Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board
As we have noted in the past, applications to the nation’s law schools are on the wane. Data from the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education confirm the trend: figures for fall 2013 enrollment show applications were down 12.4 percent from a year earlier and more than 40 percent since fall 2004.
Conventional wisdom continues to advise prospective students to avoid law school for well publicized reasons — the job market is bad, tuition is high, courses aren’t relevant and other alternatives provide more or equal starting salaries with less student debt. Is that advice still valid?
While there is some truth to the assumptions underlying this perspective, 2015 may be one of the best years to apply to law school for those interested in a legal career.
The dramatic decline in applications means that it is easier to get into the law school of your choice. Many or even most law schools will accept an applicant with a 3.0 undergraduate grade point average and an LSAT score of 150 (approximately 50th percentile of takers) or higher, and have increased the amount of money they distribute in scholarships to incoming students. Applicants today are commonly faced with a choice of paying for a higher-ranked school, or getting reduced or even free tuition at a lower-ranked school.
If you don’t get into your law school of choice as a first-year applicant, don’t worry: there is a vibrant transfer market after first-year studies. Due to the influence of the US News rankings (which are based on the credentials of the entering first-year class), law schools actively look for transfers-in after the first year. Obviously, the more elite the school you aspire to attend, the higher your grades need to be; but generally, if you attend an ABA-accredited law school for one year and achieve a law grade point of 3.0 or better, you are likely to have transfer opportunities.
By ABA rule, a student receives the degree of the school at which he or she received 66 percent of the credit hours needed for graduation. Therefore, if you transfer into an elite school after your first year elsewhere, you receive the more prestigious degree. For many students, it is increasingly possible to attend a lower-ranked law school for free on a full scholarship, do well and then transfer to a higher-ranked law school — and only pay two years of tuition. (If you are curious about a particular school, the ABA – LSAC Official Guide to ABA Approved Law Schools contains the transfer in and transfer out numbers for every ABA sanctioned law school.)
Once you are in law school, lower overall enrollment numbers also mean that law classes are smaller and personal attention from faculty and staff is more the norm. The curriculum has also been significantly altered almost everywhere, as law schools nationwide respond to the perceived market demand for a more relevant-to-practice legal education experience — especially after the first year of studies. Practical experience is now emphasized in many classes. The number of clinics and internships for credit offered by law schools is exploding.
As you think about legal jobs, remember that an entering student is not concerned with today’s employment opportunities, but with those three years after the first day of law school.
In other words, if you enroll in August 2015, your focus should be on the legal market in 2018. By then, the decade’s worth of smaller graduating classes across the country will have reduced significantly the supply of new lawyers. At the same time, the recovering national economy should be producing more demand for young attorneys. Although economic forecasting is clearly not an exact science, all indications are that the 2018 legal market should be considerably better for law graduates than the one we are currently experiencing.
In addition, many law schools and state and federal governments have responded to high tuition by establishing loan forgiveness programs for graduates who stay in public interest/public employment jobs for a specified number of years. Although starting salaries in such jobs tend to be lower than private practice, significantly reducing or eliminating law student debt is an important financial benefit to most students.
A law degree still gives its holder a broad range of skills valued in the American economy. From the perspective of a life-long career, that flexibility is still a valuable commodity.
In short, 2015 may be the year to take advantage of the changes generated by a decade of decline in the national law applicant market. It’s easier than ever to get a degree and practical experience at the law school of your choice.
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Editorial Advisory Board: James B. Astrachan, chair; Wesley D. Blakeslee; Phillip J. Closius; Katrina Dennis; Arthur F. Fergenson; Caroline Griffin; Elizabeth Kameen; C. William Michaels; Gale Rasin; William Reynolds; Norman Smith; H. Mark Stichel; Ferrier R. Stillman; and Christopher West. Editorial Advisory Board member Gale Rasin did not participate in this opinion.
