Like we needed another ABA law school.

The American Bar Association just gave the law school at Liberty University its full approval. This is a great accomplishment and it's happening at a great school, but where will these graduates find work? I don't understand why more and more people are jumping into the game. Profit I suppose.

https://www.luonline.com/index.cfm?PID=19109&MID=20761

 

I see LU's law school as filling a niche within the legal community. LU's law school isn't just for training lawyers; it's for training conservative legal activists. I don't necessarily agree with this mission, but that's how I view it.

 

I'm OK with that mission. However, I'm concerned that there may not be many ways to make a living as a conservative legal activist. There may be a few conservative organizations looking for that, but I doubt there is sufficient job opportunities for the number of graduates they will produce.

 

Liberty University is firmly planted on the religious right. (Whether that's good or bad is up to you.) So I expect that a lot of its students will have activist religio-political motives for studying law and will find positions in the advocacy industry -- activist law firms, lobbyists, non-profit special-interest groups of all sorts.

What I don't understand is why everyone in America thinks that they can earn an MBA and enter business management. The day is coming when America consists of nothing but managers telling each other what to do, endlessly drawing and re-drawing organizational charts.

The people with real technical skills, that design and manufacture tangible things, and who provide actual customer service, will all be "employees", "staff", people that can be hired and fired on a whim and whose jobs can and should be out-sourced overseas.

But everyone in America will still insist that they deserve the big-bucks and the lavish life-styles, despite no longer producing anything that anybody on earth wants.

 

There is already a thread for this in the accreditation forum, from a while ago when it happened. Anyway, they aren't a "new" law school just finally got out of their provisional.

Anyway, do some research about their debate team and get an idea about what they can accomplish.

 

Yes, but with full ABA approval they are now the real deal. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for their law school, I just worry about those kids finding jobs. Didn't see the thread on this in the accreditation forum, that's probably where this one belongs anyway. If it bothers people, I'll move it.

 

Congratulations to Liberty University School of Law for their recent ABA accreditation!

 

I have seen the process that an institution goes through when deciding on whether or not to launch a new program - if the numbers did not add up for Liberty and they were not filling a self-identified need (yes, profit maximization is part of the mix), they would not have gone further with the process.

The employment market is tough all over - why worry about one segment over another? I would be more concerned with the employment prospects of those out there with no marketable skills and no prospects for increasing that skill set.

 

You make a good point. At least it is a marketable skill and better than nothing hopefully. Big loans and no way to pay them back is my concern. Liberty is probably less expensive than others though.

 

Aren't we already there?

 

In the end - we all gotta play by big-boy rules and accept responsiblity for our decisions.

 

Although a nice idea, it isn't necessarily a University's responisbility to ensure employment opportunities for its graduates.

This is probably too simplistic of an illustration of the law of supply and demand as it pertains to higher education but generally speaking, if graduates are not finding employment in their chosen field of endeavor "major" than enrollment declines in that discipline. It more or less resolves on its own.

 

You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, a lot of people are hurt as that process resolves.

 

I am sure people are "hurt", disappointed, discouraged, upset, etc, but this is a prime example why students need to do their research into a career field before diving in with all the proverbial scuba gear. I have seen it happen in the aviation industry, thousands of "kids" spend tens of thousands of dollars to get their commercial pilots license only to find out that no one was hiring after Congress raised the retirement age from 60 to 65. However, supply and demand will reverse in a couple of years as these "old farts" retire and leave a void to be filled. The same will happen in law, medicine, etc. It certainly follows a cyclic pattern and it just depends on where one catches the wave.

 

Yes, unfortunately many individuals blindly pursue an education without doing much research at all. Even doing research will not guarantee the best career move because conditions can change between the time someone starts a degree and the time they finish. Sometimes huge changes can occur withing the span of only a few years. (I'm not necessarily referring to the legal profession here)

 

At no point did I imply that it is a school's responsibility to ensure that graduates ultimately get employed. As you said, the school has a vested interest in their graduates getting employed to demonstrate to potential future students the utility of program, so a school is not going to invest the resources towards a program that will not meet that goal over time.

 

And these are the same type of people who cannot understand why they got fired for taking office supplies from their employer, why they are upside-down in a loan for a luxury car they could not afford, or being impacted by a whole host of other results from poor-decision making processes.

 

The stupidity that some people exhibited, using those 1% mortgages to by houses they could not afford, was just amazing. And the lack of integrity of those that sold them the loans, fully understanding what they were doing, is even more amazing. (Sorry, I digress)

 

Per the website, tuition for the year is $27,836. Ouch.

Liberty University School of Law

 

Add another one in a couple of years as well....

There will be another ABA school coming as well in a few years as the new Massachusetts state law school has just accepted their first class as UMass -Dartmouth Law School, formerly the state approved Southern New England School of Law. I assume they will be shooting for ABA approval in short order, but of course full approval takes a few years. You would think the tuition would be a little cheaper because it's a state school, but think again - $23,500 in state and $31,000 out of state a year with a few 50% public interest fellowships available per year as long as the student agrees to practice public interest law for a period of 4 years following graduation. It sure doesn't get any cheaper to study law as time passes.

UMASS School of Law - Dartmouth