A recent graduate of Thomas Jefferson School of Law has filed a class action lawsuit against her school alleging various fraud claims related to the school’s use of employment numbers.
But the school’s dean says TJSL followed ABA guidelines, and a legal expert says it will be difficult to be certified, let alone win the case.
Anna Alaburda, who graduated with honors from Thomas Jefferson in 2008, has been unable to find permanent employment to help pay off her $150,000 in student loans. Her complaint accuses her alma mater of violating California state laws on fraud, false advertising and unfair business practices by presenting statistics that Alaburda claims misled prospective students about post-graduation salary and employment rates. She is requesting an award of up to $50 million in damages.
“Many TJSL graduates will never be offered work as attorneys or otherwise be in a position to profit from their law school education, the complaint states. “And they will be forced to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in school loans that are nearly impossible to discharge, even in bankruptcy.”
Alaburda alleges that Thomas Jefferson presented misleading information to prospective students on its website and advertising materials, and that the school provided false and inaccurate information to US News & World Report for the magazine’s annual law school ranking.
Thomas Jefferson Dean Rudy Hasl categorically denies the charge that the school provided false information.
“I think our answer will make it clear,” he said. “We have been following the ABA guidelines, we have quite accurately listed the information, and we have the records to show it. I think the suit will unfold in a way that will demonstrate how inaccurate and inappropriate the suit is.”
Alaburda’s suit seeks to represent a class of Thomas Jefferson graduates.
This is where the suit may first run into problems, said David Levine, a law professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Levine, who teaches Civil Procedure, said that in any class action the biggest hurdle is getting the class certified. In Alaburda’s case, one of the major problems to certifying the class is whether or not she is representative of all students who graduated from Thomas Jefferson.
At least one thing the complaint must prove is whether or not there was reasonable reliance on the employment statistics provided by the school when the student made the decision to attend law school. Levine explained that is very hard to consider for the class as a whole.
“Was there really reasonable reliance? You can’t answer that on a class-wide basis. It’s so particularistic, so individual,” Levine said.
In addition to class certification problems, Levine believes the merits of the suit will be difficult to prove as well. Alaburda’s complaint accuses Thomas Jefferson of misrepresenting the employment opportunities to law students, but Levine said she must prove that it was reasonable for her to rely on the numbers presented by Thomas Jefferson to the US News and in other sources. He thinks that will be a hard sell.
“The complaint acts as if employment numbers are the be all and end all, and that there was no obligation on the part of the would-be law student to do further research to find out what those numbers meant,” Levine said.
“[Alaburda] made assumptions about the data, that employment numbers meant employed as a lawyer, but she doesn’t say how she arrived at that.”
This assumption is especially hard to defend when Thomas Jefferson reports a bar passage rate significantly lower than its employment rate. In the 2003 edition of the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to Law Schools, the school reported an 88.8 percent employment rate and only a 42 percent bar pass rate.
Levine also pointed out that the case is even more challenging given that Thomas Jefferson states it followed the ABA guidelines.
“Therefore, to say the statistics are misleading, to justify the cause of action, you would have to say the ABA is at fault,” he said.
Both Levine and Hasl agree that regardless of the outcome of the suit, it’s not likely to be the last of its kind over the next year or so.
“Every law school is vulnerable to this kind of action in a down economy,” Hasl said. “The risk is if anyone has tinkered with the numbers, it seems to me they’re at particular risk.”
Levine also expects there will be other attempts to bring action against law schools.
“The change in the underlying market has been so dramatic,” he said. “Students have taken on debt making certain assumptions about the future markets and, at least in the short term, that’s not true. So why wouldn’t you expect to see more suits in the future… especially because Congress has made it impossible to avoid student debt through bankruptcy.”
