FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Protocol for Reviewing Law Graduate Employment Data, and Statement of Procedures for Collecting, Maintaining, and Reporting Law Graduate Employment Data Approved by the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (the Council) in June 2014, the Protocol for Reviewing Law Graduate Employment Data (the Protocol), and Statement of Procedures for Collecting, Maintaining, and Reporting Law Graduate Employment Data (the Statement of Procedures) will be effective with the graduating class of 2015, which includes December 2014 graduates. The full text of the Protocol and Statement of Procedures is available on the Sections Data Policy & Collection Committee webpage. The Protocol describes four different reviews that the ABA will use to promote confidence that the graduate employment information reported by law schools is complete, accurate, and not misleading, as required by Standard 509 of the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. The Statement of Procedures sets forth instructions and guidelines for law schools in collecting, maintaining, reporting, and publishing graduate employment data. In order for the ABA to effectively review reported graduate employment outcomes data, law schools must maintain accurate, contemporaneous, and verifiable documentation that supports the reported data. The Protocol and Statement of Procedures require some additional work on the part of most law schools, and in return law schools will realize a considerable increase in confidence that the reported data are accurate. By complying with the requirements of the Protocol and Statement of Procedures, schools will be assured that they will not be found out of compliance with Standard 509. The Protocol and Statement of Procedures do not address the requirements for reporting graduate employment information in the ABA Employment Questionnaire. These are found in the Definitions and Instructions, on the Sections Questionnaires webpage, which accompany the Employment Questionnaire.

2 I. STATEMENT OF PROCEDURES FOR COLLECTING, MAINTAINING, AND REPORTING LAW GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT DATA A. Graduate Employment Files Q1: What is a Graduate Employment File and what information must it contain? All information used to support an individual graduate s reported employment outcome must be maintained, preferably in electronic form, in a file associated with that graduate a Graduate Employment File. The File must contain the supporting documentation for each of the key items (see FAQ 3 below) of employment information reported for the graduate. Supporting documentation includes, but is not limited to: (1) any employment survey used by a school (almost all schools use the NALP survey); (2) copies of any written communications such as s containing reported information; (3) copies of any information obtained from publicly available sources such as law firm websites, state licensing authorities, and social media websites; and (4) contemporaneous notes of any oral communications containing reported employment information. Each of these types of documentation is elaborated in the FAQs 4-10 below. Q2: What is the ABA looking for when it reviews a Graduate Employment File? In any review of a school s Graduate Employment Files, the ABA will focus on four primary questions: (1) What is reported for each of the key items (see FAQ 3 below) of graduate employment information? (2) What is the source for each of the reported key items of employment information (e.g., the graduate, the graduate s employer, publicly available information)? (3) Is the source relied upon acceptable? (4) Does the Graduate Employment File contain proper documentation for each of the key items of reported graduate employment information? Q3: What are the key items of graduate employment information? There are seven 1 key items of graduate employment information for which documentation is required where the item is being reported. They are: 1 The Protocol and Statement of Procedures refer to eight key items of employment data. Since the time that the Council approved the Protocol and Statement, it has approved a change to the Employment Questionnaire and the Standard 509- mandated Employment Summary Report that makes Employed Law School/University Funded a separate category of Employment Status along with Bar Passage Required, JD Advantage, etc. Thus, there are now seven instead of eight key items of employment information. 2 P age

3 (1) Employment Status (Employed, Pursuing Graduate Degree Full-Time, Unemployed, Unknown) 2) Employment Category (Bar Passage Required, JD Advantage, Professional Position, Non-professional Position, Law School/University Funded, Job Category Undeterminable) (3) Full-Time/Part-Time (4) Long-Term/Short-Term (5) Employment Type (Law Firm, Business & Industry, Government, Public Interest, Judicial Clerkships, Education, Employer Type Unknown) (6) Employment Start Date (whether before the March 15 employment status determination date) (7) Employer Contact Information (Name, Street Address, Address or Website Address) B. Supporting Documentation 1. In General Q4: What documentation is necessary to support reported key items of employment data obtained through an employment survey? Where a school uses an employment survey (such as the NALP survey), the Graduate Employment File must include a copy of the survey. The File must reflect who completed the survey, and the date(s) on which it was completed. If the survey is completed entirely by the graduate, the information provided will be deemed to be accurate. If the survey is completed entirely by a law school employee on behalf of the graduate, the reported key items of employment information must be documented. If the survey is completed in part by the graduate and in part by a law school employee on behalf of the graduate, the File must include one or more notes identifying who completed the different parts and the dates the information was provided. If the information originally provided in the survey is subsequently amended, the File must identify who made the change, the basis for the change, and the date of the change. 3 P age

