The Syracuse University College of Law is among 20 law schools nationwide included in a class action lawsuit challenging schools’ post-graduation employment rates.

The suit holds law schools accountable for misrepresentations made in reporting post-graduation employment and salary statistics, such as including graduates with jobs that do not require law degrees in the percentage of employed graduates, or determining statistics based on a limited number of graduate responses.

The Law Offices of David Anziska is one of eight law firms involved in the lawsuit. Anziska said they would like to sue all 20 schools on the same day, before Memorial Day weekend. He said he wants three plaintiffs from each school, which he does not yet have from SU.

‘As of now, 15 law schools have been sued,’ Anziska said. ‘Last week, we announced our intention to sue 20 more.’

In addition to SU’s College of Law, the additional 20 schools include Pepperdine University School of Law and American University’s Washington College of Law, which are both ranked among the top 50 best law schools by U.S. News and World Report.

The students involved in the lawsuits are seeking damages, saying that they find themselves at a disadvantage for employment positions because they relied on the information. A judge rejected those claims filed against New York Law School last Wednesday.

Jaclyn Grosso, the director of communications and media relations for SU’s College of Law, could not be reached for comment.

Of last year’s 193 law school graduates, 87 percent reported they were employed or pursuing an advanced degree, according to professional and career development statistics published on the College of Law’s admissions website. According to that same data set, the average salary reported for more than 100 attorney firms was $102,500; for all private practice firms was $70,600; and for government employers was $51,300.

Alexander Redmon, a first-year student in the College of Law, said he thought inflating post-graduation statistics is a common practice. He said SU’s reporting of post-graduation rates did not personally affect him in his decision to enroll because he said he believes most schools inflate their statistics anyway.

But Chris Tommarello and Jon Hoeven, both second-year students in the College of Law, said they thought SU was forthcoming and honest about its post-graduation statistics and did not misrepresent these numbers.

Hoeven said he thought SU’s rank had actually decreased because the university did not embellish its numbers.

‘The fact that this guy, the lawyer, is going out and finding people for his class action and nobody has stepped up and said, ‘ I would like to sue the school’ is a strong indication that the school is very honest about statistics,’ Tommarello said.

However, misrepresentation in law schools generally is still a serious concern, he said.

‘Students are relying on statistics to go to that school with the hope that they’re going to have a job at the end of it. So if that is happening, then the school should be penalized for that and that should be changed,’ he said. ‘But I would be surprised if that happened at Syracuse.’

nagorny@syr.edu

Published on March 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm