April 6, 2012

Law School rises in national ranking

BY JOSH FREEMAN
Staff Writer

The Pioneer Log News

Lewis & Clark Law School rose nine places in the 2013 Americas Best Graduate Schools overall rankings, published in U.S. News and World Report (USNWR). is places the Law School no. 58 nationally, within the rst tier. I think moving higher up is a good thing. Were moving from being a well known regional school to a nationally recognized college, said rst year law student Sabina Khachaturova. In addition to the overall ranking rise, the Law School saw several specialty programs soar in the 2013 USNWR rankings. e part-time law program rose nine spots to no. 23. e environmental law program, which the Law School pioneered in 1970 and has served as a model for programs nationwide and the legal analysis and writing program, remain strong at the no. 2 and no. 17 places, respectively. ese scores place the Law School no. 9 among west coast law schools overall, an impressive accomplishment.

Romney secures solid lead in primaries, turns to Obama

PRESIDENTIAL RACE UPDATE
BY RYE DRUZIN
News Editor

Employers do look at the USNWR rankings, and the alumni appreciate the advantages of a higher ranking, said Law School Dean Robert Klono . Program reputation is the primary payo for a higher USNWR ranking. With more schools aware of the program, the degrees conferred by the law school o er more opportunities. Interestingly, the most weighted component in the ranking formula is outside peer evaluation. e overall score of a school is primarily determined by assessments from other law schools and law professionals, such as judges and lawyers, said Klono . According to USNWR, Americas Best Graduate Schools give 40% weight to outside assessments, 25% weight to selectivity in the form of undergraduate GPA, LSAT scores and acceptance rate, 20% weight to school reported job placement success and 15% to faculty resources. Specialty rankings, such as environmental law or legal writing, are assembled solely through nominations by USNWR-chosen law professors nationwide. e programs with the most votes are arranged in descending order, according to the number of votes

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each received. Ultimately, it is important not to give too much weight to rankings produced by USNWR. While it is bene cial that the

rankings publicize our school and gets our name out to the public, it does not determine the true quality of our school, said Dean Klono .

As the primary race for President enters its fourth month, the eld is still cluttered by the four determined candidates vying for the republican nomination for President. Frontrunner Mitt Romney has solidi ed his lead with victories over the last two weeks in Illinois, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin. ese wins have brought the rst salvo from President Barack Obama, who singled Romney and his main supporter from Wisconsin, Representative Paul Ryan, over the budget proposal Rep. Ryan has presented to Congress, calling it social Darwinism. e shift in tone from the White House has signaled the start of the presidential race. Romney, who holds more than double the candidates than his closest competitor, Rick Santorum, has been slowly gaining the favor of the Republican base and reuniting a party that has been wracked by four months of in ghting and muckraking. Even though the other candidates (who include Newt
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Gingrich and Ron Paul) are still in the race, the increased competition between Santorum and Romney over ultra-conservative and evangelical voters is showing that more Republicans are moving towards Romney as a candidate who can beat Obama when the November presidential elections come around. One result that counted strongly against Romney was a loss in Louisiana, another count against him in the South. Romney has struggled to garner support in the traditional conservative Republican South, with

all of the Southern states (except for Georgia, which went to Gingrich, and Virginia, where Santorums name was not on the ballot) won by Santorum. ese losses slowed Romneys ascent to the Republican nomination, causing many to question the strength of his campaign, which was by far the most well funded and organized coming into the primary race. But his recent victories, which added to his wins across the country, have put Romney so far ahead that few believe any of the other candidates have a chance of catching up and
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challenging Romney again. Santorum, Gingrich and Paul are still all technically running, but the talk in political circles is that Romney is the only relevant candidate now. e other candidates campaigns are stretched for money, each with less than $2 million on hand for campaigning, and the prospect of few additional donations coming in the near future is daunting. Even the Super PACs, which many candidates have relied on for running vicious attack ads in key states, are running low on funds, having exhausted much of their money in pitched battles in the primaries. Because of this, it would not be a surprise if over the next month or two the other candidates conceded defeat in the race and Romney rises out of the ashes of the Republican eld as the sole victor of the primary race. Many conservatives hope this happens sooner because of how the primary race is grinding on. With Obama apparently deeming Romney a signi cant enough threat to single out for attack, it appears that the Republicans may have had their candidate for President chosen by politics, and that the presidential election race of 2012 has o cially begun.

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Summer Sessions at Lewis & Clark College

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