Legal Commentary

PrawfsBlawg has had a number of interesting posts related to the U.S. News and World Report Rankings over the last few months -- from, among many, Adam Kolber's post on "part-time program 'gaming,'" to Jason Solomon's earlier posts on alternative rankings, to Jason Solomon's and David Fagundes' "Race to the Top Project." Yesterday, I received the USN&WR annual survey, which indicated that "[f]or the first time this year, U.S. News has added a question at the end of this survey asking [those responding to the survey] to nominate up to 15 top quality part-time J.D. programs." The goal is to "produce new rankings of part-time J.D. programs to be published in Spring 2009." More information is available at the Morse Code webpage.

Presumably, this change was spurred, at least in part, by concerns over possible announced changes in the ranking formulas that U.S. News uses, which would include LSAT and GPA numbers of part-time students. The general concern is that changing the formulas may place pressure on some schools to reduce the size of their part-time programs.

This announcement raised an issue -- what kind of part-time JD programs exist? I know that several schools have part-time evening programs. But what other innovative part-time programs are offered?

For example, Southwestern -- in addition to a part-time evening program -- has since 1981 had a part-time day program designed for students with child care (or elder care) responsibilities. The four-year program is designed to allow parents to attend law school, while their young children are also in school (law classes normally being scheduled in the morning). Some amazingly talented students have graduated from this program, who otherwise -- because of being a single parent, or having other significant family responsibilities -- would not be able to earn a JD. As law firms increasingly provide child-care solutions to recruit and retain the very best lawyers, it is somewhat surprising that more law schools have not been more accommodating.

I would be interested in hearing what other innovative part-time programs are offered -- or are being contemplated -- by law schools.