ABA Annual Meeting 2019: Uncomfortable Conversations About Legal Education Student Debt, Diversity, and More

Kyle Fry, Kyle McEntee, and Benjamin Barros join host Laurence Colletti to discuss the big issue of legal education student debt, what’s causing it, and how lawyers can help address the student debt crisis. They explain how high rankings for law schools have become an obsession for deans, and, with rankings often correlating with expenditures, those deans are being driven to increase tuition rates to compete. In response to their frustration with the existing ranking systems, they also talk about how their respective groups are exploring new models that better reflect the quality of legal education as opposed to rewarding bigger budgets. For instance, the models they are developing seek to reward schools that secure employment for their graduates while spending less money. Tune in with us at the ABA Annual Meeting 2019 in San Francisco, California, and hear how we can all address the uncomfortable subject of rising student debt.

Kyle Fry is in-house counsel for a large manufacturer in Iowa, and is the chair of the student debt task force at the Iowa State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division.

Kyle McEntee has served as Law School Transparency’s executive director since 2009, when he co-founded the organization with Patrick Lynch.

D. Benjamin Barros joined the University of Toledo, College of Law as dean in July 2015.