4 2. Documenting Written Communications Q5: What documentation is necessary for reported key items of employment information obtained through communication? The Graduate Employment File must include a copy of the that includes the date of the , the names of the parties to the , and the key items of employment information that it supports. Q6: Is a graduate s resume sufficient documentation for key items of employment data found in the resume? Yes, provided that the Graduate Employment File indicates when the law school received the resume from the graduate. The school may document the date of receipt through a notation in the Graduate Employment File or by taking a screenshot showing the date that the resume was uploaded to the school s employment tracking system. 3. Documenting Publicly Available Information Q7: What documentation is necessary for reported key items of employment information obtained from publicly available sources? What is publicly available information regarding graduate employment outcomes? Publicly available information is information published or broadcast for public consumption or available through subscriptions to data services. It includes employer websites, social media sites such as LinkedIn, state licensing authorities, and databases such as The Work Number, LexisNexis, Intelius, and Westlaw. To support a reported key item of employment information, the source must be reliable. The sources of publicly available information listed in this FAQ are ordinarily considered reliable. Where the source of the reported key item of employment information is web research or other publicly available information, a dated copy of the web page or other source must be included in the File. The preferred method of documenting information located on websites is to: (1) print or take a screen shot of the page containing the information; (2) document the webpage address where the webpage was found; (3) document the date the page was printed or captured; and (4) maintain a copy of the page, address, and date in the Graduate Employment File. Q8: Where a graduate has not provided information on whether his or her employment is long-term or short-term, or full-time or part-time, but the graduate is listed on a firm s website as an associate, may the graduate be reported as employed full-time and long-term? 4 P age

5 Under these circumstances, it is appropriate to report the graduate as employed long-term and fulltime, unless the firm is known to employ associates on a short-term or part-time basis or there are other facts that indicate that the employment may not be long-term or full-time. 4. Documenting Oral Communications Q9: What documentation is necessary for reported key items of employment information obtained through oral communications? Where the source of a reported key item of employment information is a telephone call or other oral communication with the graduate or an acceptable third party (employer, family member, see FAQs 23-24), the communication must be documented in contemporaneous notes that identify: (1) the date of the communication, (2) the parties to the communication, and (3) all relevant details relied upon in reporting the information. For employment information gathered through oral communication, the career services office should take notes as contemporaneously as possible and in all events before the reporting deadline; otherwise it will not be considered as support for a reported outcome. Q10: In reporting graduate employment information, may a law school rely on an oral communication between a graduate and a dean, professor, or other person employed by the school outside the career services office? Yes, provided that the communication is properly documented in the Graduate Employment File as indicated in FAQ 9 above. 5. Reporting When Information or Documentation is Incomplete Q11. What documentation is necessary for reporting a graduate as employed in a Law School/ University Funded position? It is sufficient to document a graduate as employed in a Law School/University Funded position by including a statement to that effect and briefly describing the key terms of employment in the Graduate Employment File. Terms of employment include duration; start and end dates; hours; and the firm, agency, or office, and location of the placement. Q12: What if a school does not have any information or documentation regarding a key item of a graduate s employment information? 5 P age

