The law school bubble – At 50 law schools, 20% of the students are either unemployed, flunked out, or are unknown yet data does not show up in national rankings. Many more pass bar exam than actual job openings in legal field. Legal bubble is another tangent of the higher education bubble.
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Donnie said:
Additionally,many of the top tier associate positions are by invitation and sponsorship only. According to government studies the average income for a working lawyer is $62,000 nationwide. And this does not include attorneys working in other fields.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:22 am -
Dumbfounded said:
This is a great article, one of your finest. Please keep up the great economic journalism.
January 31st, 2012 at 8:52 am -
Joe B. said:
But if you look at the ABA/BLS ratio, it is pretty consistent. So the probability of acquiring a job is about the same over the past 40 years.
January 31st, 2012 at 6:56 pm -
Cheryl said:
This is really old news. I graduated law school in 2001 and it was the same story then. law schools are a cash cow for universities: charge through the nose and barely any infrastructure needed. They try to maximize the class size and don’t mention anything about the real prospects for future employment as an attorney.
As a corporate paralegal I now make more than 2X what I did as an attorney. My loans are paid off and I have a nice 9-5 cushy job.
The real tragedy is that there is so much need for legal services among the poor/middle class, but they just can’t afford it. And I couldn’t afford to work in an attorney sweatshop and have any kind of decent life and pay off my loans.
Yet, the law schools keep churning out tons of fresh JDs who don’t understand the job market and that the majority will have to work for peanuts to get experience.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:20 am -
Terrance said:
Universities and Colleges are in business to make money whether they be private of public. Attorneys as a group are not particularly gifted as a group, though many indiviually are. An over abundance of hungry attorneys is liable to further diminish our economic output as they have the ability to interfere with those who concretely produce goods & products or otherwise needed services. I know a man who serves his country who left to go to the Middle East, while he was there he was rocketed and mortared. Upon return I had never seen him so relaxed, his answer was he was not allowed to be hectored by his spouse’s attorney while deployed. Near physical death was less stressful then a two year Pennsylvania divorce. In a version of the game Civilization III lawyers are considered anoher arm of the combat machine.
February 1st, 2012 at 6:06 pm -
dollardement said:
law degrees from the ivy leagues were reserved for the creme de la creme and the elite,but over the last two decades,avenues like engineering,medicine,law and more conservative careers have taken a back seat ever since the advent of the internet.This is primarily the main reason for quality grads from top universities shifitng to IT related courses.
February 3rd, 2012 at 2:13 am
