At first glance, an American Bar Association accreditation site visit and a law school’s bid to boost its U.S. News & World Report ranking seem unlikely fodder for a comedic novel. But “Legal Asylum,” a blistering satire by longtime Stanford Law School professor Paul Goldstein, leverages that premise to send up to the legal academy’s obsession with U.S. News and to warn of the rankings’ corrosive impact on law schools.
“Legal Asylum” tells the tale of a fictional state law school in New England whose ambitious dean Elspeth Flowers will stop at nothing to move her institution into U.S. News’ top five. Meanwhile, an ABA accreditation site visit team, a major donor under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a warring law faculty, and a scheming mail room clerk all threaten to derail her efforts.
