I finally got around to reading Brian Tamanaha’s new article (he wrote the book Failing Law Schools). It is a great read because it represents a break in the silence of the uncomfortable law professor class, at least the biggest break since Inside the Law School Scam was retired.
Basically, the article argues that law schools, mostly made up of different factions of liberal law professors or “religious” conservative professors, pillaged the broken federal loan system to make themselves rich. They started their professorial careers with the intent of fighting The System, and now they have become another example of corporate pirates, raping and pillaging the young to receive high salaries and many other goodies.
Furthermore, these mostly liberal professors have now created the ultimate anti-liberal system, where only the rich can advance in legal careers because only the rich—with rare exceptions—graduate near the top of the top law schools. Also, only the rich can effectively deal with the massive debt loads upon graduation.
The most startling thing about the article, which Tamanaha predicts will cost him a number of friendships, is the vitriolic tone and the accusations of absolute hypocrisy. It channels rather well the anger often expressed in blogs like this one, but he brings the message to the law review world with much drama.
For those interested in this read:
While it is still just more talk, the shift in tone from purely analytical to outright pissed off feels like some type of progress. Hopefully, it will help snap a few more people out of their collective stupor.
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