Two of the largest law schools in the country, New York Law School and Thomas M. Cooley Law School, were sued by former graduates today for allegedly advertising inflated statistics on jobs obtained by graduates.
The two lawsuits allege fraud, negligent misrepresentation and deceptive business practices. Both suits seek class- action status.
One suit was filed by three New York Law School (NYLS) graduates in the Supreme Court of New York County, and the other suit was filed by four Cooley graduates in U.S. District Court for Western Michigan.
The three attorneys in both suits are Jeffrey M. Kurzon, David Anziska, and Jesse Strauss of the four-lawyer firm Kurzon, Strauss LLP in New York City.
"This action seeks to remedy a systemic, ongoing fraud that is ubiquitous in the legal education industry and threatens to leave a generation of law students in dire financial straits," says part of the opening of both suits.
The suits seek refunds of tuition for a class of current and former students, an order enjoining the schools from marketing allegedly false and inaccurate employment and salary data, an order requiring independent auditors for employment and salary data, and other relief.
Both suits contain some similar language, but many allegations that are specific to each suit.
The suits also seek to indict through rhetoric all law schools in the U.S.
Both suits say, "The law school industry today is much like a game of three-card monte, with law schools flipping ace after ace," while unsuspecting students "wager mostly borrowed money … on a game few of them can win."
The lawsuit against the Cooley law school, based in Lansing, Mich., says that the school churns out nearly 1,000 law graduates a year, has 4,000 students on four campuses in Michigan, 82 percent of them part-time, and is by far the largest law school in the country.
But the suit contends that if Cooley were to disclose complete data on graduates who have secured full-time, permanent jobs where a law degree is required or preferred, that figure could be "below 30 percent if not even lower."
Yet the school advertises, according to the suit, that 75 to 80 percent of its graduates secure employment within nine months of graduation.
The suit also says Cooley "has the lowest admissions standards of any accredited and provisionally accredited law school in the country.
"For 2010, it accepted approximately 83 percent of all applicants," a rate that is 15 percentage points higher than the "second least selective law school, Phoenix School of Law."
Cooley's mean LSAT score for incoming students, the suit says, is 146, the lowest in the U.S. for accredited and provisionally accredited law schools.
Yet the tuition for full time students for the 2010-2011 academic year at Cooley was $30,644, plus room, board and miscellaneous costs of $14,686.
The dean of the school, Don LeDuc, earned $548,047 in total compensation for 2008-2009 "making him one of the highest paid law school deans in the country," the suit says.
The suit against New York Law School says that school has about 1,500 students and had the second largest entering class in the country in 2009, behind Cooley, with 736 students.
"NYLS is a veritable 'JD-factory'," the suit says, and "one of the most expensive law schools in the country, with a sticker price of $47,800, above that of even Harvard Law School."
The suit says NYLS claims that between 90 and 95 percent of its graduates secure employment within nine months of graduation.
But if NYLS disclosed "the more pertinent employment statistic — those graduates who have secured full-time permanent positions for which a JD is required or preferred — the numbers would drop dramatically, and could well be below 50 percent if not even lower."
The suit quotes NYLS's own dean, Richard Matasar, as telling a program sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools, that law school deans "should be ashamed of ourselves," and that students who don't have a good outcome are being exploited by the law schools.
The suit says Matasar earned $543,738 in 2008-2009.
Matasar said today, "These claims are without merit and we will vigorously defend against them in court."
And, Matasar recently posted on the school's website a defense to accusations against him by The New York Times.
There Matasar said:
"Costs are outside of the control of any one school.
"A legal education provides lifelong value.
"Students can and do make informed decisions.
"NYLS provides one of the most student-centric and innovative programs in the country."
Thomas Cooley law school defended itself in advance by filing a lawsuit July 14 asserting defamation by the Kurzon, Strauss law firm.
In a press release, Cooley said it "has consistently and truthfully reported job placement and salary figures in the manner required by the American Bar Association … and by the National Association for Law Placement."
James Thelen, Cooley's associate dean for legal affairs and general counsel, said today, "We stand by our reporting to the National Association for Law Placement, and any claims that prospective students or our graduates have been misled or legally harmed by our reporting are simply baseless."
Thelen noted that three of the four name plaintiffs "are working in their own law firms," which proves the value of Cooley's education.
William D. Henderson, professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a longtime critic of some law school practices, noted that the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego was the target of another, similar class action lawsuit recently.
"I think the whole industry has fallen short of transparency, and many law schools could be accused of not being entirely truthful and candid" on employment data for graduates, Henderson said.
But he said schools do report data that fulfills current ABA requirements. Nevertheless, "in a consumer protection sense, they are going to lose the battle for public opinion."
Henderson said "I can't think of any one law school" that "is engaged in fraud or misrepresentation."