6 It is expected that some students selected as part of the Random School Review or the Random Graduate Review will fail to provide employment information. It is further understood that even after making a reasonable effort to obtain this information schools may be unable to obtain it. (1) Where a school does not have information or documentation for one or more key items of employment information for a graduate, it must report the item as unknown where the Employment Questionnaire provides that option. An unknown or undeterminable response option is provided for Employment Status, Employment Category, and Employment Type. (See FAQ 3 above.) (2) Where sufficient documentation does not exist to support a determination regarding Long- Term/Short-Term or Full-Time/Part-Time, for which the Employment Questionnaire does not provide an unknown option, the lesser option must be selected. Thus, where Long-Term/Short-Term is unknown or lacks documentation, the position must be reported as short-term; and where Full- Time/Part-Time is unknown or lacks documentation, the position must be reported as Part-Time. (See FAQ14 below regarding use of reasonable judgment in reporting these key items.) (3) Where Employment Start Date (whether before the March 15 employment status determination date); Employer Name; and Employer Street, , or Website Address is unknown or lacks documentation, the graduate must be reported as Employment Status Unknown or Unemployed. (4) Where the school has information that the graduate is unemployed, the graduate must be reported as Unemployed and not as Employment Status Unknown. Q13: What if a graduate does not provide the school with his or her graduate employment outcome information? What if a school has nothing to report on a graduate selected as part of the Random School Review or the Random Graduate Review? As long as the information reported by a school is complete, accurate and not misleading, and the reported information is properly documented, the school will be in compliance with the Statement of Procedures. The Statement of Procedures permits information to be obtained by contacting employers or using reliable publicly available sources such as employer websites, state licensing authorities, and social media websites. If the key items of employment information cannot be found, then the outcome reported must reflect this unknown status. It is impermissible to report a graduate as employed without a reasonable basis to conclude that a job was obtained. No documentation is required when reporting a graduate as Unemployed or Employment Status Unknown. 6 P age

7 Q14: The ABA Employment Questionnaire does not have an unknown option for reporting Employment Status, Full-Time/Part-Time, or Long-Term/Short-Term for an employed graduate. How should a school report on these items when it does not have definitive information from the graduate or other sources? In such situations, a school must use reasonable judgment in reporting the graduate employment outcome and, in the absence of sufficient information to make a reasonable judgment, report the graduate as Part-Time or Short-Term, as the case may be. (See FAQ 12 above.) When the ABA reviews a school s reported employment data, it will respect reasonable professional judgments regarding the reporting of graduate employment data when appropriately documented with an explanation and basis for any assumptions made in the reported data. Q15: Where a school does not have information or documentation regarding one or more of the key items of employment information, must it document the efforts that it has made to obtain those items? For example, where a school reports a graduate s employment status as unknown, must the Graduate Employment File include documentation of the school s attempts to obtain employment information from the graduate? No. While it is essential that a Graduate Employment File include appropriate documentation for all reported key items of employment information, it need not include documentation of unsuccessful attempts to obtain information. Q16: May a graduate who is employed as a solo practitioner be reported as employed full-time where the graduate does not actually have enough work to fill 35 hours per week? Yes, where the school has made attempts to contact the graduate and obtain the key items of employment data but was not successful. In the event the graduate responds and states the employment is not full-time, then it must be reported as part-time. Otherwise, it is fair to assume that the graduate is spending the balance of his or her work week with business development activities. Q17: Where a Graduate Employment File includes documentation for the name of the graduate s employer and the city where the employer is located, is it permissible for the school to look up the address (street, , or website) and report that address in the Employment Questionnaire? Yes. The school should include a statement in the Graduate Employment File that the address was obtained in this manner. C. Collecting Employment Information Q18: How often must a school contact a graduate in order to obtain complete employment information? 7 P age

8 The Statement of Procedures does not prescribe a minimum number of times a school must contact or attempt to contact a graduate. It is left to the reasonable judgment of each school to determine the manner and frequency of contacting graduates to obtain complete employment information. Because direct graduate responses to an employment survey are the best supporting documentation for employment data reported by a school, law schools should make all reasonable efforts to contact students before graduation and on multiple occasions thereafter to encourage graduates to directly complete and update their employment surveys. Law schools should seek to maintain contact with each graduate until the Employment Questionnaire reporting deadline through the use of surveys, s, and other methods until the graduate has provided all employment information needed to complete the ABA Employment Questionnaire. When a school does not have complete Employment Questionnaire information for a graduate on each of the key items of employment information, it should continue to reach out to the graduate throughout the reporting period in order to obtain the missing information. This outreach can be by any method, including electronic survey, hard copy mail, , and telephone. A school may stop contacting graduates when (a) a graduate indicates that he or she no longer wishes to be contacted; (2) a graduate states that he or she will not provide requested data; or (3) accurate employment data can be obtained through other reliable sources such as employers or state licensing authorities, employer websites, or social media. Q19: Must schools conduct an at-graduation survey to obtain graduate employment outcome information as of that time? No. However, because it is easier to communicate with students before they leave campus, law schools should consider conducting an at-graduation survey to obtain future contact information and employment information as of that time. In all events, schools must request post-graduation contact information from students before they graduate and maintain a record of such information. Schools should consider extending school-issued accounts after graduation through the Employment Questionnaire submission deadline to facilitate communication with graduates. Q20: What incentives, other than a small value gift card, will be considered appropriate by the ABA to encourage graduates to respond to employment surveys? Schools soliciting at graduation survey information may make completion of the survey mandatory. If a school chooses to provide an incentive for students and graduates to respond to the employment surveys, it should have a nominal value. 8 P age

