Pick Your Poison, Fellow Patrons

The U.S. News & World Reports Law School Rankings are out! So who's buying???

Everyone is drinking something, though it is definitely more apparent with some than others . . .

Here at Texas Tech, our rankings regarding Trial Advocacy and Legal Writing -- which place us 14th and 23rd in the nation, respectively -- are being touted as a victory for the recognition of our school.

And yet, sadly, we have actually fallen a couple rungs down the Tier 3 ladder.

Being unsure of what exactly this all symbolizes, I've chosen to defer to you . . .

Either that or I just am far too indecisive to decide myself, but here are four possible thoughts:

1. Remember -- Law Schools are run by Egos, stocked with Egos, and supported by Egos. (Present company included, of course). And, though most deny it, Egos actually read the U.S. News & World Reports.

2. It is a sad commentary on the legal profession that a school which ranks so high in trial ad and legal writing -- two areas absolutely essential to the successful advocacy of your client -- can yet still be ranked so low . . . based on what? The publications of the faculty? Or the quality of the journal(s)?

3. Or, perhaps, it is a sad commentary on this school that, though it ranks 14th and 23rd in trial ad and legal writing, other aspects of the school are so poor that it can't be ranked any higher.

4. Or, finally, the Dean might be right. Maybe it is just a demonstration that regionally we're being recognized for our strengths . . . but on a national scale we are yet an "unknown" still "making our way in the world today" and, by God, its going to take everything we got!

All of the above could be correct. Though I do have a qualm with #4 . . . if regional recognition is enough to push those particular two programs to the top of the rankings, how come these same regional actors aren't also pushing the school as a whole up to at least the cusp of Tier 2?

Allow me to point out -- I don't intend to demean my school. On the contrary, I was accepted to and offered partial scholarships to schools ranked much much higher.

I came to Texas Tech because nothing offered elsewhere could beat free.

And I do not regret my decision. I do think this is a great school.

But there is a problem, of which the faculty and administration are aware. Isn't that the point of drafting a Strategic Planning Committee? Isn't that the point of desiring growth, development, and change?

But obviously strength in Trial Ad and Legal Writing is not going to make Texas Tech School of Law a formidable school. It will make good lawyers, but it won't make a nationally-recognized school.

There are areas screaming for improvement, areas in which we apparently are completely unwilling to budge from the traditional "maintain the status quo" mantra.

There is so much more I could possibly say on this topic, but this blawg is likely not the proper forum for such criticism.

Let me just end with this:

I watched A Bug's Life again over the weekend and I can't help but think of a line spoken by the Queen Ant in the movie . . .

"That is just the way it is. The ants pick the food; the grasshoppers eat the food. That is just our lot in life. It isn't a lot, but its our life . . ."

Visionaries can recognize the good, and yet still view the possibility of there being something better.