SLU Caught Up In Wave Of College Lawsuits

Carol Daniel

March 19, 2012 6:37 AM

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Legal, Local News, News, Syndicated Local

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action, Anziska, class, lawsuit, SLU, St. Louis, University

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis University School of Law is caught in the crosshairs of a pending class-action lawsuit.

Some graduates of the program claim they can’t find jobs in their fields.

“We charge that law schools have been reporting year-in, year-out with Madoff-like consistency employment rates of well over ninety percent,” says David Anziska, a New York-based attorney who’s targeting SLU law school and 19 others nationwide. “I believe that right now, under forty percent of recent law school graduates are employed in full-time, permanent positions in which a JD degree is required or preferred.”

Taxpayers should listen to his evidence, Anziska says, because they’re the ones on the hook for federally-backed student loans for law school graduates who default or fail to find work in their fields.

KMOX News was unable to reach a spokesperson at SLU for a response to the class-action suit.

gram

Walmarts hiring ( I hope)..They need to do what the rest of the country is doing.. and suck it in and find something in a field that at least buys groceries…What did they expect ? salivating employers beating down their “I have no experience” doors and hiring them at exorbitant ammounts…?..Opps sorry hit tthe nail on the head there..
work

There are too many lawyers in this country as it is.
Jill

Yes, but the problem is that law schools are suckering them in with false and trumped up employment statistics and promises. They finish law school with loans around $100K and then find out it was all a shell game.

Law schools report as employed students who are employed by the schools at a small stipend for just long enough to get them through the reporting period, those who are doing jobs such as working as waiters and in bowling alleys, etc. Law schools have turned into a for profit enterprise, where the buyer really needs to beware.
Donna

Law Schools are not the ones, just watch TV there are hundreds of On-Line colleges (they say they are colleges) advertising all the time. College has just become big business. Do you really think employers are just waiting for an applicant who received their degree on-line?
Anyone who could not get a job goes to Law School.
Did you know any college degree qualifies for law school? (Still have to pass the LSAT) It cannot be that hard, since everyone gets in.
If these Lawyers were all that smart they would have done their due diligence and realized that the profession is so overcrowded they would have never started with it.

Rose

Law schools aren’t the only ones who sucker would-be students into their college programs. All colleges do it. In my opinion though, there is no thing as a “stupid lawyer.” You ought to try it sometime — I did.
Colleges routinely taut ANY program that they offer to ANY student who has the money or who has the ability to qualify for a student loan. Never mind that they might not be cut out for college — just get them to sign on that dotted line for that loan. When the student defaults on that loan for whatever reason, who picks up the tab?
Don’t just pick on would-be lawyers. There are a lot of psychology, anthropology, etc. majors out there who will probably never land a job in their respective fields.
gram

Caveat Emptor!..
iI there are any ‘Latin Majors’ out there working as waiters now a chance to do some Pro bono work…

Vox

A couple of comments have really missed the point. Whether there are enough lawyers or not is irrelevant. Whether someone needs to be ‘smart’ to go to law school is irrelevant. What IS relevant is whether a prospective student is told by a law school–or any other school, including the exploding online college business–that, on average, a certain percentage of their graduates go straight into careers in their chosen field. When a law school advertises a 90% placement rate, it is implicitly stating that its program has a certain level of respect in the legal community. When it turns out that the real placement rate is only half that amount, the law school has fraudulently advertised its product. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone familiar with SLU.

Donna

I guarantee you that I did not miss the point. I stated that everyone needs to do their due diligence.
This goes for any big purchase, such as an Education. You have to realize everyone is a Salesman. Buyer Beware.

http://lsatdates.org/lsat-dates/judge-tosses-lawsuit-against-law-school-over-employment-stats-wall-street-journal-blog/ Judge Tosses Lawsuit against Law School over Employment Stats – Wall Street Journal (blog) | Lsat Dates

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