National Debate amongst Law Professors

Two years ago, a third year law student, attending the Boston College Law School, created an anonymous letter that was posted online. The letter stated that the student was willing to leave law school without having obtained a degree by the end of the semester. However, in return for leaving, the student wanted a refund for all of the tuition that was paid for the past two and a half years. The student claimed that the reason for the note was because of an extremely poor employment and job market, along with the lack of opportunity. However, while the student wrote the anonymous letter, he never received a response from the dean of Boston College Law School.

However, school professors at Yale Law are actually pushing for law schools around the nation to offer such a deal to their law students. This is definitely a controversial nationwide debate amongst everyone. The duo of school professors have said that law schools should offer to pay some of the loans that the students had to pay for their first year of law school, if the students realize that the chances of having a successful legal career is not really very high. None of the law schools in the nation have a policy such as this one but these particular professors are hoping that Yale will accept and adopt the proposal.

One of the professors, Ayres, said, “I think it could be an advantage in marketing to prospective students and in distinguishing ourselves from our competitors who aren’t willing to put their money where their mouths are.”

The pair of professors is also urging the law schools to provide very detailed and statistical information about students at the school along with their job performance upon graduation from the law schools. Yale provides such facts about its students and their employment after graduating from the law school.

Tons of different professors are agreeing that there should be more disclosure of honest and accurate statistics about the students who attend law school and their chances of employment upon graduation.

Judith Areen LAW ’69, a former dean of Georgetown Law Center, has said, “My first thought was, ‘maybe they’re being tongue-in-cheek, given that both of them are members of the faculty of the highest-ranked law school, where few students are likely to take up such an offer.” She also says, “Perhaps the real goal is to get schools to focus more clearly on whether they are taking advantage of their students in any way.”

In the meantime, prominent lawyers, professors, and administrators are debating with one another, leading to an important question. The question is, should the amount of success that student does or does not have during their time in school fall on the student or should it fall on the school instead?