Those lawsuits against their alma maters filed by JDs alleging fraud never seemed too solid. Few were surprised when the New York Law School one was tossed. Many are probably surprised that the early one against Thomas M. Cooley Law School has passed the first test.
All the suits essentially contended that the law schools misrepresented placement and compensation data for graduates. Jesse Strauss, who gave up a real job to handle this, has been the lead attorney on all the class action suits.
In the case of Cooley, reports Karen Sloan in THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist ruled against its argument that it was simply complying with the orders of the ABA and NALP in supplying job figures. As Sloan puts it:
"The American Bar Association and NALP are not 'indispensible absent parties' to a proposed fraud class action suit brought by 12 recent graduates."
Down the line, though, there is a chance that the larger suit, as with that of New York Law School, could be tossed. If it isn't Strauss could develop a whole special area of expertise in students suing their alma maters. He could become as feared by higher education as Ralph Nader was by Detroit.
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