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Educación jurídica en los Estados Unidos
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En los Estados Unidos , una facultad de derecho es una institución en la que los estudiantes obtienen una educación profesional en derecho después de obtener un título universitario .

Las escuelas de derecho en los EE.UU. conferir el Juris Doctor grado (JD), que es un doctorado profesional , [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] y es el grado usualmente requerida para ejercer la abogacía en los Estados Estados, y el título final obtenido por la mayoría de los profesionales en el campo. Los programas de Juris Doctor de las facultades de derecho suelen ser programas de tres años si se realizan a tiempo completo o programas de cuatro años si se realizan a través de clases nocturnas. Algunas facultades de derecho de EE. UU. Incluyen un programa JD acelerado .

Otros títulos que se otorgan incluyen los títulos de Maestría en Derecho (LL.M.) y Doctor en Ciencias Jurídicas (JSD o SJD), que pueden tener un alcance más internacional. La mayoría de las facultades de derecho son facultades , escuelas u otras unidades dentro de una institución postsecundaria más grande , como una universidad . La educación jurídica es muy diferente en los Estados Unidos de la de muchas otras partes del mundo.

Terminología [ editar ]

Un estudio de 2006 encontró que los nombres de las 192 facultades de derecho aprobadas por la American Bar Association (ABA) en ese momento incluían uno de cinco identificadores genéricos: "facultad de derecho" (118), "facultad de derecho" (38), " facultad de derecho "(28)," centro de derecho "(7) y" facultad de derecho "(1). [7] Sin embargo, en el habla corriente, la "escuela de derecho" es universalmente preferida por su "brevedad y claridad". [7]

Admisión [ editar ]

En los Estados Unidos, las facultades de derecho requieren una licenciatura en cualquier disciplina, un promedio de calificaciones de pregrado satisfactorio (GPA) y una puntuación satisfactoria en el examen de admisión a la facultad de derecho (LSAT) como requisitos previos para la admisión. [8] : 37–39 Algunos estados que tienen escuelas no aprobadas por la ABA o escuelas acreditadas por el estado tienen requisitos de equivalencia que generalmente equivalen a 90 créditos para obtener una licenciatura. [ cita requerida ] Los factores personales adicionales se evalúan a través de ensayos, preguntas de respuesta corta, cartas de recomendación y otros materiales de solicitud. [8] : 37 Los estándares para las calificaciones y los puntajes del LSAT varían de una escuela a otra.

Aunque el GPA de pregrado y el puntaje del LSAT son los factores más importantes considerados por los comités de admisión de las facultades de derecho, los factores individuales también son algo importantes. [ cita requerida ] Las entrevistas, ya sea en persona o por video chat, a veces se usan como componentes de aplicación opcionales o por invitación. [9] Muchas facultades de derecho buscan activamente candidatos de fuera del grupo tradicional para impulsar la diversidad racial, económica y experimental en el campus. [10] La mayoría de las facultades de derecho ahora tienen en cuenta las actividades extracurriculares, la experiencia laboral y los cursos de estudio únicos en la evaluación de los solicitantes. [11]Un número creciente de solicitantes de la facultad de derecho tiene varios años de experiencia laboral y, en consecuencia, menos estudiantes de derecho ingresan inmediatamente después de completar su educación universitaria. [12] Sin embargo, las facultades de derecho generalmente solo consideran las transcripciones de pregrado y no postuniversitario cuando se considera a un solicitante de admisión; las primeras son consideradas por las facultades de derecho como un estándar más uniforme que las segundas para juzgar el rendimiento académico.

Muchas facultades de derecho ofrecen becas y subvenciones sustanciales a muchos de sus estudiantes, lo que reduce drásticamente el costo real de asistir a la facultad de derecho en comparación con la matrícula adhesiva. Algunas facultades de derecho condicionan las becas a mantener un cierto GPA. [13]

A partir de 2013 había 128,641 estudiantes inscritos en programas de JD en las 204 facultades de derecho aprobadas por la ABA. [14]

Acreditación [ editar ]

Para rendir el examen de la barra , la gran mayoría de los colegios de abogados estatales requieren la acreditación de la facultad de derecho del solicitante por parte de la Asociación de Abogados de Estados Unidos. La ABA ha promulgado requisitos detallados que cubren todos los aspectos de una facultad de derecho, hasta el contenido preciso de la biblioteca de derecho y el número mínimo de minutos de instrucción necesarios para recibir un título en derecho. A partir de 2020 , hay 203 facultades de derecho acreditadas por la ABA que otorgan el JD, divididas entre 202 con acreditación completa y una con acreditación provisional. [15] El Centro Legal y Escuela del Abogado General del Juez en Charlottesville, Virginia , una escuela operada por el Ejército de los Estados Unidos que lleva a cabo un programa post-JD paraabogados militares , también está acreditado por la ABA. [15]

Las facultades de derecho no aprobadas por la ABA tienen tasas de aprobación de barras mucho más bajas que las facultades de derecho aprobadas por la ABA, [16] y no envían ni divulgan datos de resultados laborales a la ABA.

