How the Rankings Arms Race has Undercut Morality

Several years ago, we began writing on how the U.S. News & World Report rankings were influencing legal education. For better or worse, the rankings created new metrics of competition. Yet, when we began this project, we never expected to get an education on how competition for status in a magazine could produce a competitive environment in which bad behavior becomes the norm. Each year the rankings arms races seems to produce a new low in law school conduct. Although all the law schools are run by lawyers, our reliance on moral suasion has failed. We need rules. Rules we enforce. 

The story we can now write is a tragedy. It has many victims and no heroes. And it is not yet over.