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NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION APPLAUDS ABA
RESOLUTION TO EXAMINE RANKINGS OF LAW FIRMS AND LAW SCHOOLS
The New York State Bar Association applauded the American Bar
Association (ABA) for adopting a resolution to “examine any
efforts to publish national, state, territorial and local rankings of
law firms and law schools.” The measure was approved by the ABA
House of Delegates at its mid-year meeting in Orlando, Florida.
In a report submitted to the ABA, the New York State Bar wrote that
the ABA has an obligation to carefully review all issues related to
attempts to rank law firms and urged further study of the issue.
“If the rankings are not valid,” the report stated,
“lower ranking law firms and lawyers will be unfairly
penalized.”
New York State Bar Association President Michael E. Getnick, (Getnick
Livingston Atkinson & Priore of Utica and of counsel to Getnick
& Getnick of New York City) said, “Our efforts were prompted
by the plan of U.S. News & World Reports, in partnership with Best
Lawyers, to publish a ranking of the best law firms in the
country. But there are large numbers of these
‘rankings’ in a wide array of publications, and readers are
generally unaware of methodology, criteria and reliability of the
data. The ranking of law firms can have a profound impact if the
ranking is unreliable and invalid.
“An objective review of these studies by a respected body like
the ABA will provide the opportunity for much needed guidance to the
profession. The New York State Bar Association looks forward to working
with the ABA as it develops protocols for examining law firm and law
school rankings,” he added.
Read
the full news release here.
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