Además, las legislaturas estatales individuales o los examinadores de la barra pueden mantener un sistema de acreditación separado, que está abierto a las escuelas no acreditadas por la ABA. Si ese es el caso, los graduados de estas escuelas generalmente pueden presentarse al examen de la barra solo en el estado en el que su escuela está acreditada. California es el ejemplo más famoso de acreditación estatal específica. El Comité de Examinadores del Colegio de Abogados del Estado de California aprueba muchas escuelas que pueden no calificar o solicitar la acreditación ABA. Los graduados de estas escuelas pueden presentarse al examen de la barra en California, y una vez que han aprobado ese examen, una gran cantidad de estados permiten que esos estudiantes se presenten en sus barras (después de practicar durante un cierto número de años en California).

California es también el primer estado en permitir que los graduados de educación legal a distancia (en línea y por correspondencia) tomen su examen de abogacía. Sin embargo, las facultades de derecho en línea y por correspondencia generalmente no están acreditadas por la ABA o los examinadores de la barra estatal, y la elegibilidad de sus graduados para rendir el examen de la barra puede variar de un estado a otro. Incluso en California, por ejemplo, el State Bar considera que ciertas escuelas en línea están "registradas", lo que significa que sus graduados pueden tomar el examen de la barra, pero también dice específicamente que "el Comité de Examinadores de Abogados no aprueba ni acredita escuelas por correspondencia". [17] Kentucky va más allá al descalificar específicamente a los graduados de escuelas por correspondencia de la admisión a la barra. Esto se aplica incluso si el graduado ha obtenido la admisión en otra jurisdicción.[18]

Plan de estudios [ editar ]

Los estudiantes de derecho se denominan 1L , 2L y 3L según su año de estudio [ cita requerida ] . En los Estados Unidos, la American Bar Association no exige un plan de estudios en particular para 1L . La Norma ABA 302 (a) (1) requiere sólo el estudio de la "ley sustantiva" que conducirá a la "participación efectiva y responsable en la profesión jurídica". Sin embargo, la mayoría de las facultades de derecho tienen su propio plan de estudios obligatorio para 1L , que normalmente incluye: [19]

  • Procedimiento civil ( Reglas federales de procedimiento civil )
  • Derecho constitucional ( Constitución de los Estados Unidos , especialmente las enmiendas quinta y decimocuarta , y la cláusula de comercio )
  • Contratos (Artículo 2 (Ventas) del Código Comercial Uniforme y Reformulación (Segunda) de los Contratos )
  • Derecho penal ( derecho común general, código penal modelo y estatutos penales estatales)
  • Propiedad (derecho común general y reajuste de la propiedad)
  • Agravios (derecho común general, reafirmación (segundo) y reafirmación (tercero) de agravios)
  • Investigación jurídica (uso de una biblioteca jurídica , LexisNexis y Westlaw )
  • Escritura legal (incluido el análisis objetivo, el análisis persuasivo y la cita legal)

Estos cursos básicos están destinados a proporcionar una descripción general del amplio estudio del derecho. No todas las facultades de derecho aprobadas por la ABA ofrecen todos estos cursos en el primer año; por ejemplo, muchas escuelas no ofrecen derecho constitucional y / o derecho penal hasta el segundo y tercer año. La mayoría de las escuelas también requieren Evidencia, pero rara vez ofrecen el curso a estudiantes de primer año. Algunas escuelas combinan la investigación jurídica y la redacción jurídica en un solo curso de un año de "habilidades de abogado", que también puede incluir un pequeño componente de argumentación oral.

Debido a que el plan de estudios del primer año siempre es fijo, la mayoría de las escuelas no permiten que los estudiantes de 1L seleccionen sus propios horarios de cursos y en su lugar les entregan sus horarios en la orientación para nuevos estudiantes.

