Law School Profs Allegedly Booted After Standing Up for Students
Here we go again. Another purported case of a for-profit law school alleged to have played games with its students. Except this time, some professors claim they also got the shaft when they tried to stick up for the students. The Phoenix School of Law (not that Phoenix, but rather this Phoenix) has been sued by two of its former professors, who claim that they were improperly fired after raising concerns about new school policies designed to make it difficult or impossible for students transfer after their first year.
As the National Law Journal recently reported, Michael O’Connor and Celia Rumann filed suit alleging that were essentially terminated after they opposed the school’s proposed changes to policies and curriculum dubbed “Legal Ed. 2.0.” So what the heck is “Legal Ed 2.0?” According to the complaint, it’s a set new “improvements” designed to prevent current students from transferring to more highly ranked schools after the first year. Among the “improvements” that the administrators considered implementing included:
- Refusing to write recommendation letters for transfer students;
- Reordering mandatory first-year classes to render them incompatible with other law schools; and
- Adopting a pass/fail grading system for 1Ls to prevent competitors identifying top students.
Yeah, that sounds exactly like the kind of school that is looking out for the best interests of students. Perhaps this sort of thing should be expected when a school’s stated goal is to make $$$$ and they’ve got upwards of 15 percent of students transferring after the first year. Maybe the school could spin this as a free business lesson to all of its students. Once again, when it comes to law schools, buyer beware.
