Law Schools are in terrible shape: enrollments are declining as students question the wisdom of taking on a large amount of debt given uncertain job prospects for new lawyers. Of course, not all law schools are suffering. Those at the top are doing fine. But most others are being forced to retrench and retool.I know there is a great deal of discussion at the American Bar Association about how to address this issue. Here is my own recommendation for a relatively simple and straightforward step that can improve things significantly.My point of attack are the perverse incentives that law schools have been pursuing for the past fifteen years in response to the rankings in U.S. News & World Report. As many know, USN&WR rankings have an even more pervasive impact on law school admissions than they do at the undergraduate level. America's 200 law schools are divided into four quartiles. Students structure their search process around the list and tend to choose the highest ranked school at...
