Texas law schools promote that they are training tomorrow’s leaders in law and business, but so far they are declining to take a stand regarding allegations that the U.S. News and World Report law school rankings system is biased, flawed and hurting the future of the legal profession.
Last week, law school leaders at Yale, Harvard, California-Berkeley, Georgetown, Stanford and Columbia announced that they will quit their involvement in the U.S. News rankings because the rankings’ criteria are inconsistent with their values and principles.
Leaders at all but one of the 10 law schools in Texas declined to comment on the U.S. News rankings or the decisions by their competitors.
“There are several law school rankings, but the U.S. News ranking is the elephant in the room because law school alumni and administration fundraisers put so much pressure on law deans to improve their rankings,” said former University of North Texas at Dallas Law Dean Royal Furgeson, a former federal judge.
“The U.S. News rankings are the bane of every Texas law dean,” Furgeson said. “If left to their own choice, every law dean in Texas would probably withdraw from participation.”
The Texas Lawbook contacted the deans at all 10 Texas law schools seeking comment about the U.S. News rankings and whether they would consider boycotting.
Deans at four of the law schools – the University of Houston Law Center, St. Mary’s University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas in Austin – declined to comment.
The deans at five other law schools did not respond at all.
Only Texas A&M University School of Law Dean Robert Ahdieh commented, saying the “impact will be major or minor” based on how U.S. News responds and “how many schools decide to follow suit.”
Furgeson said most law deans are reluctant to publicly criticize U.S. News for fear of retaliation by those doing the rankings. He points to the story of former University of Houston Law Center Dean Nancy Rapoport as evidence.
Rapoport, as bankruptcy law expert, had written articles critical of the formula U.S. News used for the rankings. During her six years as law dean, the University of Houston Law Center slid about 20 spots in the rankings, which eventually led to her resignation.
Furgeson said a lot of law deans are watching to see what the leaders at Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia do.
“If Vanderbilt and UVA drop out, I think the UTs and SMUs will see that as a sign,” Furgeson said.
The heart of the controversy, according to Furgeson and other law deans, is that the U.S. News rankings give too much weigh to LSAT scores, which closely correlates with students from higher-income backgrounds because wealthier families can afford tutoring to achieve higher scores.
“That penalizes law schools for accepting exceptional students, especially those of color and those from lower-income families,” he said.