En la mayoría de las escuelas, la calificación de un curso completo depende del resultado de solo uno o dos exámenes, generalmente en forma de ensayo, que se administran a través de las computadoras portátiles de los estudiantes en el aula con la ayuda de software especializado. Algunos profesores pueden utilizar exámenes de opción múltiple en parte o en su totalidad si el material del curso es adecuado para ellos (por ejemplo, responsabilidad profesional ). Los cursos de redacción e investigación jurídica suelen tener varios proyectos importantes (algunos calificados, otros no) y un examen final en forma de ensayo. La mayoría de las escuelas imponen una curva de calificaciones obligatoria (ver más abajo).

Después del primer año, los estudiantes de derecho generalmente son libres de seguir diferentes campos de estudios legales. Todas las facultades de derecho ofrecen (o intentan ofrecer) una amplia gama de cursos de división superior en áreas de derecho sustantivo como derecho administrativo , derecho corporativo , derecho internacional , derecho del almirantazgo , derecho de propiedad intelectual y derecho tributario , y en áreas de derecho procesal. normalmente no se cubre en el primer año, como procedimientos y recursos penales . [20] Muchas facultades de derecho también ofrecen cursos de capacitación práctica para la división superior en asesoramiento al cliente, defensa de juicios , defensa de apelaciones yresolución alternativa de disputas . Dependiendo de la facultad de derecho, los cursos de capacitación práctica pueden incluir ejercicios ficticios en los que los estudiantes interactúan entre sí o con actores voluntarios que interpretan a clientes, testigos y jueces, o casos del mundo real en clínicas legales.

La graduación es el resultado asegurado para la mayoría de los estudiantes que pagan su matrícula a tiempo, se comportan de manera honorable y responsable, mantienen un recuento mínimo de unidades por semestre y un promedio de calificaciones, toman los cursos requeridos de la división superior y completan con éxito una cierta cantidad de unidades. al final de su sexto semestre.

La ABA también requiere que todos los estudiantes de las escuelas aprobadas por la ABA tomen un curso de ética en responsabilidad profesional . [20] Normalmente, este es un curso de nivel superior; la mayoría de los estudiantes lo toman en el año 2L. Este requisito se añadió después del escándalo de Watergate , que dañó gravemente la imagen pública de la profesión porque el presidente Richard Nixon y la mayoría de sus presuntos cómplices eran abogados. La ABA deseaba demostrar que la profesión jurídica podía regularse a sí misma , deseaba reafirmar y mantener su posición de liderazgo y esperaba evitar la regulación federal directa de la profesión. [21]

A partir de 2004, para garantizar que las habilidades de investigación y escritura de los estudiantes no se deterioren, la ABA ha agregado un requisito de escritura de la división superior. [20] Los estudiantes de derecho deben tomar al menos un curso, o completar un proyecto de estudio independiente, como 2L o 3L que requiere la redacción de un documento para obtener crédito.

La mayoría de los cursos de derecho tienen menos que ver con la doctrina y más con aprender a analizar problemas legales, leer casos, destilar hechos y aplicar la ley a los hechos.

En 1968, la Fundación Ford comenzó a desembolsar $ 12 millones para persuadir a las facultades de derecho de que hicieran "clínicas de facultades de derecho" parte de su plan de estudios. Las clínicas estaban destinadas a brindar experiencia práctica en el ejercicio de la abogacía al tiempo que brindaban representación gratuita a los pobres. Sin embargo, los críticos conservadores afirman que las clínicas se han utilizado en cambio como una vía para que los profesores se involucren en el activismo político de izquierda . Los críticos citan la participación financiera de la Fundación Ford como el punto de inflexión cuando tales clínicas comenzaron a cambiar de brindar experiencia práctica a participar en actividades de promoción. [22]

Las facultades de derecho que ofrecen programas acelerados de JD tienen planes de estudio únicos para dichos programas. No obstante, las facultades de derecho aprobadas por la ABA con programas de JD acelerado deben cumplir con las reglas de la ABA.

Por último, en las facultades de derecho rara vez se hace hincapié en la ley del estado en particular en el que se encuentra la facultad de derecho, sino en la ley en general en todo el país. Aunque esto hace que estudiar para el examen de la barra sea más difícil, ya que uno debe aprender leyes específicas del estado, el énfasis en las habilidades legales sobre el conocimiento legal puede beneficiar a los estudiantes de derecho que no tengan la intención de ejercer en el mismo estado en el que asisten a la facultad de derecho.

