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Thomas Jefferson, in a January 30, 1787,
letter to James Madison, wrote, "I hold it that a little
rebellion now and then is a good thing. . .
."
In that spirit, I am thrilled to share news
from Arizona Law that may help to shape the
next century of legal education in our state and
beyond.
Today we are announcing that we are opening
our JD admissions to all GRE test takers. We are the
first law school to do so.
By using the GRE test -- already accepted by
thousands of graduate and professional degree programs,
from biochemistry to public policy to philosophy -- we
are able to consider qualified applicants from more
diverse backgrounds.
Below, I'll explain
how we arrived at this groundbreaking
moment.
Until the footnotes,
Marc |
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Arizona Law Becomes First Law
School to Open Admissions to GRE |
We have news of another major innovation
focused on diversifying JD
admissions.
In
short: based on a study conducted by the Educational
Testing Service (ETS), we have established that, for our
students, the GRE meets the ABA standards requiring "a
valid and reliable admission test to assist the school
and the applicant in assessing the applicant's
capability of satisfactorily completing the school's
program of legal education."
The
study found that for our students the combination of the
GRE and undergraduate GPA was as good (or better) a
predictor of first year law school performance as
the LSAT combined with undergraduate
GPA. In other
words, the GRE score tells us and tells applicants as
much or more about their likely grades in the first year
of law school.
We
have notified the ABA Section on Legal Education of this
study, and that we will, starting today, consider and
admit students on the basis of their GRE score,
combined, of course, with their undergraduate GPA, life
experience, personal statement, and other
factors (just as we combine our analysis of
LSAT scores with other
factors).
We
invited our friends at Wake Forest University and the
University of Hawaii to conduct similar tests of their
students, again working directly with ETS, and they will
do so over the next month. 
The
study
I'd
like to tell you more about the basis for our
decision.
This
fall, more than 90 of our current students and recent
graduates (within the past two years) took the GRE or
released their recent GRE score, and gave us permission
to assess that score against their performance in law
school, and against their performance on the LSAT. There
was sufficient data on 78 of those students for ETS to
conduct a detailed analysis.
We
engaged in this study because we believe the goals of
excellence and diversity in legal education and in the
profession, in its fullest conception, could be better
achieved if the LSAT were not the only standardized test
used by law schools.
The
advantages
There
are many advantages to the GRE. Among them: it is
administered using computers year-round, whenever may
best suit the needs of applicants and schools. The GRE
has lower cost for test preparation, and opens more
pathways to graduate and professional study.
The
GRE is currently used for admissions by hundreds of
graduate and professional degree programs worldwide. ETS
conducted a similar data collection with business
schools, many of which now accept either GRE scores or
GMAT scores for admission decisions, including every
school in the top 20 of the U.S. News and World Report
rankings.
The
GRE tests of verbal reasoning and analytical writing fit
closely with legal skills and educational objectives.
We also found that the quantitative section
of the GRE added significant value.
The
bottom line
This
research required the active participation of many of
our current students and some recent graduates,
including the willingness to take the GRE -- a four-hour
test -- release prior GRE scores, and release for
analysis their LSAT and GPA
information.
Their
participatory spirit and broad vision of the potential
of modern legal education and our changing profession
animates this innovation.
Leadership
within the college came from many people, and from the
community as a whole, but I want to acknowledge the
special efforts of professors Kathie Barnes and Chris Robertson in helping to
organize the study, solicit volunteers, and work closely
with ETS.
Other schools
will follow with their own research, and soon we
expect this "little rebellion" to transform law
school admissions, and ultimately the legal
profession.
For now we are very
proud to again lead the nation in producing a superb and
diverse generation of lawyers for our
times.
Read
more on our website here, and see today's National Law
Journal article (with subscription) here. |
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The 2015-16 Editorial Board of Arizona Law Review has elected a
new board, with Lindsey Huang as Editor-in-Chief for the
upcoming year. Please join me in congratulating Lindsey
and the full newly elected 2016-17 board. Barak Orbach is faculty advisor.
