Bar Review Lawsuit Gets Class Action Status

A U.S. District Court has extended class action status to an antitrust lawsuit brought against BAR/BRI, the largest provider of bar review courses in the U.S.

The suit accuses BAR/BRI of entering an illegal agreement with Kaplan to divide the LSAT and bar exam preparation market in order to keep course prices artificially high. "If we prove BAR/BRI and Kaplan, Inc violated the antitrust laws, several hundred thousand young lawyers who paid too much for their bar prep. courses will get some of their money back," lead counsel Eliot Disner said in a press release issued by his firm, McGuireWoods LLP. Disner alleges that BAR/BRI overcharged students by as much as $1,000 per course.

BAR/BRI estimates that approximately 9 out of 10 law students in the U.S. take one of its bar review courses.

Approximately 300,000 law students are believed to be eligible to take part in the lawsuit.

Source: "Federal Judge Certifies Class of Former Law Students Using BAR/BRI and Kaplan and Installs Special Master" - press release issued by McGuireWoods LLP (Los Angeles, CA), May 16, 2006

Stanford Draws Praise for Diversity Efforts

Stanford fares better than other top law schools do in terms of faculty and student diversity, but it still has room for improvement, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education says.

The Journal found that, overall, little progress had been made over the past seven years in the recruitment of black students or the retention of black faculty members at top law schools.

Stanford's diverse law faculty earned high marks in the survey. Stanford has made a concious effort to recruit a diverse faculty, Dean Larry Kramer told the Stanford Daily. 7 of Stanford's full-time faculty members are minorities, with blacks representing over 9 per cent of full-time professors.

By contrast, Stanford's performance in recruiting minority students is on par with the national average. Blacks represent 7.8 per cent of students enrolled at Stanford and 7.4 per cent of students enrolled in the nation's 25 top law schools.

Dean Kramer reiterated Stanford's commitment to maintaining a lively and diverse academic community. "We believe that it is very important to have a faculty body that is diverse in all the ways important in American society — which means racial and ethnic diversity, but also gender and intellectual approaches as well," he said. "Our efforts to recruit have been focused on finding candidates and convincing them that Stanford is the right place for them to be."

Source: "Diversifying the Law School," by Niraj Sheth - the Stanford Daily, May 19, 2006

UM Students Targeted by LSAT Prep Scams

The University of Michigan campus paper reports that some students are falling victim to various LSAT prep scams.

The founder of a locally-based LSAT prep program said that a former student of hers had been caught impersonating her and teaching classes under her name. She said she was aware of other purported tutors who falsified test scores and had friends pose as references. Out of the roughly two dozen LSAT tutors advertising their services in the Ann Arbor area, she knew of only three whom she would recommend with confidence.

In a separate incident, an unspecified number of UM students who had enrolled in an LSAT prep course offered by Test Masters Educational Services in Texas were informed that their course was cancelled less than a week before its scheduled start date. When contacted by the campus paper, the head of Test Masters said that he was unaware that any courses were being offered in Ann Arbor under his company's name. (Test Masters Educational Services in Texas should not be confused with TestMasters, a nationally recognized test prep company also known as Robin Singh Educational Services.)

The paper adds that over 1,100 University of Michigan students and alumni applied to law schools in 2004-2005. About one-fifth of them were turned away by every school they applied to.

LSAT prep classes offered in the Ann Arbor area cost between $1,000 and $2,000. Private tutors charge hourly rates ranging from $35 to almost $250 per hour.

Source: "LSAT Prep Courses Prey on Students," by Ann Vandermay - The Michigan Daily, May 8, 2006

Penn State Plans Demolition of Historic Law School Building

Penn State University has announced plans to demolish the Dickinson School of Law building this summer in order to replace it with a larger and more modern facility.

Trickett Hall has housed the Dickinson School since its founding in 1917. The red brick, colonial-style building has been a landmark of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania campus.

The new building is scheduled to open in 2008. A second law building is under construction on the University's College Park campus.

University officials say the new buildings are needed to provide law students with updated facilities and to accommodate growing enrollment. Applications to and enrollment in the Dickinson Law School have climbed dramatically in recent years.

Source: "Penn State to Raze 1911 Hall," by Meghan Hogan. Preservation, May 3, 2006.

Baylor Sets Top Bar Passage Rate for Texas

Almost 98.9 per cent of Baylor Law School students passed the Texas Bar Exam this year, giving Baylor once again the highest bar passage rate of any Texas law school.

62 of the 64 Baylor students who took the February exam passed.

364 students from law schools across the state took the bar exam. 305 passed, making for an average statewide passage rate of 83.8 per cent.

