FT SPECIAL REPORT Innovative Law Schools Monday November 21 2016 www.ft.com/reports | @ftreports Inside Students face down schools Brexit threatens academic harmony Inside Falling applications have convinced law schools that Britain’s law schools they need to offer new attractions to potential pupils. Page 2 face post-EU fall in foreign student numbers Page 4 Race to the top New attempts to improve ethnic diversity in law Page 5 The world’s best LLM programmes We list 91 of the top law schools for the qualification Pages 6-7 Law schools turn to ones and zeros Students can learn to code or study online Pages 10-12 Illustration: Boris Séméniako 2 | FTReports FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 21 November 2016 FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 21 November 2016 FTReports | 3 Innovative Law Schools Innovative Law Schools tuitionforthefollowingyear,sotaking Falling student numbers hit reve- three years did not seem too bad. Law schools lose their charm nue too. Barry Currier of the ABA That’slessthecasenow.” points out that law schools look to Some law schools have created New-student numbers have been falling since ˜°˛° e ven as gender balance has improved other income streams by offering financial inducements, such as New First year enrolment (’˜˜˜) more degrees beyond the basic JD, York’s Pace Law School, which sets targeting international students or tuition charges for out-of-state stu- ˆ˜ running masters degrees or non-JD dents at the same rate as their local programmesthatareaimedatpeople Total law schools. Others have reduced the ˙˜ who do not want to practise but to go grade scores in the entry test known intoarelatedarealikecompliance. astheLSAT. Despite these actions, some ques- Law schools are responding to the ˝˜ tion whether law school student attraction and utility of jointly study- Men application numbers will ever return ing law and business; New York Uni- to 2010 levels. A 2014 report by versity and Havard are offering JD/ ˛˜ Moody’s, the rating agency, about US MBA programmes. Students at law schools concluded that the Northwestern University, for exam- decline in student demand “is con- Women °˜ ple, can earn a juris doctor from the sistent with our belief that the legal Northwestern School of Law and a industryisexperiencingafundamen- MBAfromtheKelloggSchoolofMan- ˜ talshiftratherthanacyclicaltrend”. agement in three years — rather than But for the students who have set the five it would take to complete °ˇ˘˝- - - - ˇ˜- ˇˆ- ˛˜˜˜- ˜ˆ- °˜- °ˆ- their heart on law, now is seen as a bothdegreesseparately. ˘˙ - ˇ° ˇ˘ ˜° ˜˘ °° °˘ good time to apply to law school: the In a 2015 address Blake Morant, FT graphic Source: American Bar Association tough jobs market has deterred some then president of the American Asso- less committed students. While the ciation of Law Schools, said that the outcome for graduates, says Sarah “current tough times have compelled sity of Illinois College of Law now gan Law School, says she made the and assistance, as it seeks to reflect Zearfoss, “frankly was rough” for a us to think more creatively about offer semester-long “externships” in decision in 2011 to shrink the class changes in the legal market, but Ms couple of classes graduating after pedagogyandcurriculum”. majorUScities,hesaid. from 360 to about 300. “The national Zearfoss says this evolution in legal 2010-11, that has got better despite He also pointed to new pro- The tougher market has compelled pool had got too small for us to have educationwouldhavehappenedany- the gloomy headlines about falling grammes that explore the intersec- some schools to cut class sizes to the same size and quality of class we way.The course allows students to be enrolments. “The media has had a tion of classroom doctrine and the maintain the quality of students. hadhadformanyyears,”shesays. walked through the nuts and bolts of function in making people realise it is real world; some schools such as Sarah Zearfoss, senior assistant dean The school has now introduced past cases or develop more practical not just a risk-free pass,” she says. Notre Dame Law School and Univer- foradmissionsatUniversityofMichi- legal clinics, which offer free advice skillslikeoralarguments. “Youhavetowanttodoit.” Admissions collapse continues Law schools have had ince 2010, US law schools But since the Great Recession, the A student degree, the qualification to become a have experienced a drop in jobsmarketfornewlymintedlawyers sits alone at lawyer, costs an average of $34,600 falling entries for five student admissions to a has become tougher: most law firms Harvard per year in tuition fees, reaching years and are being level not seen since 1973, have been taking on fewer recruits Law School almost $60,000 at an elite law school, S when there were 53 fewer because their corporate clients have Getty Images some institutions are also offering forced to innovate or schools than today (204). The cut their legal spending. In addition, compressed, shorter degrees or number of first-year students enter- some of the work traditionally done add-on subjects like computer