For those considering a legal career

[Green Monstah]

I don't discourage anyone from pursuing a legal career if they really want to be a lawyer, but I do discourage anyone from attending a school outside the top-20 schools (and I'd hesitate to send anyone to Washington University-St. Louis, which is in the top-20), unless they have a job waiting for them before they begin.

It's brutal out there. My office has cut the number of summer associates by 2/3 for our office. I wouldn't be employed right now if I'd waited another year to go to law school.

That being said, anyone who selects Thomas Jefferson because San Diego seems nice has no room to complain.

[UtahDan]

Oh. In that case I shall summarize: Law schools are overpriced, turning out far more attorneys than the market can possibly absorb, manipulating data to mislead prospective students, then abandoning them when they graduate and find themselves underemployed and financially insolvent.

(Incidentally, I don't mean to sound flippant, as for several years now every indication has been that all of these are correct.)

There are definitely still good careers out there for attorneys, it is just a supply and demand issue as you say and the argument is not new. Even with the absolute glut of unemployed attorneys out there right now this doesn't seem to deter anyone. The reason is that no one entering law school believes that they will be in the bottom third or half of their class and feel assured that it won't be them who has a six figure debt they can't pay. So long as this is true (and if this environment can't change it nothing can) there will be more lawyers than jobs and many of them will have to find other work saddled with six figure debt.

On the bright side, it is one hell of a buyers market from the employer's side.

[CardiacCoug]

That being said, anyone who selects Thomas Jefferson because San Diego seems nice has no room to complain.

This Wallerstein guy from the article is clearly an idiot.

A month studying in the South of France, a month in Prague, borrowing $15K to study for the bar, lasting less than a month at his first job after lecturing his boss on the importance of not having to work on Labor Day.

Now he's staying intentionally poor so he doesn't have to pay back his loans? I hope the lenders take every penny the guy makes until he's 50.

[Green Monstah]

There are definitely still good careers out there for attorneys, it is just a supply and demand issue as you say and the argument is not new. Even with the absolute glut of unemployed attorneys out there right now this doesn't seem to deter anyone. The reason is that no one entering law school believes that they will be in the bottom third or half of their class and feel assured that it won't be them who has a six figure debt they can't pay. So long as this is true (and if this environment can't change it nothing can) there will be more lawyers than jobs and many of them will have to find other work saddled with six figure debt.

On the bright side, it is one hell of a buyers market from the employer's side.

I think the ABA needs to step in and start stripping accreditation from dozens of schools, however. It's professionally irresponsible to accredit 180+ schools, IMO. I'd cut at least 80.

[Jacob]

Oh. In that case I shall summarize: Law schools are overpriced, turning out far more attorneys than the market can possibly absorb, manipulating data to mislead prospective students, then abandoning them when they graduate and find themselves underemployed and financially insolvent.

I didn't need to read the article to know that his is the case. These are the reason I always tell people not to go to law school.

I don't discourage anyone from pursuing a legal career if they really want to be a lawyer, but I do discourage anyone from attending a school outside the top-20 schools (and I'd hesitate to send anyone to Washington University-St. Louis, which is in the top-20), unless they have a job waiting for them before they begin.

I think very few entrants have much of an idea about whether they want to be a lawyer. They may think they do. But they really don't know what that means.

[Green Monstah]

I didn't need to read the article to know that his is the case. These are the reason I always tell people not to go to law school.



I think very few entrants have much of an idea about whether they want to be a lawyer. They may think they do. But they really don't know what that means.

That's very true. I guess what I mean is that if someone is just going to law school to defer loans or to see if it's something they want to do, I tell them not to go.

[UtahDan]

I think the ABA needs to step in and start stripping accreditation from dozens of schools, however. It's professionally irresponsible to accredit 180+ schools, IMO. I'd cut at least 80.

That won't ever happen though. That horse is totally out of the barn.

[UtahDan]

I think very few entrants have much of an idea about whether they want to be a lawyer. They may think they do. But they really don't know what that means.

That is true, but it could also be said of virtually anything. On the other hand, I think there are few professions out there where the idealized version you see on TV so totally fails to capture the every day of what most of us do. Many people do get into practice and become very disillusioned, though I think that happens mostly in the context of big law.

[Indy Coug]

I don't think any highly-skilled profession wants to be in a position where there are a surplus of job openings.

[Slim]

Mr. Wallerstein has a seriously over inflated sense of entitlement. I imagine that if that is his real name he now has no chance of ever landing a "real" job.

[Babs]

Mr. Wallerstein has a seriously over inflated sense of entitlement. I imagine that if that is his real name he now has no chance of ever landing a "real" job.

good thing potential employers don't google interviewees.

[RobinFinderson]

$250,000 in debt??? That is astounding, considering how inexpensive it should be to run a law school -- no special facilities of any kind required (like laboratories with expensive equipment), just access to a legal library, which is becoming increasingly available in digital format. Law degrees COULD be much cheaper.

[Babs]

$250,000 in debt??? That is astounding, considering how inexpensive it should be to run a law school -- no special facilities of any kind required (like laboratories with expensive equipment), just access to a legal library, which is becoming increasingly available in digital format. Law degrees COULD be much cheaper.

But cost is a factor in the rankings. It's all about the rankings.

(Incidentally, by far the greatest part of any library budget is personnel. And database access you refer to is INCREDIBLY expensive, and it only lasts for a year. The books were permanent, though obviously they required updating.)

[Indy Coug]

$250,000 in debt??? That is astounding, considering how inexpensive it should be to run a law school -- no special facilities of any kind required (like laboratories with expensive equipment), just access to a legal library, which is becoming increasingly available in digital format. Law degrees COULD be much cheaper.

Universities are in the process of pricing themselves out of the market. It's increasingly difficult to justify the up front cost to get into any number of professions. The irony, IMO, is that the increased access to student financing has both caused skyrocketing tuition and devalued the worth of a college degree.

[Babs]

The irony, IMO, is that the increased access to student financing has both caused skyrocketing tuition and devalued the worth of a college degree.

That's the part that gets me the most. The government is sponsoring financial insolvency.