Will Bottom of the Barrel Thomas Jefferson School of Law Further Reduce Its Faculty, Staff, Bar Prep, and Parking?

On March 21, 2014, a remarkable conference call was held between a high level team at financially-beset Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) and representatives of the bondholders who unwisely financed TJSL's chevron-topped vanity project to the tune of 130 million dollars. To its credit, the TJSL side decided to record the call and make it available on the internet on grounds that the bondholders were so numerous that a recording was the only way to effectively communicate with all, rather than a select group. 

The majority of the conference call consisted of Dean Thomas Guernsey narrating a slide show (which unfortunately is not available) about the school’s operations, programs, constraints, and revenue projections. The audio file of the call can by accessed by going to this web address and following instructions:

http://emma.msrb.org/EA592588-EA463331-EA859467.pdf

On October 29, 2014, just over seven months after the call, TJSL reached a last-minute debt restructuring agreement with the bondholders. Under the agreement, the school becomes a mere tenant in its own lavish eight story cathedral of legal learning, aka Hasl's "Mammoth" Folly. However, on its website, TJSL reassures readers that "students should not see any change in the operation of the law school caused by the restructuring" and that "We do not anticipate a reduction in the number of staff as a result of the restructuring."

What follows are a few highlights of what Dean Guernsey told the bondholders, during the March 21st conference call, about recent and projected budget cuts at the school. Potential law students and their influencers may wish to consider Guernsey’s comments as they evaluate whether TJSL is likely to provide, as TJSL promises on its website, "a learning environment in which all of our students can more effectively acquire the academic and non-academic skills that they need to thrive in a rapidly changing legal profession." They might recall that, even pre-budget-cuts, the school's bar-required job placement rate for recent grads was among the worst in the country and that its bar passage rate is dismal. How the school will improve its performance with a reduced and demoralized staff is not clear. Perhaps magic.

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* "As we’ve reported before, the school has taken dramatic cuts since 2012. The number of employees at the school declined from 139 to 102. We have reduced spending by 22% and believe the result is that we have a bare bones budget for the operation of the law school." (Conference call, at 32:50-33:10)

* "We are projecting a significant decline in the number of full-time faculty that the law school will employ as the number of students declines and then levels off." (32:24-34:40) 

* "We are projecting further personnel reductions planned over the next three years. . .We have assumed that benefits and salaries for those who work at the law school will not increase over the next four years, but that after that there will be a 2.5 percent annual growth. At some point, the continued inability to give salary increases is going to have obviously a negative impact on our ability to retain people." (33:28-34:05) 

 * "A number of expenses we have reduced, these are just the ones that are $50,000 or more. Professional fees by more than $560,000. Student recruitment by more than $430,000. Library continuations by $125,000. Security by $89,000." (39:22-39:38)

 * "We are looking for other ways to improve. . . [A] bar preparation course [for] which we pay about $600,000 a year ends in 2016. We have no intention of renewing that. That leads to a $285,000 reduction in 2017." (39:47-40:13)   

 * "We have worked hard to reduce our parking expenses, which should be about $115,000 less in 2015.  We are currently renting 400 parking spaces, and we’ve  negotiated a reduction in that number to 150 spaces at $85 per month." (40:15-40:39)

* "As we’ve talked before, the law school has made significant budget cuts lately. We have reduced the overall FTE headcount by over 21% in the past year alone. As I’ve indicated, we have further reductions projected over the next three years. Significant salary and benefit concessions have been implemented. We froze salaries and wages since 2012. In August, soon after my arrival, we made a 5% across the board cut in salaries, with an additional 3% cut for the faculty. We eliminated the 401K matching, which was up to 3% of salary and that became effective on January, 2014. And we have eliminated paid sabbaticals." (38:26-39:14) 

Bottom-of-the-barrel Thomas Jefferson School of Law offers academic merit scholarship to applicants with 2.0 UGPA/ 140 LSATs.

Let’s say a person squeaks through college with the minimum GPA needed to graduate (2.00, i.e. a "C" average) and then completely bombs a standardized test designed to measure reading comprehension and analytical and logical ability, scoring in the bottom 13 percent of test-takers. A euphemism for such a person, suitable for this touchy age, might be "intellectually disinclined" or, certainly, "academically challenged." But at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, that person is referred to as a “recipient of an academic merit scholarship.”

