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#GW Law School Accused of - Predatory - Poaching - Law Blog

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With law school applicants in shorter supply. it s a tense time for law schools. And in the heart of the nation s capital, the competitive pressures have spilled into the open.

A top dean at American University Washington College of Law is venting frustration over the recent exodus of AU students to George Washington University Law School, accusing his nearby rival of engaging in poaching.

Speaking only for myself and not in my official law school capacity, I view this practice as downright predatory, Anthony E. Varona. AU s associate dean for academic affairs, wrote in a recent Facebook post, which was republished at TaxProf Blog on Thursday.

GW law officials deny they re raiding AU s student body, but what s not in dispute is that an unusually large number of AU students are deciding that they d rather go to GW. In the 2013-14 academic year, 54 students left AU to enroll at GW, according to its most recent disclosure data. Those students represented well more than half of GW s total reported transfers for that year.  AU, which placed 72nd in U.S. News  World Report s national ranking of law schools,  didn t report any transfers from the 20th-ranked GW that year, according to the latter s data .

Mr. Varona, who teaches contracts and administrative law, says such a large movement from one school to another is highly unusual and suspicious.

I don t blame GW for being impressed with our first-year students we attract an illustrious and promising group of 1Ls year after year but I take strong exception to their practice, Mr. Varona told Law Blog by email on Thursday.

Sophia Sim. GW Law s associate dean for admissions, says a lot of AU students are coming to her school because of GW s academic quality and location not because of any special recruitment effort. Here s her statement to Law Blog:

It is not uncommon for a student to transfer after their first year of law school. Although GW Law does not actively solicit for any transfer student, by virtue of our location and robust curriculum we attract a strong transfer pool. GW Law selects transfer applicants based on their prior law school performance because the best indicator of how well a student will do in law school is how well they have already performed in law school.

Our records show that students who transfer into GW Law on average do as well as or better than their classmates in terms of class rank at graduation, bar passage, and employment. The students we accept by transfer make great contributions to the law school, and we are delighted to welcome them to our campus.