This week’s National Law Journal follows up on the recent discussion on this blog (here, here and here) of "law porn" — the indiscriminate mailing of glossy brochures to law school faculty and deans in a futile attempt to influence the U.S. News law school rankings — in an article by Leigh Jones, Ranking Time Brings Rain of Glossy Promos:

Law school ranking season is here, and universities across the country are engaged in a glossy marketing blitz to "educate" evaluators who can help boost or bust their reputations. Law deans and other faculty members who review schools for the peer assessment portion of the annual ranking by U.S. News & World Report say their in-boxes are stuffed with brochures, pamphlets, virtual tours and more from other law schools that want favorable reviews. At the same time, they admit that their own schools have mailed the same kinds of materials to peer reviewers at other law schools in hopes of raising their institutions’ profiles to garner good scores.

But even if sending these materials- dubbed "law porn" by some academics- is the norm among schools, the practice is raising concerns that the dollars going toward glitzy promotional materials would be better spent on more direct ways to improve the quality of their educational programs.

The article quotes me as follows:

Paul Caron, a tax professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, described the mailings as "woefully ineffective." He has evaluated tax programs at other schools as part of the rankings. Despite the information that the materials are supposed to relay, Caron said the peer review method is flawed since professors often know very little about most of the schools that they are evaluating. "I consider myself as wired as anyone in tax, but I have no idea what goes on in the vast majority of [law schools]," he said.

The article ends with this response from U.S. News:

But Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S News & World Report, said that peer reviewers need to check the "don’t know" response when appropriate. He added that the peer reviewers, as leaders in their field, have an "accumulated awareness" of the schools in their profession. Morse developed the law school ranking for U.S. News & World Report, which was first published in 1990. He said he is "shocked and startled" at the importance law schools now place on the ranking. "I get the feeling they’re mad at themselves," Morse said.