9 Q21: Is it an appropriate practice for a school to send a graduate an telling the graduate the employment outcome information that the school plans to submit to the ABA about that graduate, and asking the graduate to let the school know if the information is not correct? Yes. Where the graduate does not respond to the , the school may report the information for the graduate as stated in the as long there is a sufficient basis for the reported key items of employment information and the Graduate Employment File includes appropriate documentation. D. Sources of Graduate Employment Information Q22: In reporting graduate employment information, may a law school rely on information obtained from employers or publicly available information such as employer websites, state licensing authorities, or social media websites? The best support for a reported employment outcome usually is a record of information obtained directly from the graduate. If a graduate cannot be located, or does not provide the requested information, the law school may also rely on information obtained directly from employers, certain family members (see FAQ 23), and reliable public records such as employer websites, social media sites such as LinkedIn, state licensing authorities, and subscription databases such as The Work Number, LexisNexis, Intelius, and Westlaw. Q23: May a law school rely on information received from individuals other than the graduate? Who are acceptable third-party sources? With only limited exceptions, it is not permissible for a law school to rely on information received from persons other than the graduate. These exceptions include a graduate s employer, mother, father, sibling, grandparent, or spouse, provided that the communications with these individuals are properly documented. A law school also may rely on communications between a graduate and an employee of the school outside the career services office, again provided that the communications are properly documented by the law school employee providing the information. Q24: What are examples of unacceptable third-party sources of graduate employment information? Roommates, friends, classmates, other graduates, general hearsay. It is also improper to rely on predictions of job offers. E. Correcting and Updating Reported Information Q25: What if information reported by a graduate is inaccurate? 9 P age

10 In the event that a graduate provides information that a school believes is inaccurate, such as a misreporting of employment category, the school must disregard the graduate-provided information and report the correct information. Schools must maintain adequate documentation supporting any change from graduate-provided information. Q26: What must a school do when it learns that a key item of previously collected employment information is no longer accurate? A law school must update key items of collected information if it later learns that any aspect of the information is no longer accurate. The reported information must accurately represent the most current known employment information regarding a graduate as of the employment status determination date (March 15). Q27: Must the supporting documentation for a reported key item of employment information be checked or updated as of March 15, the employment status determination date? A school is not required to resurvey graduates as of March 15 where the school has previously obtained properly documented employment outcome information, unless the school learns that the earlier-collected information is no longer accurate. Q28: Must all supporting documentation for reported key items of employment information be in the Graduate Employment Files by April 7, the reporting deadline? Yes, except where a school learns after the reporting deadline (April 7) that a key item of reported employment information is inaccurate, in which case the school must add the new documentation to the Graduate Employment File and amend its Employment Questionnaire. Q29: What must a school do when it learns of a change in the student s employment outcome before or after the April 7 Employment Questionnaire deadline? When a school receives new information about a key item of employment information at any time before the following year s Employment Questionnaire is due, it must update its Employment Questionnaire. Where a school has reason to know that a graduate employment outcome previously reported is inaccurate, the school must not report the inaccurate information and must use reasonable diligence to obtain and report the correct information. F. Maintaining Records of Graduate Employment Information 10 P age

