Among the highlights of the ABA’s report:

U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of law schools overwhelmingly dominates the public discourse on how law schools compare to one another. As a result, U.S. News rankings have assumed ever increasing importance to any law school that wishes to attract students and faculty and to retain support from alumni and university leaders. The criteria U.S. News uses for rankings now has a powerful influence over the management and design of American legal education. [...] That influence is not entirely benign [...]

The U.S. News rankings are based on a methodology that emphasizes a small number of factors in order to rank all American law schools. [...] The current methodology heavily emphasizes the following: the median LSAT score of entering J.D. students; the median undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) of entering J.D. students; student/faculty ratio; dollar expenditure per student; reputation ratings of law schools determined through surveys of academics and legal practitioners; and placement data. [...] …every aspect of the U.S. News methodology has been subject to detailed analysis and criticism by scholars.

Many in legal education and the legal profession believe that law students have chosen law schools based upon U.S. News rankings rather than upon a nuanced understanding of differences among particular schools, and as a result have not attended the best school for the student, but rather the best school as ranked by U.S. News.

The report comes to the following conclusions:

1. The current methodology tends to increase the costs of legal education for students. As a recent study by the United States Government Accountability Office has suggested, the U.S. News methodology arguably punishes a school that provides a high quality education at an affordable cost.
2. The current methodology tends to discourage the award of financial aid based upon need. Because median LSAT score and median UGPA are so important to the current rankings, law schools have largely abandoned other measures of merit or need in awarding financial aid.
3. The current methodology tends to reduce incentives to enhance the diversity of the legal profession. U.S. News annually ranks law schools by student racial diversity only, and this is done in a separate ranking, but U.S. News does not incorporate this data in the main rankings methodology. Because diversity (whether racial, economic, religious, or other) is not a factor in the rankings, the promotion of diversity of the legal profession can take a back seat in law school admissions management to the promotion of a high median LSAT and UGPA.

Today, U.S. News‘ Robert Morse (director of data research for U.S. News, who also develops the methodologies and surveys for the America’s Best Colleges and America’s Best Graduate Schools annual rankings), bit back:

It’s clear that the U.S. News law school rankings have a large impact on law schools and prospective law school students. The ABA implies that the U.S. News rankings are behind rapidly rising tuitions at law schools, why law schools are offering more merit-based aid and less need-based aid, and why some law schools aren’t enrolling enough at-risk law students with far lower LSAT scores compared to the school’s typical LSAT score.

But there are other key factors behind these trends. It also must be pointed out that the ABA does not cite real evidence behind these often-repeated claims of the degree to which U.S. News exerts power over law school behavior. In other words, it’s very easy for the ABA and law school academics to blame U.S. News for many of the negative practices at law schools. Law schools and the ABA need to take far more direct responsibility for these trends.

Personally, I agree with Mr. Morse. The rising law school tuition costs, the overwhelming demand for a legal education, the way financial aid is disbursed, the diversity of a law school class (and so on) cannot be blamed solely on the U.S. News rankings–or any ranking. It is disingenuous to do so. The blame can be nicely spread out from one end of the spectrum to the other, encompassing law school applicants, U.S. News, law school deans, and even law firms. Attempting to place the blame on one or throw the blame off another only focuses on the problem, but never gets to its root or discusses a potential solution.

WHAT DO YOU THINK: Do you agree with the ABA? With U.S. News? Do you think the blame lies somewhere in between? What do you think would be better way to categorize law schools–or is any way really a “good” or “better” way?

At least, that’s what researchers are saying.

Says the article:

Law school grades are the important predictor of a lawyer’s career success—in fact they are “decisively more important” than the eliteness of the school attended, according to two law professors who have studied the issue.

University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard Sander and Brooklyn Law School visiting professor Jane Yakowitz analyzed data from four studies and concluded that the standard advice—go to the best law school that will take you—doesn’t necessarily hold true, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.

“Since the dominant conventional wisdom says that law school prestige is all‐important, and since students who ‘trade‐up’ in school prestige generally take a hit to their school performance, we think prospective students are getting the wrong message,” they write in a new paper (PDF posted by Law Blog).

Sander told the Wall Street Journal he doesn’t know why grades are so important, but he was willing to speculate. “It could have to do with psychological factors, a level of confidence you gain from doing well that serves you well not only in school but afterward,” he said.

Sander and Yakowitz studied data from more than 40 public law schools across the country, and found that applicants tend to go to the most elite law school that will have them. But is that a good idea?

Not according to data collected in the American Bar Foundation’s After the JD study of lawyers who entered the bar in 2000, they write. It indicates that the salary boost for achieving high grades more than makes up for the salary depreciation associated with attending a lower‐ranked school. The study also found that lawyers who left law school with the lowest grades felt the least secure about their jobs.

