| Type | Non-profit 501(c)(3) grassroots movement |
|---|---|
| Founded | Stanford Law School (2007) |
| Headquarters | Stanford, CA, United States |
| Website | http://www.betterlegalprofession.org/ |
Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) is a national grassroots organization founded by students at Stanford Law School in January 2007.[1] The group collects and publicizes employment data at large private law firms as a way of encouraging workplace reform at these companies. By encouraging students to "vote with their feet" and select future employers based on quality-of-life criteria rather than the prestige of the firms, BBLP creates market-based incentives for workplace reform.[2]
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Using data from the National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP) a system of report cards and rankings of law firms has been created. BBLP uses data from 11 major markets in the United States to show prospective attorneys what they can expect from a potential law firm should they receive a job offer. Rankings cover an array of information that is important to future lawyers including firms’ minimum billable hour requirements, average associate hours worked, demographic diversity, average pro bono hours, and the number of part-time attorneys.
Rankings and Report Cards are available for the following markets:
In April 2009 Kaplan published Building a Better Legal Profession's Guide to Law Firms: The Law Students Guide to Finding the Perfect Law Firm Job. Including much of what BBLP publishes online, the guide gives career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed. Integrating expert advice and knowledge from big law attorneys and professionals, the guide was written for and by law students in an effort to provide insight on what it's really like to interview with and work inside a large law firm.
Building a Better Legal Profession has over 1400 members across the country,[3] with a presence at Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, among others.
Garnering significant media attention in traditional media with coverage from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times,[4] the Los Angeles Times,[5] and The Boston Globe, BBLP has been covered in legal newspapers and journals as well including articles from Legal Times, the ABA Journal, and the National Law Journal. Legal and law interested bloggers have also made the efforts of BBLP widely known, such attention has spanned popular legal blog sites like Above the Law (blog) [6] to The New Republic blog.[7]