Two New York law firms announced plans last week to file class action suits against 15 more law schools across the country, including Jacksonville-based Florida Coastal School of Law, regarding their reports of post-graduate employment rates.
The Law Offices of David Anziska and Strauss Law announced the suits Wednesday.
The two lawyers, Anziska and Jesse Strauss, already were involved in filing two suits, one in New York against New York Law School and another in Michigan against Thomas Cooley Law School. Those suits were filed in August.
The firms are seeking plaintiffs.
A Florida Coastal School of Law representative said he was aware of the announcement and that the local law school was prepared to defend itself, if necessary.
“If they choose to challenge our employment statistics we will stand 100 percent behind the integrity of those statistics,” said Brooks Terry, director of marketing and communications for Florida Coastal School of Law.
“We are prepared to vigorously defend ourselves in court, if necessary,” Terry said.
Anziska and Strauss said Florida Coastal reports post-graduation employment rates of 80-95 percent.
The 14 other law schools that Anziska and Strauss are seeking plaintiffs for include Albany Law School; Brooklyn Law School, of which Strauss is a graduate, according to records from the New York State Unified Court System; Hofstra Law School; Pace University School of Law; St. John’s University School of Law; Villanova University School of Law; Widener University School of Law; University of Baltimore School of Law; Chicago-Kent College of Law; DePaul University School of Law; John Marshall School of Law (Chicago); California Western School of Law; Southwestern Law School and University of San Francisco School of Law.
The schools individually reported post-graduate employment rates in a range of 80-98 percent, according to the announcement.
The announcement said the average debt load for 2009 graduates of the 15 schools was $108,829.40.
“The numbers reported by the schools just don’t comport with the reality of the legal job market. We hope that litigation, combined with pressure from regulators, applicants, students and alumni changes the way legal education is marketed and provides compensation to those who may have been misled in the past,” said Ansizka.
He said the lawsuits against New York Law School and Cooley Law School “are prompting many recent law school graduates with high debt loads and disappointing job prospects to question the employment rates reported by their schools.”
Anziska and Strauss are formally of Kurzon Strauss, which filed the suits in New York and Michigan. The firm has split into Kurzon LLP and Strauss Law PLLC.
Anziska said his office has received inquiries from students since the announcement Wednesday, but that no suit has been filed against Florida Coastal.
Anziska stated that no suit would be filed without at least three plaintiffs.
He said he and Strauss were looking at four factors regarding the 15 schools.
“We looked at markets that are heavily saturated, that have lots of graduates, that prospective plaintiffs have already contacted us about the school and their (employment) numbers are implausible.”
While unfamiliar with the announcement, The Jacksonville Bar Association President Michael Freed sees the suits as a product of the job market.
“I have not seen the complaints and of course am not familiar with the statistics or advertisements referenced. With that caveat, these lawsuits seem a particularly unfortunate and aggressive response to a uniquely challenging employment market for new lawyers,” Freed said.
“We would hope and expect that there is no truth to the claims of misleading misrepresentations by law schools,” he said.
With the response Anziska said he received in the days after the announcement, he said that the list of 15 schools was just a beginning.
“I fully expect that nearly every single law school in the country will have a lawsuit against it by this time next year,” said Anziska. “It’s inevitable.”
A day after Anziska and Strauss made the announcement, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California sent a letter to American Bar Association President William Robinson urging the organization charged with accreditation of law schools to address the issue of reporting employment rates.
“While I applaud the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education for addressing other deficiencies with current post-graduation employment and salary reporting requirements, I was very disappointed to learn that the Section decided not to require that law schools report the percentage of their graduates working in the legal profession or the percentage of graduates working in part-time legal jobs in its upcoming questionnaire,” stated Boxer in the Oct. 6 letter.
“In my two previous letters to your predecessor, I indicated my strong belief that the ABA should ensure that post-graduation employment data provided to prospective law students is truthful and transparent. His responses appeared to indicate a similar interest, but unfortunately it is difficult to square those previous statements with the Section’s recent decision,” she wrote.
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