From adding practical training opportunities to “personalizing the admissions process,” law schools across the country are finding ways to stand out in today’s tough recruitment environment. Brooklyn Law School is taking it a step further, establishing a tuition repayment program that offers students who have not found a full-time job nine months after graduation 15 percent of their total tuition back.

The 15 percent figure only applies to out-of-pocket tuition expenses, including loans; scholarships and grants do not apply. “This builds on the overall approach that we’ve taken to be very student-centric, to listen to what students need,” Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas W. Allard told The New York Times. The program, dubbed “Bridge to Success” and made possible by a $133 million endowment in May, was established to give students the time and resources to land the job they want and not settle for the first offer they receive, said Allard.

To qualify for a repayment, graduates must take the bar exam, although they do not need to pass it. In addition, students must demonstrate that they have actively searched for employment and exhausted the law school’s career resources.

The program is part of Brooklyn Law School’s efforts to remain competitive by lowering tuition costs. In April 2014 the school also decided to reduce yearly tuition by 15 percent to an average of $43,237 per student, which is still higher than the average private tuition of $41,985.

Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistic show that the legal sector lost 60,000 jobs during the recession, only 20,000 of which have been added back. In particular, lawyers with two to three years of experience were hit hard, according to New York Bar Association President David P. Miranda. Consequently, he pointed out that recent law school graduates find themselves in a legal job market in which they have to compete with seasoned lawyers.

Brooklyn Law School is ranked the 78^th best law school in the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago Law School, told the Washington Post that he expects as many as 10 schools to close over the coming decade, and about half to three-quarters of schools to reduce class size, faculty, and staff. We will see if Brooklyn Law School’s latest initiatives will help the school avoid this fate.

Hyunjae Ham

Hyunjae Ham is a member of the University of Maryland Class of 2015 and a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Hyunjae at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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As a student considering attending law school in a couple years, I can’t help but hope that the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law is starting a trend. The law school recently announced that they were slashing their out of state tuition by over 25 percent, lowering their yearly tuition from $38,841 to $29,000 for nonresident students. There are several reasons why this might become a trend, but the main one is that law school enrollment is down and many law schools are losing money. These schools have to respond to a changing market. And the University of Arizona is doing a truly laudable job with their response.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia certainly thinks that shifts like Arizona’s will become a trend. Scalia, in his commencement address to William and Mary Law School graduates, bluntly dismissed any “law school in two years” concept.  According to Scalia, law is not a trade but a profession, and there is no way to learn all that needs to be learned in just two years. He thinks that a student must have a wide base of knowledge in the many types of law and requires three years of study. However, he also thinks that law schools are currently overvalued. The solution to Scalia, therefore, is for law schools to lower prices rather than offer two-year programs.

Scalia also has plans for how law schools will survive the loss in revenue. He thinks that there are too many law professors and that they get paid too much. Some law professors get paid twice as much as federal judges, despite a less intense workload. In Scalia’s eyes, it would be reasonable to pay law professors less and expect them to teach more.

So is Scalia right and is Arizona a part of the beginning of a trend for law school tuition decreases? It’s hard to imagine that they are not. Based on an Arizona Board of Regents report, Arizona’s law school is now 30 percent cheaper than the average cost of other law schools. Dean Marc Miller told The Arizona Daily Star that, “we’re responding to the market in changing times. It will have more students looking at us more seriously early on.” If the dean is correct, and saving over ten grand in tuition draws students to Arizona in high numbers, other schools will have to follow suit.

Arizona is not the only law school to lower its tuition recently. Roger Williams Law School, Brooklyn Law School, and Iowa Law School have all made similar moves. The cuts have ranged from 15 to 18 percent, although Arizona offered the highest cut in terms of percentage. If these schools experience an increase in applications and enrollment, all law schools, except perhaps the elite ones, will have to lower prices to compete.

As a potential law student, the two-year law degree is very tempting and if it was an option I think I would have to take it. I would imagine most law students would choose that route. It means one less year of school and saves you $30,000-$50,000. That being said, I understand Scalia’s argument and would not be disappointed if the two-year program never came to fruition, especially if costs go down. If Arizona did not reduce cost, but adopted a two year program, it would cost an out of state student $77,682. Under the new reduced cost plan, it will cost a student $87,000 for three years. That bill is still more than a hypothetical two-year program, but the overall savings might make it worth the third year, especially if it enhances your ability to be a lawyer and earn money.

The University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law staff did not comment as of press time.

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Matt DeWilde (@matt_dewilde25) is a member of the American University class of 2016 majoring in politics and considering going to law school. He loves writing about politics, reading, watching Netflix, and long walks on the beach. Contact Matt at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Light Brigading via Flickr]

Matt DeWilde

Matt DeWilde is a member of the American University class of 2016 majoring in politics and considering going to law school. He loves writing about politics, reading, watching Netflix, and long walks on the beach. Contact Matt at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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It is no secret that higher education comes at a cost, one that many find overwhelming and in some cases impossible to cover. There has been no shortage of news coverage on the current state of the education crisis seen here and here. With increasing publicized coverage of the rising student debt, perspective students are reconsidering their future plans at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Some schools have recently recognized the problem of funding higher education and are attempting to make some reforms. Here are some highlights of what is happening in education reform today.

Free Tuition.

That is not a typo. Tennessee Governor, Bill Haslam is proposing a program, called “Tennessee Promise” that covers a two year full ride to any high school graduate. The goal is to improve the current graduation rate of 32 percent to a desired 55 percent by the year 2025. Overall, this campaign is an effort to improve job qualifications and attract employers to the state. Students graduating from this two year program can choose to continue onto a four year track and enter another university as a rising junior. This program is projected to pass through the voting process, with some adjustments and a set plan to cover the costs of this education reform. Higher education experts list Florida, Oregon and Mississippi as other states considering similar reforms. College may not have to burn a hole in your pocket, with future reforms such as this one, higher education may not cost anything at all.