Brad Toben, Dean of Baylor Law School, said that credit for the School's long record of high bar passage rates should go to the faculty and staff who prepare Baylor students to succeed on the exam. "I am very proud of their work with our students, which is so effective," Toben was quoted as saying in a Baylor press release. "The investment that they make in our students not only prepares them for great accomplishment, but also, very importantly, inures to the benefit of our profession and the public."

Source: "Baylor Law Tops Another Bar Exam Pass Rate." Press release, Baylor University (Waco, Texas), May 4, 2006.

Public Service Draws New Dean to CUNY

Michelle J. Anderson, professor of law at Villanova University since 1998, has been named dean of the CUNY School of Law. She will assume her duties as dean on July 1.

Anderson says that CUNY's strong pubic service program was a main factor in her decision to accept the deanship. More CUNY graduates go to work in public interest law than graduates from any other U.S. law school do.

Anderson is a graduate of Yale Law School. She taught criminal law, criminal procedure, and feminist legal theory at Villanova, and is highly regarded for her work on legal aspects of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Source: "CUNY Law School Gets a New Dean," The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2006.

Law Profs Ban Laptops from Class

AP reports that a growing number of law professors prohibit students from bringing laptop computers to class.

The professors complain that students are taking advantage of wireless Internet services to check email, surf websites, and play online games during class.

They also argue that students who type notes into their computers create a distraction for their classmates -- and that these students may not be absorbing much of the lectures and discussions they are taking notes on, anyway.

University of Pennsylvania Law Professor Charles Mooney told AP that he once asked a court stenographer taking down his testimony during a deposition what she thought of the case. She replied that she didn't remember any of what she had transcribed. "I thought, 'That's what my students are doing,'" Mooney told AP.

Mooney banned laptops from his classes two years ago. Some students withdrew from his courses rather than give up their computers.

This year, Mooney agreed to allow laptops into the classroom again, in order to compare the performance of students who used computers against that of students who took written notes. He concluded that it was in students' interest to return to the laptop ban.

Source: "More Professors Ban Laptops in Class," by Kathy Matheson - AP (Philadelphia), 3 May 2006

Added May 4, 2006:

Harvard Law School faculty and staff are reported to be debating a total ban on wireless Internet use during class.

The majority of students who responded to a Law School Council survey did not support the ban. 65 per cent of respondents opposed the ban, 25.3 per cent supported it, and 9.7 per cent had no preference.

In responses to other questions about a proposed ban, 23.7 per cent of respondents said that they would attend class less often if they were banned from accessing the Internet from classrooms.

38.6 per cent said they would pay more attention in class if Internet use was banned. 27.1 per cent said they would "find other ways to distract myself," and 29.4 per cent said they pay close attention to class even when they have Internet access.

Source: "Hundreds Speak Up on Proposed Wireless Ban," by Stephanie Wiebe and Kathryn Baugher. The Harvard Law School Record, April 27, 2006.

Georgetown Extends LL.M. Deadline to May 31

The Georgetown University Law Center is accepting 2006 applications for its LL.M. program through May 31. It encourages interested persons to submit complete applications as soon as possible, as the few seats left open in this year's class will be filled as qualified candidates are identified. Students admitted under this late deadline must enroll in fall 2006. Requests for deferral to 2007 will not be granted.

Georgetown has LL.M. programs for applicants holding U.S. and foreign law degrees. Programs open to U.S.-educated lawyers include those in taxation, securities and financial regulation, national security law, and human rights. A Future Law Professors Program and an individualized LL.M. program are also available.

For more information, go to the Georgetown University Law Center website: www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions/llm_general.html

Drexel Ahead of Curve on Inaugural Admissions

Drexel University's new law school is well ahead of the curve on admissions for its first-ever class.

The University's target enrollment for J.D. classes beginning this fall was 120 students. To date, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports, over 210 applicants have responded positively to admissions offers.

Law school senior vice president Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III told the Journal that he expects that a significant number of these admits are waitlisted at other, already-accredited schools and unlikely to matriculate at Drexel if offered places elsewhere.

Drexel's law school is convening its first classes this fall. It expects to earn ABA accreditation by 2009, when its first class graduates.

The Drexel J.D. program will focus on health care law, entrepreneurial business law, and intellectual property law. It will follow Drexel University's model of cooperative education, requiring second- and third-year law students to spend six months of each year working for an employer. A number of Philadelphia-area law firms, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies have expressed interest in participating in the program.

Drexel received 1,297 completed applications for fall 2006 admission. It admitted 383 applicants, making for a 30 per cent acceptance rate. The median college GPA for admitted students is 3.38 and the median LSAT score is 156. 53 per cent of admitted students are women and 22 per cent identify themselves as minorities.

Source: "Drexel Law School Surpasses Goal for 1st Class Admissions," by Jeff Blumenthal. The Philadelphia Business Journal, April 28, 2006.