Consider the “matrix” of UGPA/LSATs used by Thomas Jefferson School of Law, beginning this fall, to award guaranteed renewable academic merit scholarships. A kid with a 2.0 GPA /140 LSAT (i.e., a "C" average in college and a 13th percentile score on the LSAT) gets a merit scholarship of $1,000 a year. And $7,000/ yr. if that kid can boost his or her LSAT performance to 145-- the 26th percentile.

What is even more striking than the small merit awards provided to the, uh, intellectually disinclined, are the quite substantial ones provided to the utterly mediocre and sub-mediocre. Thomas Jefferson will provide a $44,000/ yr. renewable scholarship for an incoming law student with a 3.0 undergraduate GPA and a 153 on the LSAT (i.e., a "B" average in college and a 55th percentile score on the LSAT)—essentially a full-ride, since the school’s annual tuition is $44,900. A half-tuition scholarship is available to students with a 2.5 undergraduate GPA and a 148 on the LSAT (i.e. a "C+" average in college and a 38th percentile score on the LSAT).  

1,000,000 Page Views

I just wanted to take a brief moment and note that OTLSS has reached a page view count with a lot of zeroes in it, and as such wanted to congratulate everyone on this particular milestone.

The Scamblog movement has been a slow, steady climb from outright dismissal to passing consideration to (mostly) grudging acceptance.  Some claim that the truth has been out there for decades - the false employment statistics, the brutal job market, the declining salaries, the hefty debt - yet that same truth seemed to be drowned out by a cocktail of societal fanfare, obfuscation by the Law School Cartel, and legitimate success on the part of some practitioners.  

It all appeared to start as hushed conversations between practitioners, or the shame-filled silence of those who had a career and lost it, or never had one start at all.  No one dared speak out, as that would be instant career suicide.  Very little could be found in the media that contradicted the open road narrative of law school being a sure road to career and financial success.  There were extremely rare and surprising articles in the newspapers, but for the most part they were too easily dismissed as the rantings of losers and nay-sayers.

While it sounds cliche to say that "The Internet has Changed Everything!!!11!1eleven!!1", there is some real truth to this.  When people could commit the "egregious sin" (according to some LawProfs) of exercising their first-amendment rights anonymously and "telling it like it is" to a wider audience than they ever could in the main-stream media, the message got out in a way that it never could before.  The Calico Cat, Tom the Temp, L4L,  Law School Transparency, The Law School Tuition Bubble, Nando, and many, many others stated to speak out, and the web count kept growing as a result.  By the time other important players with street-cred entered the scene (e.g. The New York Times, Campos, Tamanaha) there was fertile ground for ideas to take root.

We're not done yet.  But as a reader and supporter (or even a constructive criticizer) of this cause, we here at OTLSS thank you for your participation, and we look forward to hearing from you as more and more interesting times come our collective way.  

  

The Pied Pipeline of Scamlin.

Initiatives designed to market law school to children are often referred to as "pipeline programs." I approve of this term. It sounds appropriately impersonal and industrial, in contrast to the moralistic rhetoric used by many of the advocates of these programs. Children are the raw material designated for future transport by pipeline to factories, aka law school, where they can be processed and packaged for the financial benefit of the factory management, aka law deans and professors.

As explained by CUNY Law Dean Michelle Anderson, "Law school pipeline programs across the country attempt to make interventions early along this stream on the theory that these interventions will widen the flow of students later in the application stage." Michelle J. Anderson, Legal Education Reform, Diversity, and Access to Justice, 61 Rutgers Law Review 1011, 1029 (2009). One format is to send law students into high schools and middle schools to stage "law related educational programming," such as mock trials and "know your rights" events, with the agenda of "excit[ing] youngsters about the practice of law and interest[ing] them in becoming lawyers themselves one day." Legal Education, at 1030. For instance, "St. John’s University School of Law engages in a service day in which law students go into area elementary schools to teach fourth graders about the practice of law by staging a trial of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."" Legal Education, at 1029-1030. Other pipeline programs are based on a "mentor model." See Legal Education, at 1030.