11 Q30: May a law school choose to maintain its Graduate Employment Files in hard copy and not maintain them electronically? The ABA strongly encourages career services offices to maintain Graduate Employment Files in electronic form and to make backup copies. This is not mandatory, however. In the event copies of Graduate Employment Files are required as part of a review, hardcopy files must be scanned and sent to the ABA in PDF format. If a Graduate Employment File is lost or destroyed, the ABA will be unable to confirm the school s reported graduate employment outcomes and the record keeping will be deemed deficient. Q31: If a Graduate Employment File containing outcome documentation is lost or destroyed, or the school otherwise believes a student is employed but it does not have supporting documentation, can the school still report the student as employed? No. If a graduate s employment outcome cannot be properly documented, the student may not be reported as employed. Q32: May an employment outcome be reported where there is not appropriate documentation for it in the Graduate Employment File? No. Reporting undocumented employment outcomes is not permissible. See FAQ 12 above. Q33: Does the ABA require or endorse the use of any particular employment tracking system? No. The ABA is aware that there are on-line databases that allow students and graduates to log in and directly provide employment information. Graduates have the ability to update their profiles when appropriate. These databases track changes and can export the stored data to the ABA in an Excel spreadsheet. These programs provide the ABA with the information required by the Statement of Procedures in a readily accessible format. The ABA is aware that most law schools contract with a company called Symplicity for this software. The ABA has cooperated with Symplicity to facilitate its software design. However, the ABA does not require or endorse the use of Symplicity or any other employment tracking system. Q34: Are there any special issues that schools should be aware of relating to using Symplicity to maintain Graduate Employment Files? The Graduate Employment File must reflect who entered the information into Symplicity (i.e., the graduate, or the school). In addition, the record must indicate the date when the information was entered into Symplicity. Any notes added to a graduate survey in Symplicity by a law school employee must indicate who wrote the note and include the date and a description of what changes (if any) were made to the graduate employment survey. 11 P age

12 Q35: What security measures are necessary where a school uses an employment survey that may be completed by graduates on line? Where a school uses a survey that its graduates can complete on line, access to the survey must require log-in through a secure account. This includes the use of individually-assigned survey links issued to each graduate. The ABA encourages schools to consult with their legal counsel to confirm that their survey methodology complies with all applicable data privacy and security obligations. Q36: Are schools required to maintain an electronic database of the graduate employment data reported to the ABA (distinct from its Graduate Employment Files)? Yes, law schools must maintain an electronic database that contains all the data reported to the ABA for each graduate. If a school does not use an electronic employment tracking system, it must create its own database by using software such as Excel to maintain each graduate s reported employment information. The database must include the key items of employment information obtained with respect to each graduate. Q37: How long are schools required to maintain documentation of a graduate s employment? The Protocol requires schools to maintain all records relating to their reporting of employment outcomes for four years. For example, records of graduate employment information for the class of 2015, reported on April 7, 2016, must be maintained until at least April 7, II. PROTOCOL FOR REVIEWING LAW GRADUATE EMPLOYMENT DATA The Protocol provides for four different types of reviews of law graduate employment information reported by law schools. They are: the Standard 509 Compliance Review, the Random School Review, the Random Graduate Review, and the Red Flag Review. A. Standard 509 Website Compliance Review Q38: What is the Standard 509 Website Compliance Review? The Standard 509 Website Compliance Review entails a review of the employment data posted by each 12 P age

13 ABA accredited law school on its website pursuant to Standard 509. Each year after the posting deadline, which is April 15, the ABA will inspect each law school s website at least once to determine whether its Employment Summary Report is posted as required by Standard 509, and that the posted data are consistent with the employment information reported by the law school to the ABA. Each law school must provide the ABA with the URL of its home page and the URLs of the web pages containing its employment data. These URLs must be the same URLs that students and prospective students use to view the law school s employment data. Q39: What are the requirements for posting employment outcomes on a law school s website? Standard 509(d)(3) states that [t]he employment outcomes posted shall remain on the school s website for at least three years, so that at any time at least three graduating classes data are posted. Q40: How will a school report to the ABA the URL where its Employment Summary Report will be posted by April 15? Starting in 2016, the Employment Questionnaire will include a request for schools URLs. Q41: May schools that fail to timely post their Employment Summary Reports, or that publish data that are not consistent with the data submitted to the ABA, be subject to a Red Flag Review? Yes. The deadline for schools to submit the Employment Questionnaire to the ABA is April 7, and the deadline for schools to post the Employment Summary Report on their websites is April 15. Q42: What are the requirements relating to the posting of Employment Summary Reports by schools on their web pages? A copy of the memorandum to schools discussing the ABA requirements pertaining to the posting of Employment Summary Reports is available on the Sections Guidance Memos webpage. Q43: What is a Random School Review? B. Random School Review A Random School Review entails three levels of review. Whether a school is subject to the Level 2 and Level 3 reviews will depend on the outcome of the Level 1 and Level 2 reviews, respectively. At least 10 schools will be randomly selected each year for the Random School Review. Q44: What is Level 1 review under the Random School Review? Level 1 of the Random School Review consists of a review of all Graduate Employment Files for the 13 P age