Calificaciones, calificaciones y curvas de GPA [ editar ]

Más información: Lista de curvas de GPA de la facultad de derecho

Las calificaciones en la facultad de derecho son muy competitivas. La mayoría de las escuelas califican en una curva . En la mayoría de las facultades de derecho, la curva del primer año (1L) es considerablemente más baja que los cursos tomados después del primer año de la facultad de derecho.

Muchas escuelas usan un sistema de calificación de "mediana", que puede variar desde "medianas B-plus" hasta "medianas C-menos". Algunos profesores están obligados a determinar qué examen o trabajo fue la mediana exacta en términos de calidad (por ejemplo, el 26 ° mejor de 51), dar a ese trabajo la calificación relevante según el sistema utilizado y luego calificar los otros exámenes en función de cómo mucho mejores o peores que la mediana. Algunas escuelas, como Yale Law School , Stanford Law School , Harvard Law School , University of California, Berkeley School of Law y Northeastern University School of Law, tienen sistemas de calificación alternativos que ponen menos énfasis (o ningún énfasis) en el rango. Otras escuelas, como Nueva York 's Facultad de Derecho de Fordham, utilice un sistema de calificación mucho más exigente en el que porcentajes precisos de estudiantes recibirán ciertas calificaciones. Por ejemplo, tal sistema podría obligar a los profesores a otorgar un número mínimo y máximo de "A" y "F" (por ejemplo, 3,5% / 7% A y 4,5% / 10% F). Muchos profesores se irritan por la falta de discreción proporcionada por tales sistemas, especialmente por la reprobación requerida de un cierto número de estudiantes cuyo desempeño puede haber sido inferior pero no, en la estimación del profesor, digno de una calificación reprobatoria. El sistema de "mediana" busca proporcionar cierta paridad entre las escalas de calificación de los maestros, al tiempo que le da al maestro la discreción de otorgar una calificación por debajo de la mediana solo cuando se lo merece.

Incluso con calificaciones curvas, algunas facultades de derecho, como la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Syracuse, todavía tienen una política de "Despido por deficiencia académica", en la que los estudiantes que no alcanzan un GPA mínimo son expulsados ​​de la escuela. [23]

Una escuela que se ha desviado del sistema de calificación competitiva común a la mayoría de las facultades de derecho estadounidenses es la Facultad de Derecho de la Northeastern University . Northeastern no tiene ningún sistema de promedios de calificaciones o rango de clase . En cambio, la escuela utiliza un sistema de evaluaciones narrativas para medir el desempeño de los estudiantes.

En muchas facultades de derecho de los Estados Unidos se utiliza un sistema de calificación anónima conocido como calificación a ciegas . [24] [25] Tiene la intención de contrarrestar el sesgo del evaluador. Cada semestre a los estudiantes se les asignan números aleatorios, generalmente por la Oficina de Registro, que los estudiantes deben incluir en sus exámenes. Luego, los profesores califican los exámenes de forma anónima, y ​​solo descubren los nombres de los estudiantes después de que las calificaciones se hayan enviado a la Oficina de Registro. La adopción generalizada de calificaciones a ciegas siguió a la admisión de un número significativo de estudiantes de minorías en las facultades de derecho. [26]

Programas JD acelerados [ editar ]

Artículo principal: programa JD acelerado

Un programa de JD acelerado puede hacer referencia a uno de los siguientes:

  • Un programa que combina una licenciatura con un doctorado en jurisprudencia ("programa 3 + 3 JD" o "programa BA to JD").
  • Un título de doctor en derecho de dos años que se ofrece en un período condensado, por separado de una licenciatura ("programa de JD de 2 años").

Como resultado de las preocupaciones de los estudiantes sobre el tiempo y el costo (tanto en términos de matrícula como del costo de oportunidad asociado con renunciar a un salario durante tres años) necesarios para completar una licenciatura en derecho, ha surgido una tendencia emergente para desarrollar programas acelerados de JD. [27]

Métodos pedagógicos [ editar ]

Más información: Método de libro de casos

La mayor parte de la educación en las facultades de derecho en los Estados Unidos se basa en los estándares desarrollados por Christopher Columbus Langdell y James Barr Ames en la Facultad de Derecho de Harvard durante la década de 1870. Los profesores generalmente dirigen debates en clase sobre los temas en casos judiciales seleccionados, compilados en " libros de casos " para cada curso. Tradicionalmente, los profesores de derecho optaban por no dar conferencias extensas y, en cambio, usaban el método socrático para obligar a los estudiantes a enseñarse unos a otros en función de su comprensión individual de la teoría jurídica y los hechos del caso en cuestión. [28]

Many law schools continue to use the Socratic method—consisting of calling on a student at random, asking him or her about an argument made in an assigned case, asking the student whether he or she agrees with the argument, and then using a series of questions designed to expose logical flaws in the student's argument.[28] Examinations usually entail interpreting the facts of a hypothetical case, determining how legal theories apply to the case, and then writing an essay. This process is intended to train students in the reasoning methods necessary to interpret theories, statutes, and precedents correctly, and argue their validity, both orally and in writing. In contrast, most civil law countries base their legal education on professorial lectures and oral examinations, which are more suited for the mastery of complicated civil codes.

