Perhaps law school administrators are finally listening.
Recently I wrote that, with people starting to figure out that going to law school is mostly just a way to get saddled with huge debt, not a responsible career choice, fewer people are interested in the profession.
Soon, in fact, the number of people applying to law school might approach the number of slots actually available for law students.
This would be very bad for law schools, which would then have to actually make law school attendance compelling, perhaps though generous financial aid packages or attractive programs. So they’ve taken another tactic.
Hamilton Nolan at Gawker writes that,
Whereas just a few years ago every half-bright graduate of a “good” college wanted to go to law school in order to “wait out” the recession and graduate with a “sure thing” type of degree [pause for laughter], the law school boom has been imploding for a year or more now. Law schools are taking note! Inside Higher Ed reports that the University of California’s Hastings School of Law is going to admit 20% fewer students this year. But why? “There are too many law schools and there are too many law students and we need to do something about that.”
Nationally, law school applications declined by about 15 percent last year. Hastings joins Touro Law Center, Albany Law School, and Creighton University School of Law in Nebraska, all of which have also announced plans to reduce law school sizes.
Meanwhile, Nolan says, Dewey & LeBoeuf, the fifth largest law firm in the United States, recently sent out a memo to partners urging them to try and get other jobs as the struggling company is likely to collapse.
Don’t go to law school, guys.
