We welcomed the Albany Law School Class of 2012 this week and with this new beginning, I thought it was an appropriate time to launch this new blog.

 Communication with the various law school constituencies is a real challenge. We are all busy. I realize blogs are easy to ignore. This blog will not substitute for the semiannual letters I send to friends and alums or the open meetings and visits with the SBA that I use for student communications. What I wish it to do is, for those who are interested, to provide a forum in which I can share in perhaps more detail my views mostly on legal education in general and Albany Law School in particular. As importantly, I hope it provides a convenient way for alums, students and friends of Albany Law School to share their views on important issues in legal education.

 Among the first topics I will cover include such things as why U.S. News & World Report rankings are misleading, the silliness of creating new law schools in New York, and the difficulty of keeping legal education affordable. I hope it will not all be serious, I do have my personal list of best legal thrillers that I might share. I’d also welcome any suggestions readers may have for topics they would like me to address.

 Speaking of the Class of 2012, they look to be a wonderful group of students. A few stats:

 255  J.D. students:
15 LL.M. students:
2 International LL.M. students
Median LSAT: 155, up from 154 last year.
Median GPA: 3.3, up from 3.27 last year.
42% women
20%  people of color
33% out-of-state residents
37 students speak more than one language (including Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, German)

That’s it for now.

Tom