Job Searches, Law Schools

This Is How One Law School Is Trying To Game Its Job Statistics

This law school is trying to pull a fast one for the sake of its employment statistics.

By  
on

After years of bad publicity because of their graduates’ woeful employment prospects, law school administrators are desperately trying to change the way that their institutions are perceived. These graduates need jobs as attorneys, and they need them now, so law schools have created various employment programs to keep their graduates busy for a time. Although it may seem like they have their graduates’ best interests at heart — come on, of course they’d like them to be gainfully employed after debt-financing their law degrees to the tune of six figures — we suspect these law school administrators may have an ulterior motive in mind: gaming the law school rankings.

While the American Bar Association first began requiring law schools to separate out their employment data by specific job type and duration several years ago, U.S. News & World Report, the magazine that ranks law schools, only recently started assigning different weights to different subsets of attorney employment placements. In the most recent rankings, for example, U.S. News assigned greater weight to employment placements not funded by law schools that were full-time, long-term (lasting at least a year), and for which bar passage was required or a J.D. was considered an advantage.

(Please note the update at the end of this post.)

Keeping those facts in mind, one law school is attempting to get traction for its latest graduate employment program — a program that will fulfill all of the U.S. News requirements for a greater employment-placement weight come rankings time. Before we describe the program, here’s what one of our sources had to say about it:

I thought the legal community would like to know Cardozo’s plans for keeping up its employment numbers. Hopefully, it won’t put the rest of us making a living wage out of work.

Yes, Cardozo Law, a school where students apparently need walking instructions, is rolling out a brand-new jobs program for its unemployed 2015 graduates, and it’s targeting small to mid-size firms in the process. Here’s the school’s email pitch from a career services officer, with a subject line that reads “$38k — Hire a Junior Attorney”:

I want to let you know about a great program that allows small-medium size firms and legal departments hire talented junior attorneys for a one year commitment at a salary of $38,000 (paid by the employer). The Resident Associate Mentor Program (RAMP) allows you to build and grow your practice without taking on a heavy financial burden or making a commitment to an attorney beyond one year. You are also helping a young lawyer embark on their legal career. We are actively recruiting employers to hire 2015 graduates with a start date in August/September. Please get in touch if you are interested in participating or learning more. I am attaching a flyer with additional information.

Best,

Leila J. Faridi | Employer Outreach Coordinator
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Sponsored

Cardozo is offering employers the chance to spend their own money to support one of its graduates for at least a year. Yes, friends, for just $104 a day, you can help save Cardozo Law’s employment statistics. Just 56.9 percent of the class of 2014 were employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required, but with a program like this, Cardozo could stand to potentially bump that number up to at least 60 percent.

Here’s a fact sheet about Cardozo Law’s RAMP program (the full flyer is on the next page):

There are so many positives to this program… for everyone but recent graduates. Employers, you don’t even need to offer these people benefits. That $5K bar passage / admission raise is completely optional. You only have to pay these law school graduates a marginal wage that couldn’t possibly service all of their law school debt for one year’s time.

How could you pass up a great “deal” like this?

The only people who are getting true value out of this program are Cardozo Law’s career services staff members — they won’t have to explain why so many of their graduates aren’t employed as lawyers, and U.S. News will look kindly upon their job statistics.

Sponsored

UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): This afternoon, we received the following statement from John DeNatale Assistant Dean of Communications and Public Affairs at Cardozo School of Law:

In 2013, in response to the challenges of the legal job market, Cardozo Law School launched an innovative program based on a medical residency model, which provides experience to new lawyers at a fellowship salary. The idea was reported on favorably at the time by Karen Sloan in the National Law Journal, a copy of which can be read on the Cardozo website at http://cardozo.yu.edu/news/cardozos-pilot-jobs-program-creating-new-opportunities-graduate. As Ms. Sloan accurately reported, the RAMP initiative is one of a handful of innovative pilot efforts around the country. It was designed to provide practical experience for graduates at a fellowship salary, and to tap into an unmet demand at small firms and companies that don’t usually hire lawyers right out of law school.

Cardozo’s Resident Associate Mentor Program has successfully helped small and mid-size law firms, as well as corporate legal departments, create new positions for recent law school graduates. Almost all of the resident-associates hired have seen their RAMP positions turn into meaningful, higher paid jobs at those companies or elsewhere. RAMP has tapped into a new market providing recent graduates with important first jobs in the legal profession.

The RAMP program was presented at the most recent NALP conference as part of a program on assisting graduates entering practice.

RAMP is designed to help graduates gain employment in a difficult job market, and to launch careers for the long-term.

(Flip to the next page to see Cardozo Law’s Resident Associate Mentor Program flyer.)

1 2Next »

Topics

, , , , , , , , ,