Building a Better Legal Profession(BBLP) was a non-profit organization founded by students at Stanford Law School in 2007.[1][2] It was a national grassroots movement for market-based BigLaw workplace reform[3] 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.[1][4][5] BBLP's analysis was published by Kaplan as a book in 2009–2010.[6]
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 hours, and the number of part-time attorneys.[7][8]
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 & Overy, and Linklaters.[2][5][7][8]
Building a Better Legal Profession's Guide to Law Firms[edit]
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.[6] The book used BBLP's online reports and guides to give career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed.[2][5][7]
^ abcdPeter Lattman (3 April 2007). "You Say You Want a Big-Law Revolution". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 March 2019. Their new organization, "Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession", wants the country's biggest law firms to sign-on to principles.
^ abVesna Jaksic (11 October 2007). "Student group grades firms on diversity". National Law Journal. Retrieved 26 March 2019. In an effort to help law students find out more about law firms, a student group whose mission includes helping law firms ensure that practicing law does not mean giving up commitment to family and community, has released a report that ranks firms on factors such as percentages of female partners, demographic diversity and numbers of billable hours.
^ abcKeach Hagey (29 October 2007). "Big Law Firms Turn Out To Be Embarrassingly Full Of White Men". CBS. This is 2007," said Michel Landis Daubner, a law professor at Stanford and the adviser for the project, called Building a Better Legal Profession. "If you can't find a single black or Hispanic partner, that's not an accident.
