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violating any part of
Standard 509. This portion of the index was designed to ensure law schools follow the rules and to ensure that the ABA is held accountable for its failure to enforce. Second it asked whether law schools were meeting transparency norms set by LST. This portion of the index was designed to change the norms under which law schools operate.
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through increased access to high-quality post-graduation job outcome information. The duo was motivated by
Vanderbilt's comprehensive disclosure of job outcomes in early 2008. McEntee and several of his classmates decided to attend Vanderbilt in fall 2008 in part due to the information revealed by
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This project tracks whether law schools are disclosing an employment report that they receive from NALP. LST began tracking the publication of these reports for graduates from the class of 2010. At that time, no law schools published so-called NALP reports. As of May 2014, 56% of ABA-approved law
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This project affects how law schools disclose consumer information and impacts how the ABA enforces
Standard 509, the accreditation standard LST played a major role in enhancing. In the most recent index, LST did a two-fold analysis of law school websites. First it asked whether law schools were
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This web tool helps students make smart application and enrollment choices using admissions, employment, and cost information. While not rankings, they do serve as an alternative to conventional law school rankings. LST does not reduce complex data to a single metric. Instead, LST's tool focuses
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First, law schools provided misleading and incomplete employment information that took advantage of how students understand law schools and the legal profession. For example, law schools advertised basic employment rates that included any job in the numerator, whether short-term or long-term,
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Second, law schools did not share basic information they possessed that would have helped students better understand school offerings and career paths. The result was an information asymmetry favoring law schools that enabled law schools to raise tuition prices indiscriminately.
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part-time or full-time, legal or non-legal. Schools even counted volunteer jobs funded by the law school, leading almost every school to report employment rates over 90%. In addition, law schools reported deceptively high starting salaries. Notably, law schools reported the
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students on schools that have observable relationships to specific legal markets and job types. The result is a product that makes appropriate, useful comparisons and provides a thorough understanding of how schools stack up, how much they cost, and how they're trending.
171:'s accreditation standards. By 2012, LST succeeded in reforming the ABA standards to better protect students and to hold law schools accountable, and in changing attitudes about how law schools interact with prospective students.
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LST is led by its executive director and co-founder, Kyle McEntee. Patrick J. Lynch, the other co-founder, is the chair of the board of directors. LST relies on many volunteers and on part-time consultants and employees.
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To solve these problems, LST asked law schools to voluntarily disclose basic employment information about recent graduates. Knowing that law schools would decline initially, McEntee and Lynch were actually targeting the
120:, Kyle McEntee and Patrick J. Lynch. When Lynch obtained a job practicing environmental law with a nongovernmental organization in South America, he reduced his involvement in LST. Derek Tokaz, a graduate of
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added that "McEntee and Lynch are trying to fill a void left open by organizations with regulatory power (e.g. American Bar
Association (the ABA)), organizations with public power (e.g.
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189:'s The Careerist, Vivia Chen observed that "It's not easy getting the attention of a mammoth organization like ABA, but LST did it. It deserves our kudos."
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graduates Kyle McEntee and
Patrick Lynch. LST describes its mission as "to make entry to the legal profession more transparent, affordable, and fair."
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In order to increase access to better information, McEntee and Lynch first identified two key problems with law school disclosure practices in a
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contended that "Most observers are content just to complain about law schools not being forthcoming enough about employment information."
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originally published in April 2010. An updated version of the white paper was published by Pace Law Review two years later.
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consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the
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Increasing
Transparency in Employment Reporting by Law Schools: What Is to Be Done?
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Advancing
Transparency in Law School Employment Data: The ABA's New Standard 509
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Critics say law schools don't give students realistic career expectations
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Law School
Transparency was founded in July 2009 by two law students at
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New
Nonprofit Asks Law Schools for Detailed Salary, Job Information
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salary for a small percentage of the class without disclosing the
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Legal Rebels: Kyle McEntee
Challenges Law Schools to Come Clean
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Transparency Review in Advance of New Law School Jobs Data
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For 2nd Year, a Sharp Drop in Law School Entrance Tests
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Law Students Push Schools for Better Employment Numbers
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schools published their class of 2012 NALP reports.
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A Way Forward: Transparency at American Law Schools
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A Way Forward: Transparency at American Law Schools
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502:"LST Score Reports - List of Law School Guides"
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488:Law School Transparency Gets R-E-S-P-E-C-T
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260:"Legal Rebels 2012: If the Shoe Fits..."
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106:Vanderbilt Law School
104:. LST was founded by
353:National Law Journal
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285:Rachel M. Zahorsky,
216:NALP report database
506:lstscorereports.com
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258:Journal, A. B. A.
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246:LST Mission
179:Elie Mystal
141:white paper
594:Categories
300:"The Team"
234:References
225:Leadership
46:think tank
464:David Lat
175:David Lat
98:nonprofit
33:Formation
570:LST Team
304:LST Blog
268:June 26,
193:Programs
131:and the
52:Location
112:History
96:) is a
78:Website
149:median
415:SSRN
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270:2020
41:Type
36:2009
155:or
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