Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving; I'm Thankful for These Seventy-Nine Heroic Law Deans

As the faithful reader will recall, last month, the NCBE and Brooklyn Law Dean Nicholas Allard had the following dialogue:
NCBE President Erica Moeser:  There was no error on this year's bar results.
Law Dean Nicholas Allard:  Shenanigans!
Once the initial artillery shelling ends, the infantry marches forward, and soon after Allard's canon-shot of perfect and unbiased scientific reasoning, the recruits lined up to march in unison for the Kingdom of Law.

On Tuesday, seventy-nine (over one third!) of America's law deans signed a letter requesting a "thorough investigation" that is "fully transparent to all law school deans and state bar examiners."  Specifically, they are requesting "all data in its possession on reliability or fairness of the July 2014 bar exam and all data necessary for independent expert review of the same."

Now, a snarky scamblogger might say something like "How about....no, fuck off." 

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "What genius former BigLaw litigator wrote this vague and ridiculous  request for production?"

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "Why, yes, transparency and enough information for independent expert review.  That sounds like a splendid thing to ask of an organization determining the fortunes of those with six-figure debt."

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "It's wonderful that law deans and state bar examiners will get this information; obviously, something like the minimal competence of lawyers should not be trusted to the public."

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "When you say "independent expert," you mean someone like Richard Matasar, right?"

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "I don't understand their concern.  A JD is a truly versatile degree and even those who fail the bar examination are well-served by their legal education."

Or a snarky scamblogger might say "With all their constitutional and civil procedure brain power, surely they have collectively navigated past the minor problem that none of them have any sort of recognized standing to even be arguing and asking for this crap."

Etc.  Lord knows what other cynical filth the minds of the unwashed can conjure.

I am not a snarky scamblogger.  I understand that these seventy-nine individuals are making a bold move in demanding open access and transparency in a shrewd sacrifice to ensure that as many debt-ridden bottom-quartile special snowflakes pass the bar exam as humanly possible in future years.  It's not about this particular battle.  It's about the war.

This is some Sun-Tzu shit going on here, and the war is all about whether you want rigid bar examinations by a cold, opaque NCBE or open, fair, and flexible bar examinations whose administrators cower to threats of auditing and mass criticism, helping the status quo to carry on for another year.  Heck, just by sending a few letters, they've already virtually guaranteed that bar examination pass rates will improve next year in several states.  No way those bureaucrats want to further ruffle feathers with law deans.

So hail these brave patriots, and let us celebrate the institutions that they serve.  Albany, Ave Maria, Barry, Capital, Charleston, Drake, Golden Gate, Hofstra, JMLS, La Verne, NYLS, Northeastern, Pace, Roger Williams, St. Marys, St. Thomas (2x), TJLS, Touro, Cooley, Vermont, Whittier, Widener, and all the others are fortunate to have leaders who understand the need for transparency and accountability when the law schools may have an adverse result.  God bless them, every one.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Americans.  And if you're not an American, well, I would love to help find you an LLM program.

9 comments:

  1. I know you didn't list all 79 of the distinguished institutions whose courageous deans are now demanding "JUSTICE!!!" for their demoralized and debt-ridden graduates. I'll just assume that Harvard, Yale, Duke and Notre Dame are demanding full transparency as well.

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    1. It should go without saying that the 79 are a purely representative sample of American law schools, and certainly not disproportionately drawn from "lesser" institutions.

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    2. The Law Deans are demanding that something be made "fully transparent." Kind of like John Dillinger depositing money into a bank....

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  2. Third Tier Drake made the list, along with New York's biggest garbage pit, TTTTouro.

    I wouldn't be surprised to see these 79 cockroaches lobby state legislatures HARD - in order to remove the bar exam, as it "may disproportionately affect dumbasses and other special or protected groups." That appears to be the endgame. We all know that these academic swine do not give one goddamn about the students, graduates or the public. They merely want to be able to get as many asses in seats as possible.

    Hell, Nicholas Allard basically said it is unethical to have students shell out a few thousand bucks more - for bar prep courses and the exam - after having already taken out large sums of student loans for their law degrees. Next step for the pigs: push for waiving the bar exam for those who graduate from an ABA-accredited toilet. That way the commodes can keep admitting morons with 139 LSATs and 2.81 UGPAs, and then not even have to worry about embarrassingly low exam passage rates.

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  3. I'm afraid Nando is correct. Now that there is effectively open admission to law school, the remaining gatekeeper is the state's bar examiners. Can't have that, can we?

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  4. "We have no Missiles in Cuba!"

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  5. Too bad these deans out so little effort in auditing their own employment statistics and job outcomes. If I was in control of things, I would respond with everything they wanted, then demanded they do the same with their employment statistics.

    Assholes.

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  6. Imagining The Open ToadNovember 29, 2014 at 1:08 PM

    Fully transparent.

    Transparent.

    That's a good word.

    Kyle taught `em that word.

    Good work, Kyle.

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  7. Allard will demand to privatize the state bars and sell them to ... Infilaw with the ABA seal.

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