Law School

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/an-existential-crisis-for-law-schools.html?scp=1&sq=An%20Existential%20Crisis%20For%20Law%20Schools&st=Search

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"The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions." (Antony Jay)
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In a study reported on in the NY Times on Sunday, only 55% of 2011 law school graduates had a law-related job within 9 months after graduation. These are jobs that require passing the bar exam. If you include "jobs helped by a law degree" and "professional non-legal jobs," that number jumps to 67%.

This data was from a study by William Henderson of the Indiana University School of Law, who analyzed recent data from the American Bar Association.

28% were unemployed or underemployed: "And at the 20 law schools with the highest employment, 83% were working as lawyers. At the bottom 20, it was a dismal 31%."

Here's another quote: "These numbers are far worse than jobs data going back a generation and should be a deep embarrassment to law schools, which have been churning out more graduates than the economy can employ, indulging themselves in copious revenues that higher tuitions and bigger classes bring in. A growing list of deans acknowledge that legal education is facing an existential crisis, but the transition to a more sustainable model will be difficult and messy."

The article goes on to point out that, in 2009, twice as many people passed bar exams as there were legal openings and that this could go on for years.

Not everyone can go to medical school - by that I mean that, if an undergraduate student wants to go on to get a professional certification that sets them up to better compete for employment, medical schools have stayed exclusive and preparation to get into them had to start back in high school. The "law profession" hasn't been that smart. Consequently, if a student wants to go to law school now in order to better compete for professional employment, it better be to a Top 10 (or Top 15) law school.

When I'm asked by students about "grad school," I always encourage them to go because one more degree can do nothing but help (especially if it's an MBA, if you're a business student, etc.). But, with law school, I now have to tell them that too much depends on LSAT scores that probably are out of reach for even currently very successful lawyers in the generation ahead of them.

So, for the class of 2010, the average law school debt was $98,500 (or $1,200 per month in loan payments over 10 years). How many of those students are even in an employment situation to pay that kind of money back?

The law profession is letting itself down.