At a time when pursuing a law degree is more of a risk than an achievement, it is imperative that the U.S. A better understanding of the current risks of pursuing law school, and that law school is not for everyone, will help solve its problems.
Quality Assessment
Through this, a large enough pool is allowed to provide different responses, and it would also eliminate several of the "don't know" responses, allowing for a larger response pool. This rating counts for the other 15% of the 40% total that determines a law school's quality rating.
Selectivity
Acceptance Rates
Regarding evaluation by lawyers and judges, “legal professionals, including law firm hiring partners, state attorneys general, and elected federal and state judges, were asked to rate the programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding),” again with the option “don't know” that did not affect the school's result (4). This group would have fairly limited experience with a host of law schools, as it is not uncommon for firms to hire locally or from their universities before branching out.
Median LSAT Scores and Undergraduate GPAs
The investigation held Paul Pless, the law school's former assistant dean of admissions, solely responsible for the inaccuracies. Pless had also been "instrumental in the development and implementation of (a) program designed primarily to improve the status of law school in the United States
Placement Success
Employment Rates
In recent years, law schools have taken different routes to make their employment rates higher than they appear. Naturally, the employment rate at graduation will be much lower than at nine months, so schools are less likely to publish the information.
Faculty Resources
Expenditures per Student
For many students, this number is well below their undergraduate GPAs, which seem easy to maintain. The scholarships are used as bait to attract higher-achieving students, improve rankings, and the system allows schools to keep their money when many recipients don't meet the requirement.
The Big Picture
As is the case with almost any secondary education, the cost of law school increases every year. Allesandra Lanza, spokeswoman for American Student Assistance, says, "The general rule of thumb for student loans is that the total amount of student debt should not exceed the borrower's expected annual salary for the first year out of school" (21).
Is It Still Worth the Investment?
Basically, the message to students who choose to follow these two articles is that law school careers may not hold the promise they once did, but given time may eventually return to it. A law professor at Vanderbilt, Herwig Schlunk, is most accurate in analyzing the situation in the article "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be.. Lawyers." In answering the question of whether law school is a good investment, there is no concrete, all-encompassing answer. However, his analysis of three types of hypothetical students shows how law school is becoming a smart option for a shrinking number.
To answer the question most precisely, law school may not be a bad investment for all students, but it is certainly a bad investment for most so far. Law schools saw an increase in the number of applicants from 2008 to 2010, suggesting that law school has become a vehicle to wait out the economy until a better job market emerges (29). With fewer entry-level jobs open to new graduates and technology contributing to this, undergraduate students must consider the market when applying to law school.
Technology’s Threat to the Market
The Types of Technology
There is no doubt that the software is very intelligent, but it is also incredibly efficient. Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto analyzed 1.5 million at a fraction of what it could have physically (34) But not only is the software faster, it's also more accurate. With software outperforming people, the number of these positions is expected to drop significantly.
Which gives companies another advantage of the software: it's significantly cheaper than hiring and army of lawyers to do research. Of course, individuals will always question whether a computer is sufficient to a human, but as technology advances, more and more businesses are warming up to the benefits of using the software. However, this is not enough logic to justify not using the software that saves money and time more efficiently, even though it may not be the most efficient.
The Problem With Technology for Lawyers
As lawyers must, in the future, "use technology to deliver greater value to clients at a declining cost" in order to keep up with the competition and falling prices that advances in technology will bring, they must also to accept that falling prices means falling profits (30). With the biggest challenge facing lawyers in the future being "moving away from internal firm metrics that reward billable hours and discourage or prohibit...the experimentation needed to create, refine and commercialize more innovative work processes that do more with less", the real money for new graduates is likely to lie in how innovative they can think rather than how well they perform as lawyers alone (30).
New Law Schools
According to the article, "the number one unhappiest job in America is Associate Attorney" (40). This creates what is psychologically known as “low decision-making,” where workers have very little choice regarding the decisions made within their careers (43). Not only do the long hours prevent spouses from spending time with their significant others and families, their work can make the pressure too much to bear, which can change their personality because of the depression that sets in and changes them in the face of their marriages.
Leaving the firm is always an option for an associate facing such serious on-the-job injuries, and there are young lawyers who do. This is most beneficial to lawyers who realize that their salaries do not justify the miserable nature of their work. She says, "I feel terrible taking a rare job that someone else might want.. but I don't feel like I have any choice but to move on because of the debt and the lack of other employment options" ( 45).
Pessimism and the Win-Loss Game
Two proposed ways to reform legal education involving the bar exam and the third year of law school could potentially cut costs for students while also helping in other areas. Considering all these things, the bar exam is not at all taken lightly by law graduates. To take the bar exam for the state of Maine, a student must have completed at least two years of study at a law school, and an apprenticeship may replace the third year (48).
By looking back at the history of the bar exam, we can understand how Maine's policy is most attractive to today's legal market. In the past, no formal legal education was required to pass the bar exam. The bar exam is certainly necessary for the certification of future lawyers, but the required law degree in the three years of study that has developed is not necessary.
Alterations to the Traditional Three Year Degree
Budget Challenges to Suit Third Year Eliminations
The biggest obstacle that will need to be addressed in eliminating the third year of law school is with the budget constraints that law schools inevitably face due to loss of revenue. Cutting out the third year ultimately means a third less revenue each year, and what follows is inevitable cost-cutting, either through program or faculty restrictions. On the other hand, eliminating the third year of required school would eliminate much of the financial burden of law school for students.
Looking at the numbers, former law professor and dean Jim Chen estimates that "law graduates need an annual salary equal to two-thirds of their law school debt to make law school viable" (60). He continues, "the problem could be solved by eliminating the third year of school or by requiring law professors to take a one-third pay cut" (60). It can also help compensate for lost income should the third year of law school be eliminated.
Options for the Third Year
Law school and medical school are already quite similar within the first two years, with most basic classes taken after that. However, law school seems to loosen up a bit after the first year, while medical school remains rigorous. Some students will oppose the proposed plan to make law school more like medical school because it means the third year would become even more intense, rather than tapering off as law school currently appears to be doing.
Chen has also proposed, in line with the reform of the law school, which should become more structurally similar to a medical school, to create the legal equivalent of a nurse practitioner (60). Finally, if the legal equivalent of a nurse existed, no one would be going to law school right now. Options and trial and error are certainly necessary to find what works best for law school reform, but the idea of creating the legal equivalent of a nurse practitioner is one that should be considered from the start of the list deleted.
The New Rules for Acceptance
News' law school rankings may be overstated given the flaws in their methodology, but they are nonetheless still highly regarded by both applicants. An applicant who can make this most elite cut should definitely still be in law school. U of Illinois Law School Publicly Censored by ABA, Fined for Misreporting Admissions Data.” ABA Journal.
The Roosevelt-Cardozo Way: The Case for Legal Aid After Two Years of Law School." N.p., Nov. 30. Two-year law school was a good idea in 1970, and it's a good idea now, prof tells ABA task force." ABA Journal. The Happy Charade: An Empirical Study of the Third Year of Law School." Duke University School of Law, 2001.
