Brooklyn Welcomes 350 1Ls, Down 11% From Last Year (28% From 2010)

After suffering perhaps the largest decline among American law schools in LSAT scores of its entering class from 2010 (162/163/165) to 2015 (152/155/158), despite a 19% reduction in 1L enrollment (from 486 to 394), with a corresponding 30-place cratering in its U.S. News ranking (from 67 to 97), Brooklyn welcomed 350 1Ls this Fall (an additional 11% reduction from 2015) with across the board improvement in LSAT scores:  154/156/159.  Here are Brooklyn's admission data for the prior six years from Law School Transparency:

Previous TaxProf Blog coverage of Brooklyn Law School:

• NY Court Dismisses Placement Data Fraud Lawsuit Against Brooklyn Law School (Apr. 26, 2013)
• Brooklyn Law School to Permit Dismissal of Tenured Faculty for Lack of Collegiality or Poor Student Evaluations(Apr. 26, 2013)
• Brooklyn Dean Responds to New Standards for Dismissal of Tenured Faculty (May 1, 2013)
• Tenured Brooklyn Law Prof Files ABA Complaint Against School (May 13, 2013)
• Brooklyn Law School Responds to Tenured Prof's ABA Complaint (May 14, 2013)
• Brooklyn President Steps Down, Leaving Dean in Sole Charge of Law School Amidst Tenured Prof's ABA Complaint (June 17, 2013)
• Brooklyn Dean: Law Schools Use Merit Scholarships To Boost Rankings (Oct. 11, 2013)
• Brooklyn Law School Faces Debt Downgrade (Oct. 17, 2013)
• S&P Downgrades Many Law Schools, Thomas Jefferson Falls to Junk Bond Status (Dec. 7, 2013)
• Brooklyn Law School Cuts Tuition by 15% (Apr. 3, 2014)
• NY Times: Brooklyn's Bold Move to Reduce Merit Scholarships to Survive the Law School Crisis (Apr. 5, 2014)
• Four Law Schools' Debt Classified as 'Junk Bonds' (Apr. 22, 2014)
• Brooklyn Law School Dean: 15% Tuition Cut Benefits Everyone, Not Just Students (June 25, 2014)
• WSJ: MBE, Brooklyn Dean Debate Cause of Declining Bar Pass Rates: Students or the Test? (Nov. 11, 2014)
• NY Times: Law Schools Deploy 'Business Boot Camps' to Better Equip Students for Today's Job Market (Feb. 13, 2015)
• Brooklyn Law School Dean Calls For Audit of MBE (Mar. 27, 2015)
• Brooklyn Law School Offers 15% Tuition Refund For Students Who Don't Find Full-Time Jobs 9 Months After Graduation (July 13, 2015)
• Brooklyn Dean Allard Responds To New York Times Editorial On The Law School Crisis (Oct. 29, 2015)
• Bar Exam Carnage Continues: 10 Of 15 New York Law Schools Suffer Bar Pass Rate Declines (Nov. 16, 2015)
• McEntee: Brooklyn Publishes 'Misleading,' 'Egregious' 92.5% Law Grad Employment Statistic (June 16, 2016)

Previous TaxProf Blog posts on Fall 2016 entering classes:

• Colorado (more here)
• Richmond
• San Diego

Update:  From Brooklyn Dean Nick Allard:

Brooklyn Law School appreciates your recognition of the increase in LSAT scores of our 2016 entering class and the reduction of our class size from 399 to 350. With almost 12 percent more applications in 2016 than in 2015, this was one of the most competitive admissions cycles for Brooklyn Law School in recent years. It is also notable that while featuring improved credentials, this class is the most diverse in the last 10 years, with 35 percent of students – 121 – identifying themselves as people of color.  

Even so, perhaps because your story contained several links to old stories, without context or complete information, readers may have been left with an overall negative impression about Brooklyn Law School, which I am sure was not your intention as one of the most prolific and respected commentators on the academic legal community. For example:

• One link takes you to a story about junk bonds. Brooklyn Law School has no junk bonds and has never had junk bonds. Our endowment has doubled in the last six years to over $155 million and Standard & Poor just this past May revised our outlook from stable to positive and affirmed our credit rating.
• Another link references jobs litigation, but like many law schools we faced a baseless lawsuit that was dismissed at a preliminary stage and ended without any further litigation.
• There is also a story that refers to language in a preliminary version of a faculty regulation about collegiality that was never seriously considered and was not adopted.

I appreciate the opportunity to continue our participation in the important conversations about the future of legal education and the profession in the new world of law. We always have been, and intend and expect to remain, in the forefront of the ever-changing nature of teaching, research, and law practice.  As I expect that your uniquely broad audience will appreciate clarification, and because there is so much good news to share about Brooklyn Law School, I am grateful for the opportunity to provide further information related to your original blogpost.

As Dean of Brooklyn Law School, I am privileged every day to work alongside our outstanding faculty, including our newest faculty members, and to continue our 115-year tradition of providing the highest level of legal education to well over 100,000 lawyers – professionals who bring to bear their intelligence, insights, and craft to many of our nation’s most complex and layered challenges facing business, government, and society.