Wednesday, February 27, 2008

 

More Law School Rankings on the Way!


Now here's an interesting development: These Guys have a plan to develop law school rankings based on the teaching and scholarship done by faculty at various schools. That is, they are going to see if faculty are doing what they are supposed to be doing-- teaching law and writing about the law.

The name of the report seems to indicate that the survey will reveal the "deadwood" on various faculties; that is, the people who say they teach or publish or both, but don't actually do it. I'm not sure if that correllates to a quality student experience, but it should at least measure how efficient various places are at delivering the goods.

A few interesting notes on methodology: They are going to rely on web sites for info, meaning that schools will be rewarded for up-to-date internet presences. Also, they will not include publications in the journal where a professor teaches, something that might disproportionately hurt Baylor, where some of our articles have appeared in the Baylor Law Review.

Comments:
This is definitely a ranking that will cause Baylor to fall far into the 3rd tier. Can't say I've heard of any scholarly article from a Baylor Prof being held up as groundbreaking or thought provoking. Can't say I've heard of any article written by a Baylor Prof since I graduated 2+ years ago either.
 
Anon-

Do you know of law review articles written by profs elsewhere? It's not material many people in practice read.
 
A lot of our professors are constantly publishing and choosing to publish in journals at other schools. I think that Baylor will be helped by a survey that allows teaching to play a large roll in the rankings. Baylor has one of the best teaching faculties in the country, and that does make for a good student experience.
 
Hey, everyone, why so anonymous?

I think Baylor would do fine in this ranking. We say we teach, and we do. There isn't a person on the faculty who doesn't pull their weight. Anonymous #1, I disagree with you on scholarship, but I'm biased, of course.

I expect that our ranking in this survey would be at least as good, and probably better, than our ranking in the US News survey.
 
Actually, some law review articles get read by practicing lawyers. The articles must be focused, relevant and practical to get the average practicing attorney's attention. I guess it helps to be in a field like Intellectual Property where developments in the law occur on a regular basis.

But as faithful readers of the Razor know, that's true of sentencing law too. Good prosecutors and defense lawyers would be well served by reading a few good articles on the major changes in that field!
 
I attended a Baylor Business Network luncheon in Austin where Pres. Lilly was the speaker. In the Q&A, someone asked a loaded question about how great Baylor Law was and if there were any lessons that could be learned and applied to the University in general. After acknowledging what made Baylor Law unique, Lilly went on about how Baylor Law had alot of work to do in getting their scholarship up to speed with the University in general. Curious to know what people think of Lilly's assessment.
 
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