Plaintiffs' firms target another 20 law schools, alleging fraud

Note: This article has been revised to reflect that the 20 suits had not yet been filed and to add comments from the plaintiffs’ side.

It appears that those lawsuits against law schools will keep coming.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys who have already launched class actions targeting 14 law schools announced on March 14 that they aim to sue an additional 20 schools in 10 states by Memorial Day.

The latest round of possible litigation targets two schools in the top 50 as ranked by U.S. News & World Report — Pepperdine University School of Law and American University Washington College of Law, which were tied at No. 49. Eight of the new targets ranked between nos. 50 and 100. The existing suits are against schools ranking No. 65 or lower. The announcement was not unexpected. After the attorneys sued 12 schools in one day in early February, they declared their intention to file suit against 20 to 25 additional schools every few months.

They allege that the targets committed fraud by inflating or misrepresenting their postgraduate employment data to lure students. In a press release, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said the average debt load for graduates of the 20 schools was almost $115,000. By suing so many schools at once, the plaintiffs’ attorneys hope to force some sort of a global settlement, perhaps brokered through the American Bar Association, said New York solo practitioner David Anziska. Alternatively, they might litigate individual cases that could eventually lead to a global settlement.

“This practice really is endemic in many law schools,” he said of inflating post-graduate employment statistics.

Anziska said that targeted schools claimed placement statistics that often topped out at 95 percent. However, newly revised numbers for the class of 2010 at a number of the schools showed a very different picture, with many students holding part-time or temporary jobs, or positions that don’t require a law degree, he said.

The ABA has recently imposed more rigorous reporting requirements, but Anziska attributed the revised data to the threat of litigation.

Representatives of a number of the targeted law schools declined to comment on the threat of litigation. In addition to Pepperdine and American, the attorneys hope to sue:

• Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law

• Chapman University School of Law