National Law Journal:  Judge Skeptical About Graduates' Claim that Brooklyn Law School Committed Fraud:

The fraud class action brought by graduates of Brooklyn Law School
against their alma mater appears to be turning into an uphill battle.

Attorneys
for both sides spent three hours before Kings County, N.Y., Supreme
Court Justice David Schmidt on August 21 debating the law school's
motion to dismiss. Schmidt asked pointed questions both of plaintiffs
attorney Frank Raimond and defense attorney Russell Jackson regarding
allegations that the school misrepresented graduate employment and
salary data to lure students.

But Schmidt seemed deeply
skeptical about the claims that the manner in which the law school
reported its jobs data constituted fraud — or that the plaintiffs have
shown enough evidence of manipulated job numbers to survive the motion
to dismiss. "Where is the basis for a fraud argument?" Schmidt asked Raimond. "You
have generalized industry statistics. Where do you see that they have
deceived the public?" A similar complaint could be leveled against any law school in the country, Schmidt said. …

Most of the hearing centered on Brooklyn Law School's claim that 91.3% of the class of 2009 was employed nine months after graduation.
The plaintiffs allege that this figure was deceptive because it included
students in any type of job, not just those in legal jobs, plus
graduates in temporary or volunteer positions. The school knew how many
graduates were in fulltime jobs that require or prefer a J.D., but chose
not to report those figures — committing fraud by omission, Raimond
said.

Jackson countered that Brooklyn Law School was simply
following the reporting standards set forth by the ABA and NALP. That has
been a common defense among the targeted law schools.