Purdue is asking the state Supreme Court. Backers of Purdue proposal say it will foster civic health by expanding legal representation. Critics worry about lower standards.
This seems like a perfectly, and predictably, terrible idea, emanating as it does from the boneheads who gave us Purdue Global.
Concord is a pretty scammy institution -- see, for example, this: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/executive-jd-ejd-concord-law-school. More generally, its bar pass rate is low, and, according to its own reporting, only about 50% of its graduates wind up employed as lawyers. Which means that the other half of its graduates -- who skew older, poorer, and more ethnically and racially diverse than most law school graduates -- probably wind up saddled with significant amounts of debt accrued simply to acquire a useless degree.
The shortage of lawyers in poor urban and rural communities is a scandal. But it's a classic example of market failure that can't be solved by marginally increasing the number of heavily indebted new lawyers (and heavily indebted wanna-be lawyers who can't pass a bar exam or get a job.). The solution to the problem almost certainly involves increased state and federal funding for lawyers serving low and moderate income client populations, and loan forgiveness programs for law school graduates who commit to serving those communities. The plan being advanced by the shills for Concord Law School is just boneheaded bullshite.
I immediately thought of this story from several years ago, focusing on Valparaiso's law school as an example of the death spiral of low-tier law schools in general and the challenges of finding employment for grads of low-tier law schools:
Granted, the Purdue option would have a lower price tag than the Valpo law school, but it still would require substantial borrowing for its target population, and it wouldn't have even the regional network of grads that a place like Valpo had. Valpo law went out of business in 2018, by which time barely over a third of its grads were getting full-time law jobs. Not to mention, the trend within small towns in the state is in the direction of declining population, so anyone committing to providing legal services in such towns will be committing to potentially shrinking markets:
This seems like a perfectly, and predictably, terrible idea, emanating as it does from the boneheads who gave us Purdue Global.
Concord is a pretty scammy institution -- see, for example, this: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/executive-jd-ejd-concord-law-school. More generally, its bar pass rate is low, and, according to its own reporting, only about 50% of its graduates wind up employed as lawyers. Which means that the other half of its graduates -- who skew older, poorer, and more ethnically and racially diverse than most law school graduates -- probably wind up saddled with significant amounts of debt accrued simply to acquire a useless degree.
The shortage of lawyers in poor urban and rural communities is a scandal. But it's a classic example of market failure that can't be solved by marginally increasing the number of heavily indebted new lawyers (and heavily indebted wanna-be lawyers who can't pass a bar exam or get a job.). The solution to the problem almost certainly involves increased state and federal funding for lawyers serving low and moderate income client populations, and loan forgiveness programs for law school graduates who commit to serving those communities. The plan being advanced by the shills for Concord Law School is just boneheaded bullshite.
I wonder if it would make sense for Purdue to try to seek ABA certification by requiring the last year to be on a Purdue campus.
I’m not sure what else is required but I don’t lessening the standard to be a lawyer is a great idea.
Yet another example of what happens when you pass regressive legislation and drive educated people out of the state.
I immediately thought of this story from several years ago, focusing on Valparaiso's law school as an example of the death spiral of low-tier law schools in general and the challenges of finding employment for grads of low-tier law schools:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/business/dealbook/an-expensive-law-degree-and-no-place-to-use-it.html
Granted, the Purdue option would have a lower price tag than the Valpo law school, but it still would require substantial borrowing for its target population, and it wouldn't have even the regional network of grads that a place like Valpo had. Valpo law went out of business in 2018, by which time barely over a third of its grads were getting full-time law jobs. Not to mention, the trend within small towns in the state is in the direction of declining population, so anyone committing to providing legal services in such towns will be committing to potentially shrinking markets:
https://www.thecentersquare.com/indiana/flight-to-cities-as-most-of-indiana-s-rural-counties-see-population-declines/article_bd3183a4-fc5e-11eb-8a87-0787d1ed13c1.html