ABA Takes Notice Of USNEWS's Plan To Publish Law Firm Rankings

For more than two decades the ABA has stayed relatively quiet with regard to USNEWS's popular rankings of law schools.  However, USNEWS's announcement that it intends to release its rankings of more than 5,000 U.S. law firms in 2010 caused all hell to break loose at a recent ABA meeting which concluded (finally!) with a resolution that the ABA will examine any efforts to publish rankings of law firms and law schools.

One point of concern is how the rankings might negatively effect the cost of providing legal services.  As a recent Government Accountability Office report clearly demonstrated, the dramatic spike in law school tuition over the past few decades can be directly attributed to schools trying to improve their standing in USNEWS's law school rankings.  Supporters of the resolution, like the New York State Bar Association, fear that the same type of arms race will begin between law firms that become consumed with maintaining or improving their ranking -- they'll drive up costs and make it more expensive to provide legal services.  Others at the ABA meeting voiced concerns that one component of the law firm ranking's methodology -- client surveys -- might violate ethics rules by asking attorneys to disclose their clients' names.  USNEWS claims to have already compiled more than 50,000 client references.

On his blog, Robert Morse (USNEWS Rankings Guru) explained that while some firms may be reluctant to provide information directly to USNEWS, the magazine feels it has secured enough sources of quantitative data to create a statistically valid study.  Understanding the competitive nature of law firms and their quest for positive public opinion, Morse goes on to say that, "in time, it is expected that an increasing number of ranked law firms will participate in the process."  

Well, of course they will, which is what has led to so many problems with law schools and the law school rankings.  If the choice is between controlling the information that gets fed into whatever twisted methodology Morse and USNEWS cooks up to rank legal service providers, or hoping that USNEWS will somehow stumble across that same information in their research, what firm wouldn't opt to submit their data?  Where it becomes dangerous is when firms try to "game the system" like many law schools have tried to do over the past few years and adopt questionable business strategies simply in an effort to manipulate the rankings calculation -- and you can almost guarantee this will happen.

Despite pleas from other members like ABA President Carolyn Lamm that a hasty resolution could run afoul of existing law -- mainly the First Amendment -- the ABA resolved that its Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar will examine law school rankings, while its Ethics Commission will review the news organizations that seek to rank law firms.  I guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of it.