The ABA has announced its plans to study how various organizations and publications rank law schools and law firms. The ABA House of Delegates had a contentious debate regarding the said measure.

The organization was prompted to launch Resolution 10A due to an approaching ranking of law firms all over the country by one of the nation’s leading publications, the US News & World Report magazine. The rankings, which are anticipated to be published this coming October, were conducted together with the Best Lawyers survey of law firms. This publication has ranked schools as well as numerous deans all over the country.

The resolution’s wording was expanded a few hours prior to the House meeting. The ABA discussed a few things during the meeting such as the details on including law school rankings as well as to do away with any references to the US News.

A majority of the resolution was stripped by a vote of 203 to 183. The lawyers have considered a few things on the House floor. They have considered the rankings connection to the several “core values” of the profession, such values including pro bono activities as well as the promotion of diversity.

After the Resolution was passed, the American Bar Association resolved to examine all sorts of efforts to publish state, territorial, national as well as the local rankings of various law schools and law firms. The motion to postpone the proposed measure in order to have the ABA’S Ethics 20/20 Commission to review lawyer rankings was narrowly defeated by the House by a vote of 209 to 190.

In response to this, the State Bar Association of New York said, “We know, based upon the experience of the U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of law schools, that there will be significant issues regarding the validity of the rankings.”