DIVERSITY NEWS
BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS
LAW SCHOOL APPLICATIONS ARE FALLING, SHOWCASING CHANGING ATTITUDES ABOUT THE PROFESSION
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM SAYS THAT LAW SCHOOL IS A GOOD PLACE to ride out an eco- nomic downturn. T at may no longer be true. Law school applications have dropped 15.6 percent since
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last year. Over the past two years, the number of Law School Admission test takers has fallen nearly 25 percent—from 171,514 at its peak to 129,925 in the 2011-12 academic year. T is year’s applicant pool will be the smallest since
1996, when there were 21 fewer law schools, and 16 per- cent less students. “I don’t think
people are getting into a law school that they would not have before,” says Anne Levine, an admissions consul- tant. “[But there is so much more wait list- ing. We should see more people pulled off wait lists over the next month.” She expects the litmus test for new students to come
of dollars in debt for a degree that may not yield a steady income is not something many students are willing to shoulder. Good grades at a decent school no longer guaran- tee a six-fi gure law fi rm job. T e decline is a reaction to the legal market. About
45,000 students are expected to graduate from law school in each of the next three years. T e overall employment rate for new law school gradu-
EMPLOYMENT RATE HAS FALLEN MORE THAN SIX PERCENTAGE
ANALYSES OF DATA SHOW THE
POINTS, TO 84.7 PERCENT, SINCE REACHING A 23-YEAR HIGH OF 91.9 PERCENT IN 2007.
when the fi rst tuition payment is due. Students at the top—who have multiple options—could choose another path. Students at the bottom—who have slimmer chances of landing a job after graduation—could decide that the investment will not pay off . Declining admissions are, in a way, good for law schools
because the less serious tend to opt out and provide spots for students who are committed to the profession. T e decline refl ects changing attitudes about the state
of the legal market and the chances of getting a job after graduation. T e prospect of being hundreds of thousands
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2012
ates is 85.6 percent, the lowest it has been since 1994, when the rate stood at 84.7 percent. Prior to 2010, the employment pattern for new graduates was undisturbed for decades. Analyses of data by the Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP) shows, the employment rate has fallen more than
six percentage points since reaching a 23-year high of 91.9 percent in 2007. Only three classes have had employment rates below 85.6 percent since 1985. All those classes gradu- ated in the aftermath of the early 90s recession. T e numbers showed other interesting trends. T e
number of lawyers in private practice, the most popular destination for new graduates for decades, fell below 50 percent for the fi rst time since 1975. Forty-nine and a half percent of the jobs taken by the class of 2011 were in private practice. Between 1993 and 2009, the percentage of jobs taken in private practice had varied only between 55 percent and 58 percent.
MCCA.COM
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