#law-schools

#law-schools

Under pressure amid a boycott by top law schools, U.S. News & World Report told law school deans on Monday that it will make several changes in the next edition of its influential ratings.In a letter to American law school deans published on its site, U.S. News said its next list would give more credit to schools whose graduates go on to pursue advanced degrees, or school-funded fellowships to work in public-service jobs that pay lower wages.

UC Berkeley Law School announced Thursday it would withdraw from U.S. News & World Report's closely watched evaluations of higher education institutions, saying the ratings' methodology penalizes schools that encourage public service and low costs.The decision by Berkeley, one of the nation's top law schools, marks another blow to the influential ratings service after Harvard and Yale took similar action on Wednesday citing U.S. News' methodology.

The GRE, the nearly four-hour marathon of a test that has been the bane of many aspiring graduate students, is being cut in half.It will now take less than two hours.The Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit organization that owns and administers the test, announced the changes Wednesday, tacitly acknowledging the test's declining importance in graduate school admissions.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been grabbing national headlines with his relentless attacks on so-called woke.In addition to his Stop-Woke (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act, which prohibits educational institutions and businesses from teaching students and employees anything that would cause anyone to feel guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress due to their race, color, sex or national origin, he has barred University of Florida professors from giving evidence against the state's voting law, claimed that professors at public colleges have no right to freedom of speech, and organizing a hostile takeover of the New College of Florida, one of the best liberal arts colleges in the country.

U.S. News & World Report finally released its annual rankings of top law and medical schools on Thursday, after boycotts by law and medical schools, disputes over methodology, and a delay of weeks.A few schools shuffled positions, but the schools at the top of the new list of law schools seem to be much the same as last year, with many familiar names Stanford, Yale, Chicago, Duke, Harvard and New York University.

Whether they work in law firms or corporate legal, academia or government, law librarians play a central role in testing, recommending and deploying legal technology, according to the American Association of Law Libraries' 2023 State of the Profession report, an exhaustive 252-page survey of the legal information landscape.

Bite (noun): more meaty news to sink your teeth into.Bark (noun): peripheral noise worth your attention.This week in Other Barks & Bites: U.S. District Judge Alia Moses officially takes over as the Chief Judge as the Western District of Texas; the U.S. Supreme Court takes up Jack Daniel's appeal of the First Amendment ruling in favor of VIP Products' whiskey bottle-shaped dog toys; the World Intellectual Property Organization announces that two-thirds of all patent applications were filed in Asian IP offices during 2021; Senators Cruz and Cantwell introduce a bill directing the FTC to create required disclosures on recording capabilities for smart devices; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office announce a joint study on non-fungible tokens; IBM files a copyright infringement suit against Micro Focus for its unauthorized use of IBM's mainframe software; and the Seventh Circuit nixes a right of publicity claim under Illinois state law after finding that the sale of a magazine subscriber list did not involve the use of the plaintiff's identity to complete a commercial purpose.

Yale's law school made the stunning announcement last week that it would no longer participate in the influential rankings published annually by U.S. News & World Report.Given the outsize importance attributed to the rankings by prospective applicants and alumni, Yale's decision sent shock waves through the legal profession, and indeed all of higher education.

Yale Law School announced on Wednesday that it is withdrawing from the influential U.S. News rankings of the best law schools, because the ratings put too much focus on grades and test scores and not enough emphasis on recruiting low-income students or encouraging low-paid public service law as a career choice.

Standing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building Monday morning fresh from learning that a judge vacated her murder convictions, Madeline Mendoza, who was 16 when she was arrested in connection with a double slaying, said she now plans to go to law school.Mendoza, 47, is among dozens who have accused disgraced former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara of fabricating evidence to frame them for crimes they did not commit throughout his career with the Chicago Police Department.

As the debate around whether to make even more changes to New York's reformed bail laws heats up in the final days of state budget negotiations, a group of over 100 law professors penned a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders urging them to leave the statutes as they are.In the missive, the law professors, who hail from law schools across the state including Columbia University and CUNY, blasted Hochul's push to excise from state law the least restrictive standard which compels judges to use the least onerous means for bringing defendants back to court.

ChatGPT is smart enough to pass prestigious graduate-level exams though not with particularly high marks.The powerful new AI chatbot tool recently passed law exams in four courses at the University of Minnesota and another exam at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, according to professors at the schools.

sshepard/Getty Images The UC Berkeley School of Law joined the law schools of Harvard University and Yale University last week in cutting ties with U.S. News & World Report's rankings.The top universities will no longer provide data to the publication, alleging the report can be harmful to attracting a diverse set of prospective students.

The UC Berkeley School of Law is joining several of the nation's top law schools by opting out of the U.S. News & World Report's annual top law school rankings over equity and diversity concerns, but the magazine says they'll still include these schools anyway.The University of California Berkeley School of Law has many notable alumnae, from former Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to, locally, former SF Mayor Ed Lee.