Legal Commentary

Surely being a law school dean is a tough job. But according to this WSJ online piece posted yesterday (updating a 2004 story) serving as a business school dean may be just as tough or even tougher. The article cites the usual pressures to fundraise (facing all deans) as part of the explanation, but also notes b-schools are currently experiencing curriculum upheaval ?as ethics and global business become more important? and schools are falling over each other for executive education revenue. So is being a law school dean comparable? Not as bad? Worse?

According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)--the business school equivalent to AALS--nearly 25% of business school deans have served for just a year or less. In fact, several of the ?new? deans the article talks about (i.e., new in 2004) have already moved on?

Of course business school deans face similar U.S. News rankings pressures to law deans. I guess some may argue that for business schools the rankings pressure is even more intense. Although I?ve always heard and thought that MBA programs seem less beholden to the U.S. News tyranny than law schools because there are a variety of leading rankings and methodologies at work, such as U.S. News, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Financial Times all publishing their own lists. Multiple rankings must dilute the power of any one ranking, perhaps leading to a more sane system and decreasing pressure. But then again, I guess it?s possible that multiple rankings may increase pressure on administrators because they have to pay attention to even more factors/considerations/release dates/student furor. Imagine if The American Lawyer, National Law Journal, and Business Week also ranked law schools, would law school and law deans be better or worse off?

So, will law deans and business deans meet different fates? Are business school deans the proverbial canary in the mine for professional school deans that law schools will follow? Or, could this article just as easily have substituted the ?law dean? for ?business dean??

HT: insidehighered.com