After the ABA published employment statistics for new law school graduates that were the worst since 1994, the media has started to take notice. On Sunday, the New York Times wrote yet again about the struggling state of law school education.
But what about law schools?
Not so much. For the most part, law schools are operating the same–way too many graduates with way too much debt vying for too few jobs.
Oh sure, as the Times notes, a few schools are making changes. But what we are not seeing is the system-wide change needed, especially at the lower levels of the law school spectrum where employment statistics are jokingly bad; the bottom 20 law schools had only 31% of its 2011 graduates employed in lawyer jobs. Ouch!
I hope the Times and other media continue to highlight the worst aspects of legal education. If law schools won’t make changes, maybe the law school economy will make changes for them.