"The System Loads Many of Them with Staggering Debt Before Killing Their Hopes"

"Elie Mystal, an iconoclastic legal pundit, counsels law-school hopefuls that of America's more than 200 law schools, 'there are maybe 20 schools that are worth paying full price for. There are maybe another 20 schools that are worth it if you are getting reduced, in-state tuition. And that's being extremely generous.' So why do so many minority students end up at lesser schools that offer them a significantly lower chance of success? In his recent book Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools, law professor Riaz Tejani dissects the way low-ranked law schools market themselves to students with low LSAT scores by promising to provide 'access to justice.' Accepting students who will largely fail to get legal jobs in the name of allowing them the opportunity to access a legal education is, Tejani claims, symptomatic of a neoliberal model of legal education, which offers 'social inclusion' at a steep price 'devoid of social protectionism.'"

Erin Thompson at The Nation argues that "Legal education has failed and will continue to fail minorities."