ABA Journal:  The dean of the University of Baltimore’s law school has agreed to resign, but he’s not going quietly.

The dean, Phillip Closius, emailed a resignation letter to the law school community on Friday that aired his differences with university officials, Above the Law and the Baltimore Sun report. In particular, Closius criticized law school tuition increases that benefit the university rather than his students.

For the most recent academic year, Closius said, a law school tuition increase generated nearly $1.5 million, but the school of law budget increased by only about $81,000. In all, the university retained about 45 percent of the money generated by law tuition, fees and state subsidies for the year, he said.

ABA Journal:  It’s official: The ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has approved changes to its annual law school questionnaire to include more employment and placement information about graduates.

The changes, recommended last month by the council’s questionnaire committee, were announced in a press release by the section Wednesday.

The section said in a statement (PDF) that it believes the new information will bring additional transparency to the data reporting system it uses and provide useful information to assist prospective students and graduates in making career decisions.

New York Times: WITH apologies to show business, there’s no business like the business of law school.

The basic rules of a market economy — even golden oldies, like a link between supply and demand — just don’t apply.

Legal diplomas have such allure that law schools have been able to jack up tuition four times faster than the soaring cost of college. And many law schools have added students to their incoming classes — a step that, for them, means almost pure profits — even during the worst recession in the legal profession’s history…

ABA Journal: Replying to a Sunday New York Times article on law school economics that obviously hit a nerve, the dean of New York Law School today said that prospective students are not, as the article seemingly implies, “sheep who do not know that we live in challenging economic times.”

Many read the Times, writes Dean Richard Matasar in a lengthy response posted on the New York Law School website. Plus, they get realistic advice not only from the law school but from family, friends and others who point out the risk of taking on likely six-figure educational debt, especially given the uncertainty of a challenging legal job market.

The National Law Journal:  U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer isn’t the only politician worried about the plight of jobless young lawyers.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter on July 11 to American Bar Association President Stephen Zack asking for written responses to 31 questions about how the organization is regulating law schools. Boxer (D-Calif.), has written two letters to Zack in recent months expressing concern over law graduate unemployment rates and the veracity of reported job statistics.