It makes sense for the law school industry to cultivate children. An increasing number of adults dismiss the story that law school offers a path to personal fulfillment and/ or social justice as a fairy tale told by scammers. But kids, being naive and impressionable, tend to believe fairy tales. And marketing specialists have long realized that aspirations and sensibilities formed in childhood tend to carry over into adulthood. As the "King of Advertising" Irwin Gotlieb stated: "If the first time that you saw an ad for [an expensive consumer item] was when you could finally afford it, then it is too late. You have to create aspiration. . . by the age of 12 or they won't be buying one at 35."

These pipeline programs seem to target kids from vulnerable or victimized or historically excluded communities, i.e., kids who may be especially receptive to the pitch that a law degree offers empowerment or upward mobility. I challenge the schools that participate in or host pipeline programs, especially lower tier schools with poor employment rates: You say you want to diversify the profession by recruiting kids from multicultural or economically disadvantaged backgrounds? Fine, so do I, but I do not want these kids to be scammed out of hundreds of thousands of borrowed dollars in the process.

The answer is simple: Offer full-ride scholarships to your pipeline recruits so that they will not be burdened by massive educational debt as they pursue justice for all. Otherwise your vaunted pipeline is simply an instrument of greedy deception dressed up as idealism, as exploitative and brutally ironic as Madoff earnestly promising to serve society by expanding his pool of investors to include young people of every race, color, and creed.

Gen-X as the Canary in the Coalmine

Demographically, the members of the scamblog movement are, by-and-large, from Gen-X. By most definitions, the "last" of Gen-X hit the legal market right before the 2008 financial crisis, and the "lemmings," by the same analysis, are mostly from the Millennial camp.

 

Well, of course Gen-X are the scambloggers, I hear some people say - that just fits the form. Gen-X is full of materialistic, slacker, lazy bums who got participation trophies for just showing up (amirite?), so of course they mumble and complain about law school outcomes. In fact, they've been angry people all along and they just generally hate life, so they need to just buck up and take personal responsibility for their actions whilst generally being ignored.

 

(As an aside, the exact same accusations have been leveled towards Millennials lately by Boomers, but who is keeping score, anyway?)

 

I've heard those empty accusations my whole life, and I suspect many of you have as well. Truth be told, however, Gen-X went to college in larger numbers than their Boomer forebears, and generally went further by obtaining multiple degrees and credentials. Some credit Gen-X with a now-more-than-ever-needed spirit of individual effort and business entrepreneurialism (in national hind-sight, of course). While Millennials are lauded for their volunteerism and community focus, Gen-X weren't completely "slackers" in that area, either.

 

Do you know why?  Because every generation has to work, muddle their way through, and try to make the world a better place in the process.  Gen-X in particular is "all grown up," with families, careers, and real-world responsibilities, but the unwarranted stigma and out-of-hand dismissals still persist. Yet this cohort decries the law school scam for what it is, because we don't want others to go in blind, as we did.

 

Further, we know what we are talking about, as evidenced by the latest report from the Pew Charitable Trust. I'll just start with the conclusion:

 

Generation X is discussed significantly less in the media than are baby boomers or millennials, the much larger generational cohorts that bookend it. Despite its small size, however, Gen X provides critical insights for researchers and policymakers into changing family balance sheets. Gen X may also be a harbinger of declining opportunity for many American families now and in the future.

 

The findings of this research are that Gen X reflects the growing divergence of economic fortunes for American families. Many Gen Xers have been exceptionally prosperous, reaping the successes of the economy and benefitting tremendously from being raised by families at the top of the economic ladder. But many other Gen Xers, like their parents, have failed to gain an economic foothold and remain stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder with few prospects of moving to the top.

 

However, across the economic diversity of Gen Xers, a common thread exists relative to the preceding generation. Although Gen Xers have outpaced their parents in terms of income, they have fallen far short on accumulating wealth. Their debt burdens and inadequate savings cause a ripple effect throughout their balance sheets. Low levels of savings mean that many Gen Xers could have difficulties weathering unexpected and costly life events such as unemployment or a health issue. An inadequate financial cushion could also put Gen Xers’ future economic security at risk, given that they are already behind previous generations with respect to their

retirement preparedness.  The drag of student loan debt could prevent many Gen Xers from providing for their

own children’s college aspirations, creating an intergenerational reach of student debt.

 

Without adequate wealth among Gen Xers, the mobility of not just the current generation, but also the next, could be at risk. Exactly how all of this will affect equality of opportunity in the future is unclear, but it indicates a strong need for policies that create wealth-building opportunities for Gen Xers and the younger cohorts who are following them into financial maturity.

