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BLS Dean Nick Allard makes 2014 predictions

December 24, 2013 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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The year 2014 will be a rebound year for law schools, their students and the profession, says Dean Nick Allard of Brooklyn Law School. Here are his predictions:

1. Ten years from now, people will look back at 2014 and say it marked the start of the new world of law: a renaissance where the respect and reputation of lawyers and law schools began to rise by measurable benchmarks.

2. Significantly, in 2014 the ABA will lead the way to restoring the national reputation of law as an honorable, noble profession. For example, next year the ABA will begin a national two-year conversation around its activities to celebrate the upcoming 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Even children will learn that we are a nation of laws, and many will be able to answer the trivia question: “Who signed the Magna Carta on a grassy field in Runnymede in 1215?” Answer: “No one — it was ‘sealed’ by King John.”

3. In 2013 only 11 law schools (including Brooklyn Law School) had more entering students than the previous year. In 2014 there will be more than 20.

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4. In 2013 there were nine law schools with two-year JD options, including Brooklyn Law School. In 2014 at least 10 more will adopt some form of accelerated JD option, and in five years more than 50 law schools will offer them.

5. 2014 will be the year law schools begin to attack not only the quality issue – that is the value proposition of a JD — but also the affordability issue. Law schools will finally begin to attack their irrational and inequitable business model by taking on the heretofore unmentioned elephant in the room, the huge amounts spent on merit scholarships that drive tuition up paid by students who do not receive the scholarships.

6. On the job front, the employment rates reported in 2014 will be substantially higher than in 2013.


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