For years now, when faced with cash crunches, deans at some law schools have allowed their admissions standards to fall to the wayside rather than deal a blow to their budgets. Elite law schools, on the other hand, have remained largely immune to this trend, continuing to attract and accept the country’s best and brightest prospective law students, and operating all the while with carefully balanced budgets.
Until now.
That all changes today, because a T14 law school recently decided to conduct faculty cuts due its budget shortfalls. Which one could it be?
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It’s the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law — a school U.S. News ranks at No. 11 (and Above the Law ranks at No. 10)— that finds itself in a “challenging financial position,” and Dean Kimberly Yuracko has been asked by the powers that be at the university proper to “reduce expenses.” This is the first T14 law school we know of that’s had to consider slashing faculty to meet budget demands — we suppose you could call it the “Northwestern Law Difference.” Karen Sloan of Law.com has more information on how the school’s budget woes will affect faculty:
Yuracko declined to detail the amount of the budget shortfall or the number of positions she has cut, but her [internal listserv] faculty letter said the school’s operating expenses this year are expected to outpace its revenues. The school will draw on its reserves to cover the difference this year, but Yuracko said Northwestern Law needs to make bigger adjustments to bring its expenses in line with revenue for its long-term health.
In addition to reducing staff, clinical, and lecture positions through eliminating vacant jobs and not renewing certain short-term teaching contracts next year—tenured faculty positions are not under review—the school is increasing the size of its LL.M. class to increase revenue, she said. Affected clinicians and lecturers have been informed that their contracts will end this academic year, she added.
Yuracko, who took over as dean just two months ago, says these cuts “have not been easy steps to take, especially in regard to our faculty and staff colleagues,” and that the administration is “trying to treat impacted individuals with sensitivity.”
We wish all of the those who may be affected at Northwestern Law the best of luck while they seek new job opportunities in legal academia and beyond.
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Northwestern Law Dean Cites School’s ‘Difficult Time’ as Reason for Faculty Cuts [Law.com]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.