Failing Law Schools? You be the judge.

"There is a zealous faith in American culture that higher education always pays for itself, but it's like the subprime mortgage scandal without securitization. When people realize it's a worthless degree, the system is going to collapse." - Paul Campos

The Cato Institute held an event earlier this month entitled "Failing Law Schools". Two of the most prominent critics of the current model of legal education in the U.S. spoke at it. Law professors Brian Tamanaha and Paul Campos have recently written books about the deep structural problems facing law schools. A video of the event has been posted online and I highly recommend watching it. It provides a surprisingly balanced critique (from both a right and left-wing perspective) on fudged employment statistics, extreme levels of tuition, poor job prospects, and the failing law school business model. I'm a fairly detached (and a tad cynical) observer of the evolving crisis, but some of the predatory practices discussed really floored me. I've been writing about these problems in a Canadian context for awhile now, see: here, here, here, and here. From the American perspective, check out these resources: here, here, and here. See the video of the event below: