Feb 16 (Reuters) - Amid pressure to provide more
complete job placement information, a group of law schools has
released details about the hiring picture for their graduates.
Law School Transparency, a nonprofit organization, announced
on Wednesday that 32 schools had provided it with job placement
data for 2010 graduates that is more detailed than the
information that the American Bar Association releases. The
schools, which represent 16% of the 200 ABA-accredited law
schools, disclosed details such as graduates' part-time and
temporary employment, and placement in jobs that do not require
a law degree. The information released by the ABA does not
include all of those numbers, although it recently changed its
policy to release more detailed data in the future.
Among the 32 schools that provided data to Law School
Transparency were George Mason University School of Law, College
of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, University of
Tennessee College of Law, Drexel University Earle Mack School of
Law and University of North Carolina School of Law.
Law School Transparency, formed in 2009 by two students from
Vanderbilt University Law School, seeks to inform prospective
law students about the value of a law degree. In December, it
sent letters to deans of ABA-accredited law schools asking them
to provide it with the same information the schools give to
NALP, a nonprofit association for legal career professionals.
The ABA uses some of the NALP numbers in the data about each
school that it releases to the public. NALP does not release
information about individual schools.
"Our hope is that these 32 schools pave the way for the
other schools," said Kyle McEntee, executive director of Law
School Transparency.
With the attorney job market glutted and student debt
averaging $106,000 for private law school graduates, schools
have come under increasing pressure to give more details about
employment after graduation. In the last year, graduates have
sued 15 schools, alleging fraud in their job placement data.
(Reporting by Leigh Jones)
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