Yale and Harvard law schools shun U.S. News rankings, the price of Trump's loser lawsuits, Greenberg Traurig adds 31-person IP team
Reuters Legal
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Yale Law School and Harvard Law School both said Wednesday that they will no longer participate in U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of law schools.
Both schools said the rankings are in conflict with their commitments to student diversity and affordability.
Yale law dean Heather Gerken said the "profoundly flawed" rankings disincentivize schools from bringing in working-class students, issuing financial aid based on need, and helping students pursue public interest careers.
Gerken told Reuters in an interview:
"U.S. News continues to adopt metrics that undermine the legal profession and legal education. It seems like time to take a step back and decide whether this makes any sense."
U.S. News' law school rankings loom large in the legal industry, which highly values prestige. Many would-be lawyers weigh the rankings when choosing a law school, and graduating from a highly ranked school opens doors to highly paid?associate jobs?at large law firms, judicial clerkships, and other sought-after positions.
However, many legal academics have long criticized the U.S. News rankings. They argue that schools are rewarded in the rankings for high expenditures-per-student instead of for keeping tuition low.
Gerken said the rankings are misleading in part because they do not consider graduates in public interest fellowships funded by the schools be fully employed.
It remains to be seen whether other U.S. law schools will follow the lead of Yale and Harvard.
A Stanford Law spokeswoman said the school, ranked No. 2, will be giving the matter "careful thought."
When Donald Trump announced he was running again for president on Tuesday, he steered clear of election fraud allegations.
Could it be that Trump, who was impeached for his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and remains under scrutiny by a House of Representatives committee investigating the attack, has finally recognized voters aren't swayed by his bogus election fraud claims? I doubt it writes columnist Jenna Greene.
Still, it's worth recalling that judge after judge, even those Trump himself appointed, ruled in dozens of lawsuits that the ex-president and his allies did not present credible evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The good news is that the parade of losing suits by Trump and his lawyers has opened the courthouse doors and provided the nation's most credible stage for knocking down his baseless allegations.
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Some suits were dismissed for lack of evidence, others for lack of standing. The plaintiffs also withdrew some of the filings.
As for the losses? In one instance, a group of nine Trump-aligned lawyers was ordered to pay $175,000 in sanctions for what a federal judge in Michigan termed a 'historic and profound abuse of the judicial process' in a suit claiming Joe Biden fraudulently won the state vote.
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig said Wednesday that it has hired a 31-person intellectual property team, including 16 lawyers, in several locations from law firm FisherBroyles.
The hires expand Greenberg Traurig's attorney headcount in Salt Lake City to 26 lawyers from 15. The firm is gaining 21 people overall in the Utah capital, including 11 attorneys. The Miami-founded firm opened in the state in 2020.
FisherBroyles is a partner-only?virtual or "distributed"?law firm with attorneys spread out in different markets. The firm's nontraditional model also allows lawyers to take home up to 80% of what they bill.
A firm spokesperson said in a statement that it did not consider revenue or headcount to be "material factors" in the departures, adding that the "biggest loss is the character, integrity, and talent of these partners."
"Having never lost a group to a traditional firm; we are intrigued by how the transition is going to work for them as they transition to a radically different model."
In the past year or so alone, several major out-of-town law firms have?opened offices?in Salt Lake City, including Mayer Brown, Kirkland & Ellis, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Foley & Lardner and Buchalter, citing a burgeoning startup and technology sector, area universities and lifestyle factors as major draws.
Amid a string of large law firm?hires?in a busy intellectual property market, Willkie Farr & Gallagher has snapped up Aliza George Carrano, a partner from IP firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in Washington, D.C.
Carrano will be the sixth IP-focused partner to join 1,100-attorney Willkie Farr since 2021. She will be a member of the intellectual property and litigation departments and technology patent litigation practice, the firm said.
Other large firms have also been boosting IP capabilities this year. On Tuesday, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe said it?snagged?four IP litigation partners from Milbank in Los Angeles. In September, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius said it?hired?a five-member patent prosecution team from Duane Morris.
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