14 graduating class. The Files must be found to support the key items employment information reported to the ABA (see FAQ 3). Q45: What triggers a Level 2 review under the Random School Review and how is that conducted? If more than five percent (5%) of the Files are found to be deficient in the Level 1 review, the ABA will proceed to a Level 2 review. A File is deficient if it lacks documentation to support a key item of reported employment data, or if there is credible evidence that a key item of reported employment data is incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading. The Graduate Employment File will be presumed to be complete, accurate, and not misleading in the absence of credible evidence to the contrary. A Level 2 Review will entail verification, through direct contact with the graduate, or by independent public record confirmation or contact with the employer, of the data reported for a random sample of at least twenty percent (20%) of the graduating class. Each key item of reported employment data must be independently confirmed. Q46. What triggers a Level 3 review under the Random School Review and how is that conducted? If the reported employment data for five percent (5%) or more, or three (3) or more, whichever is greater, of the graduates in the Level 2 review is found to be incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading, the school will then be subject to the Level 3 review. A Level 3 Review requires that a school hire, at its own expense, an independent third-party firm to review and confirm the school s reported employment data. At a minimum, the third-party review must include: (1) a Level 1 review of all Graduate Employment Files to determine whether the Files support the school s reported employment outcomes; and (2) verification, through direct contact with the graduate or by independent public record confirmation (e.g., employer websites, licensing authorities, subscription databases, social media) or contact with the employer, of a random sample of at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the graduates from the class. All key items of reported employment data must be independently confirmed. Q47: How often will a law school be subjected to a Random School Review? All ABA-accredited law schools will be subjected to a random selection process from which at least ten schools will be selected for review each year. A school is not exempted from random selection for the Random School Review because it has been selected in a previous year or years. Q48: Will the results of the Random School Review be made public? The ABA may at times publish summary information relating to the Random School Review. The specific results of any particular law school s review will not be made public unless the school is 14 P age

15 referred for sanctions as a result of incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading graduate employment outcome reporting. Q49: What is the Random Graduate Review? C. Random Graduate Review The Random Graduate Review selects a statistically sound random sample of individual graduates from the population of all graduates of all ABA accredited law schools. The ABA will examine the Graduate Employment Files relating to these graduates to determine whether the files support the employment data the schools reported to the ABA. There will be no direct contact with graduates as part of this review. The ABA will rely upon the Graduate Employment Files provided by the law schools and on publicly available information to confirm reported graduate employment outcomes. If a Graduate Employment File supports the key items of employment data reported for the graduate, that data will be presumed to be accurate in the absence of credible evidence that it is not. If a Graduate Employment File does not support a key item of reported data, or is found to be inconsistent with publicly available information, it will be deemed deficient. The Random School Review selects only about ten schools each year, leaving about 190 schools out of the reviewable sample. By selecting an additional sample of graduates from all schools, the ABA is able to efficiently review the record keeping practices of most schools every year. This review entails a high likelihood that every school will have one or several of its Graduate Employment Files examined each year. Q50: If a school is chosen for a Random School Review, is it also subject to the Random Graduate Review? Yes. Q51: If the Graduate Employment File(s) selected from a school for review pursuant to the Random Graduate Review are deficient, may the school s Graduate Employment Files be subject to further review? If any of the Graduate Employment Files submitted by a law school as part of the Random Graduate Review is deficient, the school may be subject to a Level 1 review as provided in the Random School Review, and, if warranted, a Level 2 and Level 3 Review as provided in the Random School Review. (See FAQs above.) 15 P age

