Class Action Filed Against Thomas Jefferson School of Law Over Misrepresentation of Placement Data

A big hat tip Kyle McEntee, Executive Director of Law School Transparency (LST) for calling attention to this pending class action lawsuit filed by a Thomas Jeferson School of Law (San Diego, CA) grad who is seeking judicial relief from her alma mater under California State law in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Diego. The complaint alleges five causes of action (image, right), including that the law school has engaged in “fraudulent and deceptive business practices,” for “a practice of misrepresenting its post-graduation employment statistics,” and that “the disservice the Thomas Jeferson School of Law is doing to its students and society generally is readily apparent.”

The potential class could number at least 2,300 others. Text of the complaint by way of Law School Transparency. LST's Class Action Suit Filed Against Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides an excellent summary of the complaint as well as a review of the current employment information Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides on its website. Highly recommended. See also ABAJ's coverage at Honors Grad Working as Doc Reviewer Sues Law School, Says She Was Misled by US News Stats.

The complaint, by the way, cites a number of news articles and quotes from law school faculty and administrators over the last few years to demonstrate a widespread consensus that schools are engaged in unfair and misleading practices. 

Hello Senator Boxer. The last time I checked one of the FTC's statutory responsibilities was to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive practices in commerce. Since this lawsuit was filed in her home state and thinking she may be underwhelmed by the ABA response to her request for information about what the Association is doing to improve its oversight of admissions and post-graduation information reported by law schools, hopefully Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, may want to call the legal academy and its current accreditation body to the Hill for committee hearings. See 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. [JH]