Briefs: Law School Under Fire

It is an old and tired joke that everyone hates lawyers, but right now, it is law schools that are getting bashed around by, well, everyone. From low bar passage rates to the student debt crisis and everything in between, there is a continual drumbeat from media outlets that law schools basically suck.

From Law School Transparency, we have word (and a fancy animated graph!) that thanks to admissions absolutely tanking, law schools are admitting students with lower and lower LSAT scores, which correlates to a high risk of failing the bar. The study was picked up by the New York Times too.

On Sunday, the Times did an opinion piece that (rightfully) started by smacking around schools like for-profit Florida Coastal, where graduates end up $163K in debt with terrible job prospects. After that, the piece took a hard right into saying that basically we should stop sending federal dollars, in the form of loans, to law schools and instead dedicate those dollars to fund legal services organizations.

The Atlantic just stone cold threw down the gauntlet and called the for-profit law schools run by InfiLaw (Florida Coastal, Charlotte, and Arizona Summit) a scam.

Finally, practically everyone is letting us know that the New York bar passage rate plummeted to 61% for this past July’s exam. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Featured image: “Office Building Indicating Empty Space And Blazing” from Shutterstock.

Briefs: Law School Under Fire was originally published on Lawyerist.