Class Actions As A Tool Of Social Change

Attorneys from Kurzon Strauss, who are representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuits filed today against New York Law School and Cooley, hosted a conference call this afternoon to discuss the suits. Although they could only say so much, the Kurzon Strauss attorneys were able to share their thoughts on the law school transparency debate and where these two lawsuits (and Alaburda v. Thomas Jefferson School of Law) fit into the broader landscape of reforming legal education.

It is clear that these attorneys view class actions as tools of social change. They are looking for systematic change to how law schools advertise their services to prospective students. The team noted that clearer, disaggregated information will not only hold schools accountable, but reward the separation in post-graduation outcomes that exists for some schools but isn't apparent because of the reporting standards. To them, this is a matter of "trying to restore rationality to the market."

They emphasized that this was not a matter of the quality of educations received by students at either Cooley or NYLS;and they were especially proud to be using a Cooley alumnus in the suit against Cooley. Rather, this is "more like false advertising than products liability." The attorneys are ultimately after helping prospective law students understand what the real placement rates are at law schools, and what salaries graduates really make. "Law schools need to be held accountable," said one of the Kurzon Strauss attorneys. He added that it is not just one or two schools that need to be held accountable, but that many schools need to be and that the time is now for change.

The decision to pick NYLS and Cooley was influenced by the schools being "JD factories." As the complaints (Cooley, NYLS) pointed out, Cooley and NYLS enroll the largest incoming classes of any law school in the country. However, one attorney implied that there are likely more lawsuits on the way because misleading statistics are a "dirty industry secret," though he did not imply either way whether Kurzon Strauss would be counsel.

Earlier: Breaking: Class Action Suits Filed Against Cooley and NYLS