Editorial
Board 2016-2017
Editor-In-Chief, Lindsey
Huang
Senior
Articles Editor, James Florentine
Senior
Managing Editor, Brett Gilmore
Senior
Note Editor, Jillian Andrews
Articles
Editors: Mason Storm Byrd, Margo Casselman, Sara Levine,
David Lundmark, Elizabeth Robertson, Amanda Weaver
Managing
Editors: Ricardo Robinson Bours, Janet Howe
Case
Notes Editor, Matthew Hoxsie
Note
Editors: Bryce Clark, Noah Hilgert, Nicholas Lucie,
Bernardo Velasco, Hannah
Willett
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 Alumnus
from State Department Speaks on International Legal
Education
Alumna Robin Lerner
('97), who is U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for Private Sector Exchange, participated in a recent
panel on international legal education exchange
programs, including LL.M. programs, at the annual
meeting of the Association of American Law Schools
(AALS) in New York
City.
She spoke to the importance of law students
gaining experience in an international setting and
discussed specific mechanisms and current exchange
agreements facilitated through the State
Department.
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Robin Lerner ('97),
center, pictured with other members
of the AALS
panel. | |
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Nakamura
Workshop, February 12
The Nakamura Judicial Workshop, a networking event
for students and members of the bench and bar, will be
held at the college this Friday, February 12. The
afternoon workshop includes presentations by judges and
merit selection commission members. Lunch will be served
at noon, allowing a good opportunity to meet commission
members in an informal setting. It's free, it's open to
all, and it provides CLE credit. Sponsors include the
Arizona Minority Bar Association; Lewis Roca Rothgerber
Christie; Kinerk Schmidt & Sethi; and the Pima
County Bar Association.
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QuantLaw
Conference, February 12 - 13
The University of Arizona College of Law will host
the third annual QuantLaw event on February 12 - 13,
2016, a workshop on data-oriented topics around the
theme, "The Empirical Constitution."
The meeting will feature visiting
scholars:
- Saul Levmore (University of Chicago) -- one of our
regular QuantLaw "gurus"
- Dan Klerman (University of Southern
California)
- David Burnham and Sue Long (Syracuse and
TRACFed)
Participating Arizona faculty include Jane
Bambauer, Kathie Barnes, Carol Rose, Christopher
Robertson, Jason Kreag, Roy Spece, Sergio Puig, James
Hopkins, and Marc Miller.
The theme is broadly defined to include any
empirical/experimental study of issues relevant to
constitutional law or procedure, as well as
non-empirical studies of constitutional doctrine
relevant to data and public access thereto. The program
will include works-in-progress sessions for extensive
feedback, as well as methods sessions focusing on
datasets and analytical tools.
Contact Chris
Robertson. Others
are welcome to attend and participate (just email to
register).
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Arizona Law to Host U.S.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan, February
15
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice
Elena Kagan will speak on the evening of February 15 at
the University of Arizona for the
37th McCormick Lecture,
sponsored by the James E. Rogers College of Law and the
J. Byron McCormick Society for Law and Public
Affairs.
This event has reached capacity, and
attendance is limited to those who have already
registered. Updates and contact information
are available here.
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Gutter Bowl Rolling Your
Way!
Individual bowlers
$125
Team of
five $500
All
participants will enjoy complimentary shoe rental,
appetizers,
pizza,
salad, soft drinks, and pitchers.
Don't
miss:
Steve Hirsch ('80) and Chas
Wirken ('75) as your 2016 King Pins Celebrity
Bowlers
Individual and Team
Awards
Arizona
Raffle and Door Prizes
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Online
Alumni Directory
Please take the time to join your online alumni directory. We are
creating a shared resource to support our students and
our alumni. If you need us to resend your personalized
invitation, please email or call (520)
621-8430.
The latest weekly Arizona Law T-shirt drawing
winner from among new directory members is Seth Slavin
('95). Congratulations, Seth, and thanks for
joining!
Kristina Jonek ('98), one of our recent winners,
sent this photo of herself in her prize in front of the
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin's
most iconic monument. She wrote, "The T-shirt
immediately got the attention of some American tourists
who commentated the scene with a smiling 'Way to go,
Wildcats!'"
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Every time we innovate, we do so in the
character of our great college -- grounded in a century
of innovation, and in the spirit of the
West.
Like all revolutions, we will not know the
full impact of the GRE study for some
time.
What we do know is that the pathway we have
followed has been open to all -- but we were the
ones to act. We were the ones to see the potential.
We were the ones to reach out to ETS. We were the ones
to take the time and undergo the toil of a major study.
We were the ones to try to make more real the
potential of building the strongest and most diverse
class, in all respects.
Every day I am proud to be a Wildcat.
This is a special day indeed. Bear
Down.
Warmly,
Dean
& Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law
Shaping
the next century of legal
education
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