A One Year Law Degree That Means Something. 

Law school, many have tried it, some have prevailed and others would prefer not to continue to the bar exam. What about the individuals that decide after year one that law school is not for them? Cleveland Marshall College of Law now offers alternative option for these students and is removing some of the financial risk from attending three years of law school with a convertible new, one year masters degree in legal studies. This degree was implemented in spring 2014, making CML one of the first colleges to offer an advanced legal degree to professionals wanting to work in close proximity with the law, but not necessarily be admitted to the bar. Students who complete one year of J.D. curriculum, now have the option to accept this degree in legal studies without taking additional courses. This education reform makes law school less risky and offers a faster and less expensive alternative.

Cutting Tuition Costs and Forgetting About National Rankings.

Recently covered by my colleague, Brooklyn Law School is becoming a trailblazer in reinventing legal education. In order to increase demand and remain open, Brooklyn Law School is abandoning their attempts to rise in national rankings and cutting their tuition costs by fifteen percent. Other law schools are quickly following this trend such as the University of Iowa College of Law and University of La Verne College of Law. These law schools are taking the hint that not everyone can afford ridiculously expensive tuition and with a loss of students comes the closure of a school.

An International Effort. 

The obstacles that are preventing students from reaching their educational goals and receiving a college degree are becoming recognized not only in the United States but around the globe. Countries including Ireland, China, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, France and the United States are coming together on April 9th and 10th to discuss higher education reform at the Galileo Summit. This international summit is occurring in Essex, New York to spark a discussion how to expand college access. It is taking some of the most powerful countries to discuss the policy, funding, and proposed graduation rates of the future.

Graduating college is a hard enough task on its own and the financial burden is an unnecessary restriction. The United States as well as countries around the world are finally realizing that education is not affordable to everyone, when it really needs to be to maintain the global economy. An educated society is beneficial to all countries and if education is a prerequisite for the workforce, it has to be more easily attainable.

[The Huffington Post] [DNJ] [The New York Times] [Cleveland State]

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Taylor Garre

Taylor Garre is a student at Fordham University and formerly an intern at Law Street Media. Contact Taylor at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Actions speak louder than words. For a few years now, we’ve all been wringing our hands about the law school crisis. Enrollment is plummeting–from 2004-2013, the amount of law school applicants have almost been cut in half. Even worse, the lawyers that are being produced are unable to find jobs, barely over half were in jobs that required passage of the bar last year. These issues are exacerbated by the fact that law school is incredibly expensive. Students who go to private law schools borrow an average of $91,000. The stats aren’t much better for slightly cheaper public law schools; loans there are around $76,000.

Legal education and the legal industry as a whole are changing rapidly. They’re presented with a catch-22, because a large part of the prestige for a law school is claimed from rankings, like those by US News & World Report. But those rankings can be thrown into jeopardy by taking drastic actions, such as downsizing.

Brooklyn Law School, located in Brooklyn, NY, usually ranks somewhere in the 60s-80s in law school rankings by various publications. Specifically in US News and World Report, they clock in at 83. But a couple days ago, they announced that they no longer care about those rankings, and are now taking comprehensive steps to make a legal education more affordable and efficient. For the class that will matriculate in 2015, tuition will be cut by 15%. There will also be more types of financial aid offered, while merit aid will lessen. And the school will introduce programs that will make it possible to complete a legal education in 2 years rather than the ubiquitous 3. This will come just a couple years after they downsized through a voluntary early retirement program, and sold a few dorms and other buildings, yielding revenue for the school. But what’s so interesting about the actions of Brooklyn Law School is that they’re refreshingly extreme. Other schools have taken baby steps, but Brooklyn Law School is leaping forward.

There are a few other schools cutting costs, but Brooklyn Law School is still joining an incredibly small group. Some public law schools, like Penn State, University of Iowa, and University Arizona, have dropped costs for in-state students. On the private school front, Roger Williams University School of Law, in Rhode Island is dropping their tuition by about $8000.

What Brooklyn Law School is doing seems almost laughably obvious–they’re offering cheaper tuition in the hopes that it will attract undergraduates who see the merit in spending less money for a law degree. It’s a pretty simple move, business-wise. But in a law school atmosphere dominated by an obsession with rankings, it seems a bit riskier than it is. Students from law schools that are viewed as prestigious by their peers and by the legal industry are more likely to get jobs and clerkships after graduation.

Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard is fine with that. He stated, “we’re not going to throw money at some artificial rankings. As far as I’m concerned, the U.S. News rankings may be good for lining the cage of a parakeet, but as a road map for students, they’re not useful.”

I absolutely applaud the gutsy move taken by Brooklyn Law School, but it’s important to remember that they also have a unique status. As an independent law school–meaning it’s not connected to an undergraduate institution, it does have more flexibility and ability to make broad moves.

I also think the choice to get rid of merit scholarships is incredibly interesting. According to this Forbes probe into the subject, often students that receive merit scholarships are ones who don’t necessarily need them. Refocusing attention to need-based scholarships can solve that problem, and Brooklyn Law School, among others, seem to get that.

The biggest question that is left is whether this will actually be successful. It’s innovative for sure, and cool, and I hope it makes positive difference. But throwing the rankings manual out of the window is risky, and for a middle of the pack school like Brooklyn, it could prove costly.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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