Above the Law chronicles lengthy delays in getting law school grades to students at Texas and William & Mary, and concludes:

I understand that law professors would rather drink wine straight from the box than grade a paper. It’s an onerous responsibility. But, it isa responsibility. Especially in this economy, where students are scrambling for scarce job opportunities. If a student has an incomplete transcript, or can’t produce a class rank upon request, a prospective employer might well go with one of the other hundreds of resumes flooding his or her inbox. …

Grades and class rank are important. In this economy, they might be more important than ever. Pedagogical excellence and academic collegiality are all well and good, but at some point these law schools have to start understanding that their students are competing for jobs in a ridiculously difficult environment. Law school is a trade school, and right now there just aren’t enough career opportunities to go around. You just can’t screw around with people’s transcripts right now, and the entire community — from the deans to the professors to the person that files requests in the registrar’s office — has to be on the same page with this. …

[N]o law school can afford to have the kind of difficulties students at W&M and UT are facing. It doesn’t matter if someone gets sick, it doesn’t matter if there’s a biblical plague of locusts, law schools just need to get these things done. No excuses. You need to get these things right on the first try.