Building a Better Legal Profession

Last updated
Building a Better Legal Profession
TypeNon-profit 501(c)(3) grassroots movement
Founded Stanford Law School (2007)
Headquarters
Stanford, CA
,
United States
Website BBLP Website

Building a Better Legal Profession(BBLP) was a non-profit organization founded by students at Stanford Law School in 2007. [1] [2] It was a national grassroots movement for market-based BigLaw workplace reform [3] which analyzed employment data at large private law firms to promote workplace reform at these companies by encouraging students to "vote with their feet" and select future employers based on quality-of-life and diversity criteria, rather than the pure prestige. [1] [4] [5] BBLP's analysis was published by Kaplan as a book in 2009–2010. [6]

Contents

Law Firm Rankings and Report Cards

Example of BBLP Report Card. ReportCard2.jpg
Example of BBLP Report Card.

Using data from the National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP), a system of report cards and rankings of law firms was created. BBLP used data from 11 major markets in the United States to show prospective hires what they could expect from a prospect law firm. Its BBLP Rankings covered an array of information that is important to future lawyers including firms' minimum billable hour requirements, average associate hours worked, demographic diversity, average pro bono hours, and the number of part-time attorneys. [7] [8]

The BBLP produced BBLP Rankings and also produced BBLP Report Cards on the major American legal marketplaces, such as in Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, Washington D.C, as well as the major American large law firms, including Allen & Overy, and Linklaters. [2] [5] [7] [8]

In April 2009, Kaplan published Building a Better Legal Profession's Guide to Law Firms: The Law Students Guide to Finding the Perfect Law Firm Job. [6] The book used BBLP's online reports and guides to give career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed. [2] [5] [7]

Membership

Building a Better Legal Profession had over 1,400 members across the country, with a presence at Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, among others. [1] [2] [7]

Media attention

The BBLP gained national media attention with traditional mainstream media with coverage from CBS , [8] The Wall Street Journal, [1] [2] The New York Times , [9] the Los Angeles Times , [10] [11] and The Boston Globe. The BBLP has been covered in legal newspapers and legal journals as well including articles from Legal Times , the ABA Journal , and the National Law Journal . [4]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Racial quotas in employment and education are numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of a particular racial group. Racial quotas are often established as means of diminishing racial discrimination, addressing under-representation and evident racism against those racial groups or, the opposite, against the disadvantaged majority group. Conversely, quotas have also been used historically to promote discrimination against minority groups by limiting access to influential institutions in employment and education.

Pro bono publico, usually shortened to pro bono, is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law school in the United States</span> School offering post-graduate education in law

A law school in the United States is an educational institution where students obtain a professional education in law after first obtaining an undergraduate degree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanford Law School</span> Law school of Stanford University, California, U.S

Stanford Law School (SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% in 2021, the second-lowest of any law school in the country. Since October 2023, Robert Weisberg has served as its dean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Bar Association</span> American association of lawyers

The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students; it is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model ethical codes related to the legal profession. As of fiscal year 2017, the ABA had 194,000 dues-paying members, constituting approximately 14.4% of American attorneys. In 1979, half of all lawyers in the U.S. were members of the ABA. The organization's national headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois, and it also maintains a significant branch office in Washington, D.C.

LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer information. During the 1970s, LexisNexis began to make legal and journalistic documents more accessible electronically. As of 2006, the company had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records–related information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law firm</span> Business entity formed to practice law

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other matters in which legal advice and other assistance are sought.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. The firm maintains an all-equity partnership, with approximately 150 partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal education in the United States</span>

Legal education in the United States generally refers to a graduate degree, the completion of which makes a graduate eligible to sit for an examination for a license to practice as a Lawyer. Around 60 percent of those who complete a law degree typically practice law, with the remainder primarily working in business or government or policy roles, where their degrees also confer advantages.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is a global white shoe law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The firm employs approximately 800 attorneys throughout 23 offices around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UCL Faculty of Laws</span>

The UCL Faculty of Laws is the law school of University College London (UCL), itself part of the federal University of London. It is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties and is based in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's leading law schools, and ranked 6th globally in the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for Law.

The University of Texas School of Law is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s 2019 disclosures, 90 percent of the Class of 2019 obtained full-time, long-term bar passage required/JD advantage employment nine months after graduation.

