Why is Cooley Law School still open?

[Safiel]

@AlexMcAlpine

@Safiel

But Cooley takes them in, takes their money and pumps them out with essentially a worthless piece of paper. And even if they are in the 28% that actually passes the bar, their long term law employment outlook is not good.

Is it Cooley’s fault that the people they give a chance to, don’t apply themselves?

Presumably Cooley and the other ones you wish to close are not as expensive as the “top” schools.

So someone could get into those lower ranked schools, buckle down and pass the bar exam if they tried hard enough.

(Also it may be that those top schools give their students the answer in advance, while the lower ones don’t. (Who knows what a little donation here or there will get for the most wealthy among us.) )

Cooley’s “fault” is that they accept students that, even if they do pass the bar, have dim prospects in the legal community.

The fact is that automation has reduced the need for attorneys in the same way it has reduced the need for other professions and for skilled workers, etc. There used to be a need for attorneys who did nothing but sift through records and files and do general research. These days, advanced legal research websites have made these type of attorney jobs superfluous. In the past, a Cooley graduate might have filled a job like this. But most of those types of jobs are gone and the rest are fast following.

Now all a Cooley graduate can hope for is a job in a tiny rural law firm or to try to make it as a single practitioner. Poor prospects with mediocre remuneration at best.

Even if you do graduate from a decent law firm there are no guarantees of success. A young lady from my own high school class received her J.D. from Wake Forest. After practicing law for a little over 5 years, she now runs an Allstate Insurance sales firm. She keeps her license active but has not actually practiced law in over 20 years.

It can be a crap shoot even graduating from better schools.