This style of teaching is often disorienting to first-year law students who are more accustomed to taking notes from professors' lectures[citation needed]. Most casebooks do not clearly outline the law; instead, they force the student to interpret the cases and derive the basic legal concepts from the cases themselves.[28] As a result, many publishers market law school outlines that concisely summarize the basic concepts of each area of law, and good outlines are highly sought after by many students, although some professors discourage their use[citation needed].

Legal pedagogy has also been criticized by scholars like Alan Watson in his book, The Shame of Legal Education. Some law schools, such as Savannah Law School, have changed direction and created collaborative learning environments to allow students to work directly with each other and professors in order to model the teamwork of attorneys working on a case.

For purposes of passing state bar examinations, some law school graduates find law school instruction inadequate[citation needed], and resort to specialized bar review courses from private course providers. These bar reviews typically consist of lectures, often video recorded.

History[edit]

Until the late 19th century, law schools were uncommon in the United States. Most people entered the legal profession through reading law, a form of independent study or apprenticeship, often under the supervision of an experienced attorney. This practice usually consisted of reading classic legal texts, such as Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England and William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England.[29]

In colonial America, as in Britain at the time, law schools did not exist. Within a few years following the American Revolution, some universities such as the College of William and Mary and the University of Pennsylvania established a "Chair in Law".[30] Columbia College appointed its first Professor of Law, James Kent, in 1793. Those who held these positions were the sole purveyors of legal education (per se) for their institutions—though law was, of course, discussed in other academic areas as a matter of course—and gave lectures designed to supplement, rather than replace, an apprenticeship.[31]

The first institution established for the sole purpose of teaching law was the Litchfield Law School, set up by Judge Tapping Reeve in 1784 to organize the large number of would-be apprentices or lecture attendees that he attracted.[32] Despite the success of that institution, and of similar programs set up thereafter at Harvard University (1817), Dickinson College (1834), Yale University (1843), Albany Law School (1851), and Columbia University (1858), law school attendance would remain a rare exception in the profession. Apprenticeship would be the norm until the 1890s, when the American Bar Association (which had been formed in 1878) began pressing states to limit admission to the bar to those who had satisfactorily completed several years of post-graduate instruction.[33] In 1906, the Association of American Law Schools adopted a requirement that law school consist of a three-year course of study.[34]

Women[edit]

Washington University School of Law, the first chartered law school in the United States to admit women.[35]

Women were not allowed in most law schools during the late 1800s and the early 1900s. In 1869, Washington University School of Law became the first chartered law school in America to admit women.[35] The "first woman on record to have received a law degree was Ada Kepley from Union College of Law in Illinois (Northwestern)" in 1870.[36] Some law schools that allowed women before most others were Buffalo Law School which "begun in 1887 . . . and open to women and immigrant groups";[37] University of Iowa which "admitted women as law students" since at least 1869; University of Michigan; and Boston University Law School which started admitting women in 1872.[38] "In 1878 two women successfully sued to be admitted to the first class at Hastings Law School [University of California]," one of whom was Clara S. Foltz.[38] [39] When the University of California established a second law program in 1894, this time on the Berkeley campus, it was open to women and men on an equal basis. Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett founded the Washington Law School for women and men in 1898 (now known as, American University Washington College of Law).[40]

The difficulty for women law students was further aggravated by the fact that courts did not allow women to be admitted as lawyers, as demonstrated in the famous case involving Myra Bradwell as the plaintiff in Bradwell v. Illinois (1870). The federal courts were subsequently opened to women in 1878 due to a successful campaign by Belva Ann Lockwood.[38]

