Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Bankruptcy Blogs -> Credit Slips

Bankruptcy

: Credit Slips

US News & Unintended Consequences for Bankruptcy Judges (and the Law Clerks They Hire)

By Bob Lawless

A post over at Law School Transparency caught my eye (hat tip to Leiter's Law School Reports), and it should be catching the eyes of U.S. bankruptcy judges. Law School Transparency, started by law students, advocates for more transparency in the way law schools report employment data. This is undoubtedly a good thing.

The post describes correspondence with Bob Morse, the keeper of the U.S. News law school rankings. To the uninitiated, these rankings have a incredibly outsized influence on the legal academy and can influence how law schools make decisions about everything from career services to admitting part-time students. This is undoubtedly a bad thing.

According to the Law School Transparency post, U.S. News will begin reporting the percentage of graduating students "employed in a judicial clerkship by an Article III federal judge." Bankruptcy courts are not Article III courts. Like it or not, this increased transparency will change the incentives law schools have to mentor students into bankruptcy clerkships. If Article III clerkships count and other clerkships do not, law schools will put more effort into guiding their students into the Article III clerkships. Also, by distinguishing between clerkships that count and those that do not, U.S. News would be sending a message to students about which clerkships should be valued. The problem is hardly specific to bankruptcy clerkships--clerkships with courts like the U.S. Tax Court or state supreme courts will not count either--but this is a bankruptcy-focused blog.

I don't want to overstate the issue. First, law schools and students already perceive Article III clerkships as more prestigious. Second, it appears that U.S. News will merely be disclosing the clerkship data rather than using it as part of the formula it uses to construct the law school rankings. (If I have misunderstood, however, and the clerkship data become part of the formal ranking calculation, it will be impossible to overstate the effect on law school behavior.) Third, faculty and career service professionals conscientiously try to advise students into the career paths that will best suit them.

Incentives matter. Despite the potentially huge benefit for young lawyers looking to start a career in bankruptcy, the move by U.S. News means bankruptcy court clerkships will become less attractive for law students. Bankruptcy judges might see a drop in the number or quality of clerkship applications. I understand the motives behind the move toward more disclosure. Law schools have been resorting to all sorts of devices to pump up their employment figures, and those schools that report a high employment rate often do not say much about the quality of the jobs their graduates found. Better information would be a big help for students trying to make decisions about whether to invest in a legal education. Maybe the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges could work with representatives of other courts that would be affected by the new disclosures to approach U.S. News to find a sensible middle ground between the existing lack of transparency and an overemphasis on Article III clerkships.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on December 11, 2010 (boomark / email).