Like an invisible conveyor belt, law schools now dump thousands of unemployed lawyers onto the job market every year. But after a recent meeting of the American Bar Association in Chicago, support is growing for a proposal that would set a new generation of law students on a better path.
On April 3, the ABA’s Standards Review Committee discussed potential changes to law school accreditation standards that would require schools to provide more accurate, consistent and public data on employment outcomes. While a vote on any proposal is still months away, the discussion came in response to a growing number of would-be attorneys who accuse law schools of advertising overly rosy employment statistics with little relation to reality. Feeling trapped by debt and cheated by a legal education that left them unprepared for practice, these overeducated agitators are pushing for transparency.