The elite law schools remained closed to women for a while after. Pushed by the suffragist movement for women, Harvard Law School started considering admitting women in 1899 but without success.[40] Partly in response to the pressures of the suffragist movement and the unwillingness of elite law schools to open their doors, "in 1908, Portia Law School was founded in Boston" which later became the New England School of Law and was the only law school at the time with "an all women student body".[40] In 1915, due to Harvard's continued refusal to admit women, the Cambridge Law School for Women was established as an alternative to elite law schools, and was to be "as nearly as possible a replica of the Harvard Law School as is possible to make it."[41] World War I encouraged the movement toward admitting women to law schools, and in 1918, Fordham Law School and Yale Law School started admitting women.[41] Northeastern University School of Law, at the time a YMCA institution, started admitting women in 1923.[42] Harvard Law School did not admit women until 1950.[41] In 1966, Notre Dame Law School started admitting women.[43]

Despite all of these advances, "[i]n 1963, women had comprised only 2.7 percent of the profession. In the academic year 1969–70, only 6.35 percent of the degree candidates at law school were women."[44] A prevalent attitude has been mentioned several times by Hillary Clinton, who recalled that she had been accepted at Harvard Law School in 1969 but had been repelled by a professor who told her at a student-recruitment party, "we don't need any more women at Harvard." (She went to Yale Law School instead.)[45][46] Attendance of women at law schools did however improve significantly in the next 10-year period. "In 1968, 3,704 of the 62,000 law students in approved schools were women; by 1979, there were 37,534 women out of 117,279 students in approved schools"[47] although still represented in larger proportions in less elite law schools. In 2016, the number of women enrolled in ABA-approved law schools reached the majority (50.09%), with female students comprising 55,766 of the total 111,327.[48][49]

Credentials obtainable while in law school[edit]

Within each U.S. law school, key credentials include:

  • Law review/Law journal membership or editorial position (based either on grades or write-on competition or both). This is important for at least three reasons. First, because it is determined by either grades or writing ability, membership is an indicator of strong academic performance.[50] This leads to the second reason, which is that potential employers sometimes use law review membership in their hiring criteria.[50] Third, work on law review exposes a student to legal scholarship and editing, and often allows the student to publish a significant piece of legal scholarship on his or her own.[50] Most law schools have a "flagship" journal usually called "School name Law Review" (for example, the Harvard Law Review—although some schools call their flagship journal "School name Law Journal"; see Yale Law Journal) that publishes articles on all areas of law, and one or more other specialty law journals that publish articles concerning only a particular area of the law (for example, the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology).
  • Moot court membership or award (based on oral and written argument). Success in moot court can distinguish one as an outstanding oral advocate and provides a degree of practical legal training that is often absent from law review membership.[51] Moot court and related activities, such as Trial Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, may appeal especially to employers hiring for litigation positions, such as a district attorney's office.
  • Mock trial membership and awards (based on trial level advocacy skills) also can distinguish one as an outstanding trial advocate and help develop "real world" skills that are often valuable to employers hiring for litigation positions.
  • Order of the Coif membership (based on grade point average). This is often coupled with Latin honors (summa and magna cum laude, though often not cum laude). However, a slight majority of law schools in the U.S. do not have Order of the Coif chapters[citation needed].

State and federal court clerkship[edit]

Further information: Law clerk

On the basis of a student's credentials, as well as favorable faculty recommendations, some students obtain a one or two-year clerkship with a judge after graduation.[52] It is becoming more common for clerkships to begin after a few years in private practice.[citation needed] Clerkships may be with state or federal judges.

Clerkships are meant to provide the recent law school graduate with experience working for a judge. Often, clerks engage in significant legal research and writing for the judge, writing memos to assist a judge in coming to a legal conclusion in some cases, and writing drafts of opinions based on the judge's decisions. Appellate court clerkships, although generally more prestigious, do not necessarily give one a great deal of practical experience in the day-to-day life of a lawyer in private practice. The average litigator might get much more out of a clerkship at the trial court level, where he or she will be learning about motions practices, dealing with lawyers, and generally learning how a trial court works on the inside. What a lawyer might lose in prestige he or she might gain in experience.[citation needed]

By and large, though, clerkships provide other valuable assets to a young lawyer. Judges often become mentors to young clerks, providing the young attorney with an experienced individual to whom he or she can go for advice. Fellow clerks can also become lifelong friends and/or professional connections. Clerkships are great experiences for the new lawyers, and law schools encourage graduates to engage in a clerkship to broaden their professional experiences. However, there simply are not enough clerkships to accommodate all the academically eligible graduates.

