US News revamps law school rankings, SEC and Covington continue subpoena fight, Dechert’s layoffs, and more ??
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U.S. News & World Report released its new law school rankings, capping off unprecedented tumult over the annual list that included a boycott by nearly a third of law schools and a more than three-week delay caused by data problems.
The final version of this year’s law school rankings brought several notable shifts among elite law schools and significant movement among many schools further down on the list. Those changes primarily were the result of the publication's overhauled methodology that increased the weight of employment outcomes and bar passage rates and reduced the weight of Law School Admission Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages.
U.S. News implemented those changes following criticism that its rankings methodology?hurt student diversity?and affordability.
"By focusing on metrics that measure outcomes, our rankings and resources can provide a roadmap for the first step in those students’ journeys – their education," U.S. News CEO Eric Gertler said.?
A federal judge urged the SEC to resolve its dispute with law firm Covington & Burling over the agency's demand for the names of 300 clients affected by a cyberattack on the firm.
The SEC sued Covington in January to force the firm to identify public company clients whose information was accessed or stolen in the breach carried out by the Chinese-linked Hafnium cyber-espionage group. The SEC said it needed the client names to probe for securities law violations associated with the attack.
Covington has resisted the subpoena, arguing that its clients are confidential and identifying them would run afoul of legal ethics standards and constitutional privacy protections. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta called the SEC’s request "concerning" at the hearing but also appeared skeptical that he had the legal authority to block the agency's demand.
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Dechert is laying off 55 lawyers and 43 business professionals from its global workforce as cuts spread among large law firms adjusting to a decline in demand for legal services.
Many major law firms went on a hiring spree in 2021 and early 2022, capitalizing on a record-breaking global boom in corporate deal making. But rising interest rates, high inflation, and recession fears have soured some companies' appetites for deals and other legal work.
The legal services sector added 1,500 jobs in April, according to preliminary seasonally adjusted data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last week. The gains follow a loss of 1,900 jobs in March.
U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman of the Federal Circuit sued the appeals court's Chief Judge Kimberly Moore and others in Washington federal court, seeking to block their investigation into her fitness to hold office.
An order by Moore that was made public last month said a three-judge committee had determined that Newman may "suffer a disability that interferes with her ability to perform the responsibilities of her office," and that she had refused a medical evaluation.
Newman's lawsuit claimed that the orders justifying the probe were "riddled with errors," describing as false an assertion that she was hospitalized after having a heart attack in 2021.
Newman said in her complaint that the probe violated her constitutional rights, and she denied that there were legitimate concerns about her mental and physical capacity.
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