Law school rankings are a specific subset of college and university rankings dealing specifically with law schools. Like college and university rankings, law school rankings can be based on empirical data, subjectively-perceived qualitative data, or some combination of these. Such rankings are often consulted by prospective students as they choose which schools they will apply to or which school they will attend. There are several different law school rankings, each of which has a different emphasis and methodology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California, Irvine School of Law</span>

The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine, a public research university in Irvine, California. Founded in 2007, it is the fifth and newest law school in the UC system. At the time of its founding, it was the first new public law school in California in over 40 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durham Law School</span> Law school in Durham, England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manatt, Phelps & Phillips</span> Los Angeles–based law firm

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP is a Los Angeles-based law firm of more than 450 attorneys and other professionals founded in 1965. The firm earned revenues of $316.9 million in 2017. Donna L. Wilson is the firm's Chief Executive and Managing Partner. On June 11, 2018, Manatt announced that Wilson had been elected to succeed William Quicksilver as the firm's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner. Wilson assumed the leadership role on July 1, 2019, at which time Quicksilver became the Managing Partner Emeritus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Rhode</span> American jurist, writer, feminist, and professor (1952–2021)

Deborah Lynn Rhode was an American jurist. She was the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the nation's most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. From her early days at Yale Law School, her work revolved around questions of injustice in the practice of law and the challenges of identifying and redressing it. Rhode founded and led several research centers at Stanford devoted to these issues, including its Center on the Legal Profession, Center on Ethics and Program in Law and Social Entrepreneurship; she also led the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. She coined the term "The 'No-Problem' Problem".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yong Pung How School of Law</span> School of Law of the Singapore Management University

The Yong Pung How School of Law is one of the six schools of the Singapore Management University. It was set up as Singapore's second law school in 2007, 50 years after the NUS Faculty of Law and 10 years before SUSS School of Law. Prior to its establishment as a law school, the school was a department within the School of Business between 2000 and 2007. The school was known as the SMU School of Law until 2021, when it was renamed after former Chief Justice Yong Pung How.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Law School Transparency</span>

Law School Transparency (LST) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy and education organization concerning the legal profession in the United States. LST was founded by Vanderbilt Law School graduates Kyle McEntee and Patrick Lynch. LST describes its mission as "to make entry to the legal profession more transparent, affordable, and fair."

<i>U.S. News & World Report</i> Best Colleges Ranking Annual ranking of American colleges and universities

The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking is an annual set of rankings of colleges and universities in the United States, first published in 1983. It has been described as the most influential institutional ranking in the country.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peter Lattman (3 April 2007). "You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 26 March 2019. Their new organization, "Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession", wants the country's biggest law firms to sign-on to principles.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession Releases New NYC Rankings" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. 10 October 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  3. ↑ " New Data on Law Firm Diversity" by David Lat, Above The Law, May 20, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  4. 1 2 Vesna Jaksic (11 October 2007). "Student group grades firms on diversity". National Law Journal . Retrieved 26 March 2019. In an effort to help law students find out more about law firms, a student group whose mission includes helping law firms ensure that practicing law does not mean giving up commitment to family and community, has released a report that ranks firms on factors such as percentages of female partners, demographic diversity and numbers of billable hours.
  5. 1 2 3 "Building a Better Legal Profession". Et Seq. Harvard Law School. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  6. 1 2 Irene Hahn (April 2009). Building a Better Legal Profession's Guide to Law Firms: The Law Student's Guide to Finding the Perfect Law Firm. Kaplan. p. 300. ISBN   978-1427798381.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Andrew Bruck; Andrew Canter. "Supply, Demand and the Changing Economics of Large Law Firms" (PDF). Stanford Law Review . 60 (6): 2087.
  8. 1 2 3 Keach Hagey (29 October 2007). "Big Law Firms Turn Out To Be Embarrassingly Full Of White Men". CBS. This is 2007," said Michel Landis Daubner, a law professor at Stanford and the adviser for the project, called Building a Better Legal Profession. "If you can't find a single black or Hispanic partner, that's not an accident.
  9. ↑ Adam Liptak (29 October 2009). "In Students' Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don't Make the Grade". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  10. ↑ Henry Weinstein (11 October 2007). "Lack of diversity marks L.A. law - latimes". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  11. ↑ Molly Selvin (18 March 2008). "Law students make appeal for change - latimes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.