United States Supreme Court clerkship[edit]

Some law school graduates are able to clerk for one of the Justices on the Supreme Court (each Justice takes two to four clerks per year). Often, these clerks are graduates of elite law schools, with Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, Columbia, the University of Virginia, and Stanford being among the most highly represented schools.[53] Justice Clarence Thomas is the major exception to the rule that Justices hire clerks from elite schools; he takes pride in selecting clerks from non-top-tier schools, and publicly noted that his clerks have been attacked on the Internet as "third tier trash."[54]

Most Supreme Court clerks have clerked in a lower court, often for a year with a highly selective federal circuit court judge (such as Judges Alex Kozinski, Michael Luttig, J. Harvie Wilkinson, David Tatel, Richard Posner, to name a few). It is perhaps the most highly selective and prestigious position a recently graduated lawyer can have, and Supreme Court clerks are often highly sought after by law firms, the government, and law schools. Law firms give Supreme Court clerks as much as a $250,000 bonus for signing with their firm. The vast majority of Supreme Court clerks either become academics at elite law schools, enter private practice as appellate attorneys, or take highly selective government positions.

Lady Justice

Controversies involving U.S. law schools[edit]

Employment statistics and salary information[edit]

Main article: Post-law school employment in the United States

After the JD, a large study of law graduates who passed the bar examination, found that even graduates of lower ranked law schools were typically making six figure ($100,000+) incomes within 12 years after graduation.[55][56] Graduates of higher ranking schools typically earned more than $170,000. The Economic Value of a Law Degree, a peer reviewed study which included law graduates who did not pass the bar exam and were not practicing law, found that law graduates at the 25th percentile of earnings ability typically earned around $20,000 more every year than they would have earned with only a bachelor's degree. Graduates at the 75th percentile earned around $80,000 more per year than they likely would have earned with a bachelor's degree.[57] However, only around 60 to 70 percent of law graduates practice law. Some authors have criticized employment information supplied directly by law schools; however, these studies report information supplied directly by law graduates, and in the case of the latter study, collected by the United States Census Bureau as part of a broader economic survey.

New York Times negative press coverage[edit]

Starting in 2011, American law schools became the subject of a series of critical articles in mainstream news publications, starting with a series of New York Times articles by David Segal. Such articles have reported on the debt loads of law graduates, the difficulty of securing employment in the legal profession, and insufficient practical training at American law schools.[13][58][59][60] A number of critics have pointed out factual inaccuracies and logical errors in New York Times' higher education coverage, especially related to law schools.[61][62]

More recent press coverage by some higher education reporters has noted that peer reviewed studies and comprehensive data suggests that law graduates are still typically better off financially than they would be had they not attended law school, notwithstanding challenges facing recent graduates.[63][64]

Lawsuits related to American legal education[edit]

In 2011, several law schools were sued for fraud and for misleading job placement statistics. Most of these suits have been dismissed on the merits.[65][66][67][68]

In 1995, the United States Department of Justice Sued the American Bar Association, the accrediting body of American law schools, for allegedly violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.[69] The settlement of the suit prohibited the ABA from using salary of faculty or administrators as an accreditation criterion.

Political balance[edit]

See also: Higher education in the United States § Political views

Liberal professors have claimed that there is conservative bias in law schools, particularly within law and economics and business law fields.[70] Liberals have also argued for affirmative action to increase the representation of women and minorities among law students and law faculty.[citation needed]

Conservative students have argued that there is a liberal bias among top tier law faculty.[71]

Law school rankings[edit]

Main article: Law school rankings in the United States

There are several different law school rankings, each with a different emphasis and different methodology. Most either emphasize inputs or readily measurable outcomes (i.e., outcomes shortly after graduation); none measure value-added or long-term outcomes. In general, these rankings are controversial, not universally accepted as authoritative.

The U.S. News and World Report's regularly publishes a list of the "Top 100 Law Schools" based on various qualitative and quantitative factors, e.g., entering student LSAT scores and GPAs, reputation surveys, expenditures per student, etc. U.S. News ratings heavily emphasize inputs—student test scores and grades, law school expenditures—but includes some outcomes such as bar passage and employment shortly after graduation. U.S. News rankings are heavily weighted toward "reputation", which is measured through a survey with small sample size and low response rates. The reputation scores are highly correlated with the previous years' reputation scores and may not reflect changes in law school quality over time.

The Social Science Research Network—a repository for draft and completed scholarship in law and the social sciences—publishes monthly rankings of law schools based on the number of times faculty members' scholarship was downloaded. Rankings are available by total number of downloads, total number of downloads within the last 12 months, and downloads per faculty member to adjust for the size of different institutions. SSRN also provides rankings of individual law school faculty members on these metrics.

