Why are there so Few People Applying to Law School Now?

For the longest time, American presidents have been graduates of the country's top law schools (and our current president was a professor there after having graduated). Legal dramas and movies on TV have always glamorized a profession in the bar out of all reason; and lawyers, if they came out of a reputable law school, could pretty much depend on a life that didn't depart that far from movie depictions - lots of money, exquisite company perks and a great place in society. Those applying to law school today may need to pay attention to the changed narrative that life as a lawyer in today's world.

In a Wall Street Journal review, they’ve found that the shine is quickly wearing off. At no time in the last 10 years have applications to law schools been this slow. About 12% fewer people are interested in a career in the law. Certainly, the public interest in any field of study waxes and wanes from time to time. As far as the law has been concerned though, the general trend has always been upward. Why, people didn't stop applying to law school even through the recession. In fact, 20% more people took the LSAT in 2008. And schools reported an extra burst of applications.

Which is saying a lot. Law schools were cheap to build and to run. You don't need expensive labs, equipment or anything. The country can just build new law schools whenever demand hits. And demand overwhelmed even such ready availability. So why are so many disillusioned with the law as a profession?

Over the last few years, fresh law school graduates have found the going tough in the job market. Law school can be crushingly expensive; these fresh graduates who come out looking for jobs need a reasonable pay scale so that they can expect to pay their student loans back. All they find now are hundreds of applicants for each opening at any law firm. Thousands today are willing to accept mere legal assistant positions for pay by the hour - often at a level that's not far above minimum wage.

One additional possible explanation for this state of affairs could be that since the economy is improving a little bit (unemployment is down by half a percentage point) there could be more people heading for the job market than to graduate school. This is an enduring trend in any country. When job prospects seem to look up, more people think of jumping headfirst into the job market and putting off studying further.

But most of the damage seems to have been done by the constant barrage of reporting from respected journals like the New York Times that have tried to expose the law school as nothing but a waste of time and money that doesn't get anyone anywhere. The keep writing about how since legal automation has become very popular, businesses have just stopped paying lots of money to lawyers to help them do legal research. That's been a great source of employment for fresh lawyers for a long time. With that gone, new lawyers really have no workable alternative. Why would anyone go around applying to law school anymore?