Two other studies of lawyers practicing in Chicago in the mid-1970s and mid-1990s found that law school eliteness was associated with higher incomes in the 1970s, but that had changed in the 1990s, when class rank more accurately predicted earning power.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Is the ranking or “prestige” associated with a particular law school less important than the grades you receive there? Is being top of your class at a “lesser” school of more value to a career than attending (but not doing quite so well) at a more “renowned” law school? Is it all a matter of perspective or where you want to practice? Sound off in the comments!

Let’s start first with what the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SLAID) has to say about LRAPs:

Loan repayment assistance programs (“LRAPs”) have emerged as a solution for relieving the debt burden of some law graduates. LRAPs provide loan repayment or forgiveness, lower interest rates on loans, or postponed payment of law school loans to graduates entering specific types of employment, usually law-related public interest jobs. Most LRAPs contain limits on the amount of income a recipient can earn while participating in such a program. There are various types of LRAPs, administered by law schools, state bar associations and foundations and federal and state governments, providing debt relief to some law graduates. The number of these programs has begun to increase recently, but still do not meet most of the need of many attorneys who would like to work in public interest.

So how exactly do these programs work? Let’s take a look at the basics for some of the different LRAPs out there:

Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown Law students who work for U.S.-based government agencies or nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations for 10 years after graduation in a legally related capacity (JD degree must be preferred or required), and whose incomes remain less than $75,000*, can borrow the entire cost of attending law school in the form of federally-guaranteed loans and have all of their loan repayments reimbursed by Georgetown Law and the remaining principal balance forgiven by the federal government.  Georgetown Law benefits would continue on a diminishing basis for incomes exceeding $75,000.

Yale Law LRAP: The Career Options Assistance Program

In order to allow YLS alumni to choose jobs without having to worry about student loans, COAP is designed to assist graduates with their loan payments. COAP grants are calculated based on a graduate’s household income, indebtedness, and an imputed loan repayment schedule.

First, the graduate’s household income is adjusted to deduct retirement savings, childcare costs, etc. For graduates whose adjusted income is less than the “threshold” level ($60,000), COAP covers their entire imputed loan payment. Graduates who earn more than $60,000 annually are expected to contribute 25 percent of their income above $60,000 to their loan repayment. Unlike many programs, COAP grants cover not only loans for Yale Law School, but also some need-based undergraduate educational loans as well.

* A graduate with an adjusted income of $41,000 (below the $60,000 threshold) and annual imputed loan payments of $10,000 would receive the full $10,000 from COAP.

* A graduate with an adjusted income of $65,000 and the same $10,000 in annual payments would be expected to contribute $1,250 (25 percent of the $5,000 above the $60,000 threshold), and so would receive an award of $8,750.

For a listing of all schools with LRAPs and links to their respective programs and applications, you can check out the ABA’s Directory of Law School Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs.

Essentially, graduates going into an array of public service and public interest options can get help from their law schools in the form of “awards” or “forgiven loan payments.” The types of jobs that qualify for this kind of assistance vary; some schools have restrictions on the types of jobs that they will consider eligible (Georgetown Law, for example, lists Asylum Aid, The Children’s Law Center, Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., Legal Aid, Public Defender Offices, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless,  Rocky Mountain Legal Defense Fund,  ACLU,  District Attorney, and County Prosecutor as some examples of eligible employment), while others (such as Harvard Law’s Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP)) provide assistance to all graduates.

In addition to the law school-specific LRAP, the federal government also has loan repayment assistance available in a variety of forms, most recently new regulations discharging any remaining federally-guaranteed loans after 120 consecutive loan payments (10 years) made while employed in public service. This is a huge boon that, combined with the law school LRAP, can significantly lighten the load for law graduates seeking public interest or public service employment.

In addition, the armed forces also provide some assistance. The U. S. Army has an entire website devoted to educational loan management and their Loan Repayment Program, as does the Judge Advocate program.

LRAPs are a great source of assistance for those students seeking to enter into the public sector after law school. However, requirements for each law school’s program definitely vary, and you should contact the Financial Aid Office of the schools you are interested in (or currently attend) in order to determine exactly what you have to do to be eligible. Don’t just stop there, though. Make sure to also ask about federal and state-sponsored programs, as well as scholarships and grants that may be available.

Law schools pride themselves on the number of students that choose to go into public service, and they will do all they can to help these students out financially. If public service or public interest work is your dream, don’t let finances stop you. Seek help–it’s out there, and easier to find that you may think.

How many times are you allowed to take the LSAT?

Generally, the LSAC allows you to take the LSAT no more than three times in any two year period (even if your scores are cancelled or otherwise unreported). There are select exceptions to this rule: “You may retake the LSAT if a law school to which you are applying requires a more recent score than any you have on record, or approves your retaking the test, and the school provides LSAC with written proof of its requirement no later than the last day of registration for the test.”