sci- face being left behind, ing law school in 2015 dropped to just by young lawyers — such as docu- enceorhealthcare. says Jane Croft above 37,000 compared to 52,000 in ‘The ment discovery — is now being out- Barry Currier, managing director of 2010,accordingtofiguresreleasedby sourced to cheaper locations like the legal education section at the the American Bar Association. The national India or is being automated by new American Bar Association, which latest enrolment numbers are due in pool had technology. As a result, many stu- accredits more than 200 law schools, December. dents are wary about taking on a six- says a compressed course of two years So why have numbers been falling? got too figure debt from law school tuition ratherthanthreecanhaveadvantages After all, there are still lucrative jobs small for us feeswithouttheprospectofaguaran- for some. “Some schools are designing around. Earlier this year Wall Street teedjobattheend. programmes like two-year JDs as no law firms competed to lure young to have the Yet many law schools have degree can be less than 24 months lawyers with lucrative pay packages same size responded to the challenging condi- under our rules. You can speed things after US firm Cravath Swaine & tions by thinking creatively about up and that gets you into the job mar- Moore raised the annual salary and quality what they offer — including a greater ket,” he says. “Twenty years ago law offered to first-year associates to of class’ focusonskills-basedinstruction. students could work in summertime $180,000,sparkingapaywar. Conscious that a juris doctor (JD) in [legal] fields and maybe cover their 4 | FTReports FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 21 November 2016 FINANCIAL TIMES Monday 21 November 2016 FTReports | 5 Innovative Law Schools Innovative Law Schools Will Brexit outlaw EU students? Seeing the law in black and white yearsafterBrexititislikelythatnum- Diversity Politics Those who bersofEUuniversitystudentswillfall come to the UK to because students may have to pay Firms are starting to earn legal degrees higher tuition fees — around £16,000 consider equal —ratherthan£9,000now. representation, says could face higher fees, Much will depend on the final Brexit deal, he says. He thinks that Sarah Murray writes Jane Croft law as a subject will be less affected because of the global nature of the Since 2013, Freshfields Bruck- legal profession and law firms. “I hausDeringer,oneofLondon’s he morning after the don’t think that will change and so elite Magic Circle law firms, UK’sJunereferendumon becauseofthatthenumberofEUstu- has supported a very particu- leaving the EU, a legal dents studying law might not fall as lar kind of scholarship. The website’s Facebook page badlyasothersubjectareas.” Freshfields Stephen Lawrence T hadapicturewhichwent He says one option is that UK uni- Scholarship Scheme is named viral: it showed a completely empty versities could set up campuses in after a young black British lecture theatre with the caption, Europe to offer courses to European man murdered in a racially “Meanwhile at the 9am EU law lec- students. He points to the LLM in motivated attack in 1993, and ture . .” Paris programme, which covers Eng- isopenonlytoblackmenfrom The decision to leave the EU has lish law and is taught in English. low-income households. many implications for university law Developed by the Centre for Com- Importantly, to redress the Cordella Bart-Stewart, exec- schools because they are living Like others, she sees the Clockwise from above: dynamic but also reaching out faculties, ranging from the numbers mercialLawStudies,theLLMleadsto industry’s huge racial imbal- utive director of the Black withtheirparents. need for universities and law President Obama at Chicago and doing other things to ofEUstudentswhocometostudylaw a Queen Mary University of London ance, it offers more than Solicitors Network in the UK, She sees a need not only for firms to work together to Law School; a block of flats speed up the process of in the UK to the content of law qualification. “I think you will see money. sees enthusiasm for studying academic support but also for increase diversity in the legal in Tower Hamlets, a poor change,” she says. When it degrees which include a focus on EU moreofthis,”MrPriestleysays. While there is £3,500 in law among young people from assistance in developing softer profession. “What’s important but diverse part of London; comes to diversifying the legal case law. Speaking after the result, Not many UK students go to financial assistance for each the African and Caribbean skills. “It is not enough that for the sector is relying on the Harvard Law students world, money is necessary — Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of Europe for legal degrees. Sixty-nine scholar, “the money is helpful communities, but she says firms might offer scholar- universities to change the graduating — AFP; Getty; Reuters butmuchmoreisneededtoo. Universities UK, said leaving the EU British students, for example, are but the more interesting ele- they can drop out during their ships,”shesays.