Symposium Today on The Next Generation of Law School Rankings

Following up on our recent article, What Law Schools Can Learn from Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, 82 Texas L. Rev. 1483 (2004), Rafael Gely and I are moderating a symposium on The Next Generation of Law School Rankings today at Indiana-Bloomington:

The U.S. News & World Report annual law school rankings are the 800-pound gorilla of legal education. Although met with varying degrees of skepticism and hostility, the U.S. News rankings affect virtually all aspects of law school operations. A myriad of alternative rankings have emerged in recent years, seeking better and more accurate ways of measuring law school performance. The goal of this symposium is to deepen our understanding of rankings and their effects on legal education. The participants in this symposium will examine the need for law school rankings; the effects of rankings on legal education; and the various new approaches to addressing the public's insatiable demand for ever more and increasingly sophisticated rankings, which permeate not only legal education but also all aspects of American life.

8:30 - 8:35 a.m.  Lauren Robel (Dean, Indiana), Welcome

8:35 - 8:45 a.m.  Paul L. Caron (Cincinnati) & Rafael Gely (Cincinnati), Introduction

Panel 1:  Framing the Rankings Debate

8:45 - 9:05 a.m.  Papers

• Richard A. Posner (Chicago; 7th Circuit): Evaluating Law School Rankings (paper only)
• Cass R. Sunstein (Chicago): Ranking Law Schools: A Market Test? (paper only)

9:05 - 9:20 a.m.  Commentary

• Russell Korobkin (UCLA)
• Brian R. Leiter (Texas) (paper only)

9:20 - 9:35 a.m.  Questions and Discussion

Panel 2:  Ranking Methodologies

9:35 - 10:20 a.m.  Papers:

• Scott A. Baker (North Carolina), Stephen Choi (NYU) & Gaurang Mitu Gulati (Georgetown):  The Rat Race as an Information Forcing Device
• Wendy Espeland (Northwestern) & Michael Sauder (Northwestern):  The Benefits of Multiple Evaluations: A Comparison of Law and Business School Rankings
• William Henderson (Indiana) & Andrew P. Morriss (Case):  Student Quality as measured by LSAT Scores: Migration Patterns in the U.S. News Rankings Era

10:20 - 10:40 a.m.  Commentary:

• Rafael Gely (Cincinnati)
• Michael E. Solimine (Cincinnati)

10:40 - 10:55 a.m.  Questions and Discussion

10:55 - 11:10 a.m.  Break

Panel 3:  Ranking Methodologies

11:10 - 11:55 a.m.  Papers:

• Bernard S. Black (Texas) & Paul L. Caron (Cincinnati): Ranking Law Schools:  Using SSRN To Measure scholarly Performance
• Tracey E. George (Vanderbilt): Law Schools and the New Legal Science
• Jeffrey E. Stake (Indiana): The Interplay Netween Rankings Criteria and Effects:  Toward Responsible Rankings

11:55 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.  Commentary:

• Lawrence A. Cunningham (Boston College)
• Theodore Eisenberg (Cornell)

12:15 - 12:30 p.m.  Questions and Discussion

12:30 - 1:45 p.m.  Lunch

Panel 4:  Other Voices in the Rankings Debate

1:45 - 2:15 p.m.  Papers:

• Alex M. Johnson, Jr. (Dean, Minnesota): Destruction of the Holistic Approach to Admissions: The Pernicious Effect of Rankings
• Gene R. Nichol (Dean, North Carolina): Law Schools, Rankings, and Public Mission (paper only)
• Nancy B. Rapoport (Dean, Houston): Eating Our Cake and Having It, Too: Why Real Change Is So Difficult in Law Schools

2:15 - 3:00 p.m.  Commentary

• Sam Kamin (Denver)
• Rachel F. Moran (Boalt Hall)
• Patrick O'Day (LSSSE)
• Lauren Robel (Dean, Indiana)

3:00 - 3:30 p.m.  Questions and Discussion

3:30 - 3:35 p.m.  Jeffrey E. Stake (Indiana), Closing Comments

The symposium is made possible through the generous financial support of Foundation Press, Thomson-West, and the Indiana-Bloomington School of Law.