How LSAT scores are reported:

LSAC policy is as follows: “LSAC will automatically report the results of all LSATs in your file, including cancellations and absences, since June 1, 2002. The scores are averaged and also appear separately.” (Note: LSAC rounds up when calculating the average score).

Recent change to ABA policy

In 2006, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar changed its policies, now requiring schools to report the highest LSAT scores of those students who took the test twice or more: “…beginning with the October 2006 Annual Questionnaire, which collects LSAT data on the Fall 2006 entering class, the Questionnaire will seek 75th percentile, median, and 25th percentile LSAT data based on the high score rather than the average score for matriculants who took the test more than once.”

Since schools now report their students’ highest scores to the ABA, the majority of law schools now consider only an applicant’s highest LSAT, although a small number of schools still consider the average of all scores.

Is a significant score increase possible?

We routinely hear this sort of question regarding potential score increases. It is important to understand that the LSAT is not an I.Q. test! Dramatic score increases are possible with proper preparation and the right approach. We routinely see students achieve double-digit score increases after studying the cutting-edge techniques taught in our courses, using real LSAT questions, relayed by an instructor who has scored in the 99th percentile on an actual LSAT (this is the minimum requirement for all of our LSAT instructors).

Law school applicants traditionally use U.S. News rankings extensively during their law school selection process. The “tier” system used by U.S. News has become accepted law school applicant lingo, with phrases such as “top 30″ or “T20 school” used as a means of identifying where a school falls within the rankings system. Law school deans and professors often criticize the methodology used by U.S. News, citing that many of the criteria considered important by the publication do not often hold “real world” importance in creating quality graduates. You can see the methodology used by U.S. News by clicking here.

SOUND OFF: Do you use rankings? Do you think they are representative of a school’s quality? How should applicants use them? Would you change the way they are calculated?

Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out that way.

For many students, bringing laptops into the classroom was a boon: It allowed them to take notes quickly and efficiently, and made searching for classroom materials easily done in real time. However, for many others, it has become a huge distraction — Georgetown Law Professor David Cole put it this way for The Washington Post: “[It] is like putting on every student’s desk, when you walk into class, five different magazines, several television shows, some shopping opportunities and a phone, and saying, ‘Look, if your mind wanders, feel free to pick any of these up and go with it.’” Cole is one of many professors in law schools and universities around the country that have banned laptop use in the classroom.

As students have become more and more “wired,” attention spans in the classroom have waned. Laptops, smartphones, and iPhones pose a variety of distractions to students — distractions many find hard to avoid, and can sometimes be detrimental to their overall performance. Students find themselves checking Facebook, updating Twitter, chatting on various programs, and surfing the web throughout class. Just this past week, another Georgetown Professor, Peter Tague, found himself the epicenter of a widespread rumor regarding the retirement of SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts; he unwittingly started this viral rumor after telling his students of the “retirement” at the start of his class, and then asking them not to tell anyone. Students, in turn (and completely disregarding their professor’s instructions), immediately started texting, Twittering, Facebooking, and spreading the news in as many electronic formats as they could (see the breakdown of this story at NPR and Above The Law.) While the rumor was quelled within a day and no harm came of it, it underscores a painfully poignant point: Even when told not to do so, students seemingly can’t keep themselves off the web and off their phones, even at the expense of their education.

One Oklahoma Professor, Keiran Mullen, finally had enough, and decided to prove his disdain for laptops in his class in a way very fitting to his science background: By dousing a laptop in liquid nitrogen and then smashing it on the classroom floor — all while his astonished students watched (and likely put their laptops discreetly away).

Is this anti-technology trend something that will permeate all educational establishments? It’s hard to tell. One thing’s for sure, though: As more and more law schools climb onto the no-laptop wagon, it’s in all prospective law students’ best interest to start relying less on their apps, and more on their penmanship.

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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
What do you think? Should law school professors and law schools be allowed to enforce no-laptop rules in the classroom? Will it improve students’ attention spans and grades? Is a no-laptop rule a boon or a bust?

To the best of my knowledge, there is no “limit” on registration for these forums, but this is a policy that can always change, so it’s best to enroll early and get your spot. Best of all, registration is FREE, which is a huge boon in my book. And when you register, you not only get access to the school reps, but also to all of the discussions and workshops held that day by LSAC representatives.

If you want to learn more about the Forums and see a few neat resources LSAC has available for forum-goers, click here. If you want to register for any of the forums, just look to the right of page, find the forum you’re insterested in, and click the “Register” button. It’s very comprehensive and easy.

I’ll be at the Houston forum. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!