.  In the interest of getting attention for his hypotheses, I believe that the good professor has risked sending a wrong message.  Perhaps his dollar and cents analysis should have focused on the fallacy of assuming that $160,000 starting salaries were justified and being disappointed that, in current economic times,  they are becoming a scarce commodity.   As the National Law Journal articles points out in quoting the University of Nebraska College of Law Dean Susan Poser, “There is so much focus on the top law schools and what’s going on in the Wall Street firms, when the vast majority of lawyers in this country practice in firms of 20 lawyers or fewer………Everything is very centered on the East Coast and people have the wrong expectations going in.”  Well said from where I sit.

Hear, hear to Professor Tamanaha.  I hope he shakes up the law school establishment and its kingmakers a bit.  I hope that he gets the ABA to review its accreditation criteria and start looking at how tenure and pedagogical practices are affecting programs and other important priorities at law schools.  Students who cannot pay back student loans of huge magnitudes probably are not as concerned about how many publications and scholarly letters a professor has to his name as they are about tuition reform and systematic changes that will make law educations more affordable and allow for reasonable employment expectations.  I also hope that the power of the ranking Gods is threatened a bit and that the rankings are exposed for the gaming tool that they have come to be.  That alone would be a good result.

Do not mix the messages.  Law school may be a huge problem to finance, but that does not mean that it is not a worthy pursuit.  They are two different things.  However, do not think that I am so pollyannish as to minimize the importance of the finances.  I am not, and I can remember well paying back my own student loans during the time of a bad economy.  But I do want you to understand that there often are ulterior motives for churning up the hornet’s nest and crying failure.  Failure is a strong word and should be used judiciously.