16 D. Red Flag Review Q52: What is a Red Flag Review and when is a school subject to it? Each year, the ABA will conduct a Red Flag Review of: (1) law schools currently under sanction for any violation of Standard 509; (2) law schools identified by the ABA based on significant inconsistencies or anomalies in their data reporting; and (3) law schools that are the subject of credible reports of incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading reporting. In the ABA s discretion and depending on the circumstances, law schools undergoing a Red Flag Review will be subject to Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Reviews as described above in connection with the Random School Review. Law schools subject to Red Flag Reviews will be advised that they are subject to such a review and of the reason for the review. Q53: What constitutes a credible report? A credible report is one that appears likely to be true in light of the surrounding circumstances, including the specificity of the facts provided, the person making the report, whether the report is anonymous, and whether other information available at the time of the report lends credence to the report. Q54: Will the fact that a school is subject to a Red Flag Review be made public? The ABA will not publicly announce the commencement of Red Flag Reviews. Once completed, the results will be reviewed and, where appropriate, public sanctions may be imposed. Q55: If a school is subject to a Red Flag Review, will the allegations that caused the action be shared with the school and will the school have an opportunity to respond? Yes. Schools subject to a Red Flag Review that were not previously under sanction will be informed of the allegations that caused the Red Flag Review. Schools will be given an opportunity to present any information they have that is relevant to the allegations. III. GENERAL Q56: Are schools prohibited from providing the ABA with graduate employment information by the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)? No. The information that a school is required to report to the ABA under this Protocol and Statement is pursuant to the ABA s accrediting function to ascertain compliance with the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools within the exception listed in 34 C.F.R (a)(7) of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of P age

17 Q57: In the event of a Random Graduate or Random School Review, what will a school be required to submit to the ABA? In the event that one or more of a school s graduates is chosen as part of the Random Graduate Review, the school will be required to submit electronic copies of the Graduate Employment Files for those graduates. If a school is selected for a Random School Review, or is subject to a Red Flag Review, it will be required to submit electronic copies of the Graduate Employment Files for every graduate in the class year under review. Q58: May a law school redact personal information that is not germane to any of the key items of employment information from Graduate Employment Files sent to the ABA? A school may redact personal, non-germane information from a Graduate Employment File, but must include an explanation for the redactions in the File. Schools are not required to do so, however, and under ABA rules, any non-public information received from a school as part of the accreditation process must be kept confidential by the ABA. Q59: May a school provide supplemental information in addition to the Graduate Employment Files that are requested as part of the Random Graduate Review, Random School Review, or Red Flag Review? Yes, a school may provide additional information to assist in the review of its files, for example, to explain its data collection and reporting processes or to provide a key that explains their reporting. In all cases, however, the Graduate Employment Files must contain all of the documentation necessary to support the reported key items of employment information for each graduate. Q60: Will the ABA contact a school to discuss questions that may arise in the review of the school s Graduate Employment Files? Yes. The ABA will communicate with schools to discuss such questions. The ABA will work with schools whose employment data are under review in order to fully understand their documentation practices. Q61: What are the important dates and deadlines relating to compliance with the Protocol and Statement of Procedures? The following table lists the important dates and deadlines relating to compliance with the Protocol and Statement of Procedures: 17 P age

18 Action Deadline Employment Status Determination Date March 15 Employment Outcomes Reporting Submissions and website URLs Due to ABA April 7 Law schools to have Employment Summary Reports posted on their websites in compliance with Standard 509 April 15 Law schools subject to Red Flag Review identified by ABA May 15 ABA to notify law schools of results of Website Compliance Review May 15 Law schools subject to Random School Review identified by ABA May 15 Graduates to be included in Random Graduate Review Identified by ABA May 15 Graduate Employment Files due to Section for Random School Review May 30 Graduate Employment Files due to ABA for Random Graduate Review May 30 ABA to notify law schools of results of Random Graduate Review August 15 ABA to notify law schools of results of Random School Review August 15 Additional reviews pursuant to Red Flag Review protocols and outside consultant reports September 30 Q62: Who is the contact person at the ABA for additional questions relating to the Protocol and Statement of Procedures? Please contact Ken Williams (kenneth.williams@americanbar.org) with the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar with additional questions. 18 P age