Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) was a non-profit organization founded by students at Stanford Law School in 2007. It was a national grassroots movement for market-based BigLaw workplace reform which analyzed employment data at large private law firms to promote workplace reform at these companies by encouraging students to "vote with their feet" and select future employers based on quality-of-life and diversity criteria, rather than the pure prestige. BBLP's analysis was published by Kaplan as a book in 2009–2010.

Law Firm Rankings and Report Cards

Using data from the National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP), a system of report cards and rankings of law firms was created. BBLP used data from 11 major markets in the United States to show prospective hires what they could expect from a prospect law firm. Its ''BBLP Rankings'' covered 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 ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

hours, and the number of part-time attorneys. The BBLP produced ''BBLP Rankings'' and also produced ''BBLP Report Cards'' on the major American legal marketplaces, such as in Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, Washington D.C, as well as the major American large law firms, including Allen and Overy, and Linklaters.

''Building a Better Legal Profession's Guide to Law Firms''

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''. The book used BBLP's online reports and guides to give career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed.

Membership

Building a Better Legal Profession had over 1,400 members across the country, with a presence at Stanford Law School,

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Wor ...

, Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, among others.

Media attention

The BBLP gained national media attention with traditional mainstream media with coverage from '' CBS'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', and

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

. The BBLP has been covered in legal newspapers and legal journals as well including articles from '' Legal Times'', the ''

ABA Journal The ''ABA Journal'' (since 1984, formerly ''American Bar Association Journal'', 1915–1983, evolved from '' Annual Bulletin'', 1908–1914) is a monthly legal trade magazine and the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. It is n ...

'', and the '' National Law Journal''.

Bibliography

References

External links

"Building a Better Legal Profession" website"Building a Better Legal Profession" blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Building A Better Legal Profession Legal organizations based in the United States 2007 establishments in California Non-profit organizations based in California Organizations established in 2007 Stanford Law School