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Ethics

: Legal Ethics Forum

Are law schools gaming the numbers (part 26)?

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Interesting analysis here from Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog. It seems that some law schools opted not to disclose their graudates' employment rates so that they could avail themselves of the default value that would be factored into the rankings -- even though the default value inaccurately reflects reality. Of course, those schools might rationalize their conduct by saying, "there's nothing wrong with opting for a default value; it's our choice to be made in our own best interest."

Caron also notes that some schools reported actual stats that were lower than the default value, and tweaks those schools by asking if they committed malpractice by being honest. Caron's comment may be tongue in cheek or even meant to critique the gaming of numbers, so I certainly do not cast any aspersions about his motives. But the intuitively attractive comment about academic malpractice reflects the ease with which we all can slide from defensively rationalizing the fudging of numbers to convincing ourselves of the duty to fudge the numbers.

As I've said on this blog before, the law students are deeply aware of gaming, and when law schools game the numbers they unfortunately teach an awful lesson: that fudging the numbers is what grown up lawyers do.

Full post as published by Legal Ethics Forum on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).

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