Brian Leiter compiles a regular series of evaluations called "Brian Leiter's Law School Reports"[72] in which he and other commentators discuss law schools. Leiter's rankings tend to emphasize the quality and quantity of faculty scholarship, as measured by citations in a select group of journals.

Several other ranking systems are explicitly designed to focus on employment outcomes at or shortly after graduation, including rankings by the National Law Journal, Vault.com and Above the Law. The National Law Journal provides a comparison of its employment-based rankings to U.S. News rankings. For students who are primarily interested in lucrative employment outcomes rather than scholarly prestige, this comparison may suggest which law schools are most undervalued by the market.

U.S. News Rankings and Earnings[edit]

Graduates of the top 14 law schools tend to have higher earnings, on average, than graduates of the other 190 law schools. Those 14 schools, alphabetically, are: Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, New York University, Northwestern, Penn, Stanford, Virginia, and Yale.[73] In addition, graduates with higher law school GPAs tend to have higher earnings than students with lower law school GPAs.[74] Even graduates of non-elite law schools who passed the bar and are working full-time are typically earning close to $100,000 per year within seven years of graduating law school.[74]

It is unclear whether attending a higher ranked law school provides a larger boost to law school graduates' earnings than attending a lower ranked law school. Higher earnings and improved outcomes for graduates of higher ranked law schools may be due to these students' greater earnings potential compared to graduates of lower ranked law schools before they attended law school — higher standardized test scores and undergraduate GPAs, wealthier families and friends, etc. One study suggests that, after controlling for students incoming credentials, earnings and employment outcomes are better at lower ranked ABA approved law schools than at higher ranked law schools — that is, lower ranked law schools may do more to improve outcomes than higher ranked schools.[75]

Regional tiers and lower-tier national schools[edit]

Most law schools outside the top tier are more regional in scope and often have very strong regional connections to these post-graduation opportunities. For example, a student graduating from a lower-tier law school may find opportunities in that school's "home market": the legal market containing many of that school's alumni, where most of the school's networking and career development energies are focused. In contrast, an upper-tier law school may be limited in terms of employment opportunities to the broad geographic region that the law school feeds.

State-authorized schools[edit]

Many schools are authorized or accredited by a state and some have been in continuous operation for over 95 years. Most are located in Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and in Puerto Rico. Some state authorized law schools are maintained to offer a non-ABA option, experimenting with lower cost options.

Graduates of non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than same-race graduates of ABA-approved law schools in the same state.[76]

Unaccredited schools[edit]

Some schools are not accredited by a state or the American Bar Association. Most are located in California. Such schools in California are registered and licensed to operate by The State Bar of California Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE), but are not accredited by the CBE. Their first year students are required to take the First-Year Law Students' Examination ("Baby Bar"), which then authorizes them to continue their studies in years following. Graduates of these schools may then take the California Bar Examination. Once they pass the Bar, they are licensed to practice law in California. However, many other jurisdictions do not allow graduates of unaccredited law schools to sit for their bar examination. In California, graduates of non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than same-race graduates of ABA-approved law schools in the same state.[76]

Oldest active law schools[edit]

Law schools are listed by the dates from when they were first established.

  1. Marshall-Wythe School of Law (The College of William & Mary) established 1779 (closed in 1861 and reopened in 1920)
  2. University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law established 1816, held first classes in 1824 (closed during the American Civil War and reopened shortly after its end)
  3. Harvard Law School established 1817 (oldest continuously open school)
  4. University of Virginia School of Law established 1819
  5. Yale Law School established 1824
  6. University of Cincinnati College of Law established 1833
  7. Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law established 1834
  8. New York University School of Law established 1835
  9. Indiana University Maurer School of Law established 1842
  10. Saint Louis University School of Law established in 1843 (closed in 1847 and reopened in 1908)
  11. University of North Carolina School of Law established 1845
  12. Louis D. Brandeis School of Law (University of Louisville) established 1846
  13. Cumberland School of Law established in 1847
  14. Tulane University Law School established 1847
  15. University of Mississippi School of Law established 1848
  16. Washington and Lee University School of Law established 1849
  17. Baylor Law School established 1849 (closed in 1883 and reestablished 1920)
  18. University of Pennsylvania Law School established 1850
  19. Albany Law School established 1851
  20. University of Michigan Law School established 1859
  21. University of Georgia School of Law established 1859

See also[edit]

  • List of law schools in the United States
  • List of law schools attended by United States Supreme Court justices
  • IRAC
  • Law School Admission Council
  • Correspondence law school
  • Catholic University of America School of Canon Law

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