 

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2014/09/18/pew-finds-generation-x-facing-an-insecure-financial-future

　

Further, many continue to voice concerns about ever-increasing student loan debt along with Pew.  ZeroHedge has some interesting facts on the subject, and the CFPB has something to say as well:

 

 

CFPB PRESSES CONGRESS TO CHANGE BANKRUPTCY CODE

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is urging policymakers to reconsider how student loan debt is treated under the Bankruptcy Code, American Banker reported today. In the agency's annual report on student loans, released today, it said that there are severe roadblocks for struggling student borrowers in getting modifications or other flexible options to help them pay off their debt. As a result, the CFPB said Congress should revisit a 2005 change to the Bankruptcy Code that made most private student loan debt and other "qualified loans" exempt from discharge. The agency is also recommending more favorable tax treatment on any debt that is forgiven. "Unlike mortgage servicing, there are no specific laws or rules that require specific procedures on loan modifications and the laws we administer," said Rohit Chopra, the CFPB's student loan ombudsman. "That is something that we are going to take a very close look at . . . We are going to weigh every option to see that these problems are corrected." The CFPB noted that the 2005 amendment, which raised the threshold to discharge student loan debt, made it easier for debt collection firms to increase recoveries on defaulted private student loans compared to other types of unsecured debt. Read more. (Subscription required.)

 

 

Why do we scamblog? Because we know. Because we have been and continue to live economic reality. Because we have seen the writing on the wall for some time, but when we tried to bring it to light we were dismissed out of hand for being a smaller, "know-nothing" cohort whose only original sin was being born between the early 60s and the early 80s. Yet we still speak out, regardless.

 

Read the report. The economic trends are sobering, and I guarantee you there is a Gen-X JD or two buried in the statistics, trying to pay off massive debt while struggling to make a living. Millennials, we have already been through the wringer of false employment statistics, ever-increasing tuition, and overproduced graduates, so when we say "law school is a scam," we are saying it for your benefit. Do not go to law school, with its non-dischargeable debt in a saturated, shrinking market that is increasingly being outsourced and automated, unless you have the social means and financial backing to do so.

 

Do not rely on "wanting it bad enough." Do not rely on IBR/PAYE to see you though, as those programs are in the crosshairs. Do not rely on romantic visions you see on TV. All of this is what the Law School Cartel is counting on you to do - to "follow your dreams," to "engage your passion," to "pursue liberty" and "defend justice," while ignoring all the other important data.

 

To your detriment.

Race to the Bottom: Which law schools have lowered their admissions standards and by how much?

The sharp decline in applications over the last few years is forcing law schools to tinker with student quality, class size, and tuition while they wait and hope for a revival in demand for their toxic product, the JD.  Stated generally, the following strategies are available to law schools:

Strategy One: Maintain admissions standards-- which almost certainly creates the necessity of reducing class size, cutting tuition, and/or offering more tempting scholarships to attract quality students. It also creates the prospect of a fiscal shortfall that will become more serious over time.

or 

Strategy Two: Lower admissions standards, with not-so-long-term disastrous implications for the school’s reputation, the profession itself, and for the poorly qualified matriculants,  aka lemmings of average and below average intelligence, who are less likely than brainier members of their cohort to bounce back after taking the plunge. 

Of course, these two approaches are not quite mutually exclusive-- a law school can lower admissions standards marginally while simultaneously reducing class size, ect. I imagine Strategy Two as a big barrel (or barros) filled to the brim with intoxicating scam. A law school can abstain, sip lightly, or guzzle with shameless abandon, and the choice it makes says much about its character. 

Data on median LSAT scores for incoming students over the past three years is available at the Law School Transparency site. Comparing the 2013 with the 2011 data yields an answer to the question: Which schools have lowered the median LSAT of their incoming class between 2011 and 2013, and by how much? 

While I am sure most of our readers know this, an LSAT decline of two or more points can be quite substantial when the score is expressed as a percentile of test takers. The following LSAT score-to-percentile conversion table spells it out.  

http://www.alphascore.com/resources/lsat-score-conversion/

Change in median LSAT for incoming class, 2011-2013.

