Are Law Schools Skewing Job Placement Numbers?
To save lawyers from a terrible market, some schools are paying their salaries
The quad at Emory University in Atlanta.
Photographer: Rich Addicks/The New York Times/ReduxThis article is for subscribers only.
Last week, new lawyers got their first piece of good news in a while. People who graduated law school in 2014 were slightly more likely to be employed than the class before, reported the National Association for Law Placement, which tracks outcomes for law students. That’s the first time the job rate has ticked up for new law grads since 2007.
Anyone concerned with the future of the law profession should be thrilled, right? Not necessarily, says the industry's watchdog. One faction of the American Bar Association is arguing that schools are skewing job results, and giving prospective law students hope when they should be serving up realism.