Who Ultimately is Master of the Domain? ABA Responds to Senator Boxer's Request for Information About What the ABA Is Doing to Improve Its Oversight of Reported Law School Placement Data

On March 31, 2011, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called on the ABA to improve its oversight of admissions and post-graduation information reported by law schools across the country. Three snips from the letter.

It is essential that students deciding if and where to attend law school have access to information that is accurate and transparent. The ABA, as the accrediting body charged with oversight of the nation’s law schools, must ensure standards and accountability.

...

This very serious problem takes on greater significance when viewed in the context of news articles highlighting law schools that allegedly falsify post-graduation and salary information in attempts to increase their position in the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings.

...

I am requesting that you provide me with a detailed summary of the ABA’s plans to implement reforms to its current procedures to ensure access to accurate and transparent information for prospective law school students.

(Emphasis added.)

ABAJ's Mark Hansen reports on the ABA's response. Hardly worth quoting but hers is one snip from ABA President Stephen N. Zack's April 27, 2010 cover letter:

I want to emphasize that we share your concern: no one could be more focused on the future of our next generation of lawyers than the ABA and the legal profession for whom we speak. An interest in pursuing justice should not leave someone with a life shadowed by overwhelming debt.

Photo Credit: Cited ATL Post

Really? See Juggalo Law's ATL post, Law Schools Lie Like A Dog… Or A Rug. A Dog On A Rug 

I graduated from Northwestern Law in 2009. It is now 2011, my loans are coming due (real due — not the fake, put ‘em in forebearance, due of yesteryear), and I am currently “employed” doing two things: reviewing documents at an embarrassing hourly wage on projects that start and stop without any sort of consistency, and writing “jokes” about the Microsoft Zune every weekday morning, every other week.

Master of My Domain. I'm thinking Senator Boxer should have asked every law school dean for their school's "detailed summary ... to implement reforms .. to ensure access to accurate and transparent information for prospective law school students." Perhaps it is time for Congressional hearings on who should accredit the legal academy.

Hello Senator Boxer, how about calling all law school deans as individual witnesses? Who will be the first "Kramer?"  [JH]