Median LSAT up by 4 pts.	1
Median LSAT up by 3 pts.	1
Median LSAT up by 2 pts.	0
Median LSAT up by 1 pt.	4
Median LSAT unchanged	26
Median LSAT down by 1 pt.	56
Median LSAT down by 2 pts.	50
Median LSAT down by 3 pts.	37
Median LSAT down by 4 pts.	16
Median LSAT down by 5 pts.	5
Median LSAT down by 6 pts.	2

Vapid VAPs and Delusions of LawProf Grandeur

Following on the heels of dybbuk's excellent story about LawProfs mocking their students because they had not already achieved the pinnacle of legal nirvana, I am about to extend an invitation to Ray Campbell to just come on over and join OTLSS:

　

[A] conversation I had the other day made me think a bit about whether the shift to VAPs [Visiting Assistant Professor. -Ed.] as an entry point is good either for some candidates or for the legal academy. The conversation started with what Brian Tamanaha has skeptically called the "law professor mantra" that law professors should be paid more than other professors because they could make more in law practice. I wondered whether this has any validity given the modern world of practice. I reached out to Larry Latourette, a former big law partner who now is a principal in the legal headhunting firm of LateralLink, to see if law professors these days really have any options in private practice.
 

As I suspected, there wasn’t much of a story there. "Law professors are not marketable," Latourette said. "If they think they are they are kidding themselves."
 

For law firms, the main reason is that no one gets hired as a partner without a portable book of business. "About 98 percent of getting hired is the book of business," Latourette said.
 

　

Wait, what? Somebody call Brian Leiter! Clearly this Latourette character has a Tourette Syndrome problem of his own - namely, bad-mouthing legal scholars wantonly and uncontrollably. Haven't we heard for years that the only reason LawProfs teach is due to humble abasement and self-sacrifice, and that BigLaw would fall all over themselves in order to make a legal scholar Partner if only given the opportunity? LawProfs are like legal Paul-the-Apostles, longing to be with BigLaw-Christ, but staying behind solely for our benefit as believers in the law school pipe-dream, don't you know. 

　

He did note there were exceptions...[p]rofessors with active consulting or expert witness practices might persuade firms their marketability was proven. He also argued that people with the capabilities of your average law professor should find a role somewhere, even if the structure of the legal field made finding a private practice job difficult...[h]e acknowledged that at the outset of a teaching career the pay scales of private practice matter – the pay has to be enough to justify foregoing the higher pay of private practice. Even there, Latourette said, "Law schools could pay less." [emphasis added]

　

No, I'm sorry, those open road narratives are worth every penny...! We've been told so. Many times. By LawProfs...heywaitaminute...

 

 

His point was that many professor candidates weren't giving up that much because even in a pool of those with the very best academic records the odds of making partner were long. By the statistics, most law firm associates with law professor level credentials do not make partner. The skill sets and mindsets of teaching and practice are very different, and unblinking desire for the brass ring of partnership is a critical factor. "You have to want it very badly without thinking about whether it is worth having," he said.
 

Blasphemy!

　

I think this trend has systemic costs for the academy as a whole. As schools move to [the white-shoe VAP fellowship prior to faculty-hire] model, it has to reduce the diversity of the candidate pool. Not everyone can move temporarily to a job or take the pay cut for an uncertain future, and those who cannot suffer in comparison to those who can spend two or three years polishing an academic resume. Candidates from wealthier backgrounds thus have an edge.

　

Yep, law grads have been dealing with this very same preftige and social/financial backing disparity problem for decades now, but, funny, No One Cared at the time. Welcome to the world. 

 

While Latourette knows the current big law market better than I ever will, I think there may be some counter examples out there. Latourette also does not profess to speak about other kinds of legal employers, which may be of much more interest to many potential VAPs. I know one Climenko fellow who turned down teaching offers to go as an associate to a top Wall Street firm. I know another case, a veteran lawyer with the proven ability to develop and try big cases, who moved from several years of being a VAP to being a partner with a small firm.

　

Maybe these turned-down VAPs will land on their feet, but the numbers don't look promising. Maybe Partner with a small firm is just-as-good as partner at a BigLaw firm, just like law grads go from wanting to save the dolphins and argue before SCOTUS to accepting work at a PI mill for $35k and no benefits (if they can get the work, of course). Regardless of how it turns out, however, there is one thing I know that we will certainly see - more and more LawProf Butthurt as the Law School situation worsens.

　
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2014/10/the-vap-trap.html