It’s not just law schools that have been raising tuition like there was no tomorrow and ignoring the laws of economics. Undergraduate colleges have been doing it too. Carpe Diem: “The college tuition bubble makes the housing price bubble seem pretty lame by comparison. ”
I hate to hear these stories, which unfortunately are too common during these difficult economic times. A 26 year old recent law school graduate is interviewed on CNN about her inability to find a lawyer job despite graduating in the top half of her class, passing the Georgia bar on her first attempt and sending out over 100 job applications. She now has a big school loan debt and works as a coffee barista for $7.50 an hour.
Lawjobs.com: “But Chase is one of only a handful of Nova incoming ‘3Ls’ to land a job in what is arguably the worst legal job market in memory. He noted: ‘I have a lot of friends who were top of their class and are still looking for jobs. Some are going back to school to pad their resume’. . . . With summer associate programs shrinking as law firms tighten their belts, a traditional path for landing the first job out of law school is narrowing for many. As a result, many law students entering their third year have been offering to work for free at law firms, government agencies and nonprofit legal groups this summer and even after they graduate.”
Two recent articles have the same theme – people are leaving big law firms to start solo or small firm practices. See “Leaving Big Law Behind – The many frustrations that cause well-paid lawyers to hang out their own shingles” and “Partners flee big law firms to go their own way – At their own startups, they can offer lower, more flexible fees; clients come calling.”
NJ.com: “Law school is a ‘scam,’ the blogger wrote. Administrators are greedy ‘charlatans’ who could not care less about education, and students are but ‘hapless lemmings’ who have been tricked into paying a fortune to enter ‘America’s most overrated, miserable and saturated industry’. . . . Unemployment among new law school grads nationwide has risen for two straight years, to a rate of 12 percent for the class of 2009, according to the National Association for Law Placement. Among the employed, one in four jobs were temporary, while one in 10 were part-time.”
“For a law degree to pay off, the
[American Bar A]ssociation said in a memo, a grad should earn at least $65,000 a year. Nearly half of employed 2008 grads had starting salaries below that amount.”Where are the class action lawyers when you need them? Sooner or later the lawyers will file class action lawsuits against the law schools for misrepresentation, failure to disclose material facts and other possible causes of action.