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New England Law is not even ranked by U.S. News, but it’s Dean may be the highest paid in the country.  Too bad the school’s graduates aren’t so lucky.

Michael Graham has the story.

Head Of Lousy MA Law School Makes $867,000, Grads Make Bupkis

From the “Higher Ed Bubble Hits Massachusetts” File…

New England Law, Boston has operated in the shadows of the ­region’s more prestigious law schools for decades, trailing so far behind in some measures of excellence that US News & World ­Report does not include the downtown campus in its widely read ranking of 145 better law schools in the nation.

Yet the school’s longtime dean, John F. O’Brien, may be the highest paid law school dean in America, pocketing more than $867,000 a year in salary and benefits, includ­ing a “forgivable loan” that he used to buy a Florida condominium.

How does Dean O’Brien bring in all this legal tender? He and New England Law take advantage of the “everybody outta go to college!” attitude.

It is also the story of a law school that has hiked tuition by more than 80 percent in just a few years while doubling the percentage of applicants it accepts, generating the funds for increased student aid but also for the big salaries paid to O’Brien and other top administrators even as the demand for law school graduates dries up.

Higher tuition, taking in lots more customers, all while the market for new attorneys is falling and starting salaries collapsing.

Only 34 percent of students in New England Law’s 2011 graduating class were able to land jobs requiring a law degree within nine months of graduating, according to the American Bar Association, compared with 68 percent at Boston College Law School, and 90 percent at ­Harvard Law.