It's that time of year when law school faculties are inundated with so-called "law school porn" — slick mailings extolling the virtues of individual law schools meant to sway voting in the U.S. News & World Report's reputation survey, now underway.
Some legal educators believe the annual barrage of mail has gotten out of control, and proves that rankings are driving administrative decisions. They say it's time to stop paying for glossy brochures and invest that money in students. ...A study released in 2009 that was partially funded by the Law School Admission Council, "Fear of Failing: The Effect of U.S. News & World Report Rankings on U.S. Law Schools," [concluded] that administrators are spending significant amounts of money on brochures and marketing materials in hopes of getting better results on the reputation survey. ...
In a recent blog post, University of California at Los Angeles School of Law professor Stephen Bainbridge estimated that this material — commonly referred to in legal academic circles as "law school porn" — comprises 67 percent of his work mail. He added that never reads it.
He noted that he has started to receive law school promotional materials via e-mail, which he dismissed as spam.
This material does serve a few purposes, according to University of Alabama School of Law professor Paul Horwitz, who defended them on the PrawfsBlawg blog. They can provide useful information about as recent faculty hires, scholarly publications and other innovations, he wrote.
And, yes, as several of you emailed me to point out, my school does it too. The Sextonism virus infects us all.
