Abstract

This analytic research paper seeks to address the issues which have recently plagued failing legal education institutions in the United States. Law schools do not have enough students enrolling to maintain sustainability and newly graduated lawyers are confronting a job legal job market which has hit a 30 year low. Of the many factors that have contributed to the drop off in students as well as employment, unsustainable business models represent the most damming of these factors. Furthermore a great display of greed from the sides of both parties further solidified these models. Other issues such as the fall of big law and the numerous pending lawsuits that have been filed by alumni groups against former institutions are also addressed. Finally a relation is made between the failing legal education system and higher education as a whole.   

Bibliography

Works Cited

Bronner, Ethan. "Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut." The New     York Times. N.p., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. 

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs- rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html?_r=0>

Campos, Paul1. "The Crisis Of The American Law School." University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform 46.1 (2012): 177-223. Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (H.W. Wilson). Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

Eckman, Drew. "Chalk Talks - Rethinking Lawsuits Against Law Schools: Graduates must Overcome Significant Hurdles to Prevail Against Alma Maters." Journal of Law and Education 42.3 (2013): 575-83. ProQuest. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.

Horwitz, Paul. "What Ails The Law Schools?." Michigan Law Review 111.6 (2013): 955-976. Business Source Elite. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.

Mattox, Kari Ann1. "Transparency And Accountability: What If The Federal Gainful Employment-Debt Measures Regulations Applied To Law Schools?." Educational Considerations 40.3 (2013): 26-29. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

McEntee K, Lynch P, Tokaz D. THE CRISIS IN LEGAL EDUCATION: DABBLING IN DISASTER PLANNING. University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform [serial on the Internet]. (2012, Fall2012), [cited December 10, 2013]; 46(1): 225-266. Available from: Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (H.W. Wilson).

MURPHY, ANDREW S. 1. "Redeeming a Lost Generation: "the Year of Law School Litigation" and the Future of the Law School Transparency Movement." Indiana Law Journal 88.2 (2013): 773-809. Print.

Reynolds, Glenn H. The Higher Education Bubble. New York: Encounter, 2012. Print.

Scheiber, Noam. "The New Republic." New Republic. N.p., 7 July 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Stewart, James B. "The Collapse." The New Yorker. N.p., 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Weissman, Jordan. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. N.p., 23 July 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

Lit Review #4

Jordan Weissmann
Author 

Weissman, Jordan. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. N.p., 23 July 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

This article briefly discusses why the fall of many large cooperate law firms are important in understanding what ails the legal education system. Weissman explains that all though the largest 350 firms in the country may have only employed a small percentage of lawyers, they made up a very large portion of the industries job growth. The failure of these firms in 2008 has caused the job growth for lawyers to fall into the negatives.

Jordan Wiessman is an associate editor for The Atlantic. He is a 2008 graduate of North Western University. He has worked for and been published by: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Washington Post and the National Law Journal. While Jordan is a news reporter, he still remains a viable source for information. Most of his opinions and views are supported with numerical data coming from well recognized outlets.

Big Law- Refers to the top 350 law firms in the United States. These firms mainly based out of major cities across the country, account for the majority of legal profits.

Harsh New Economic Order- Refers to the time period between 2008 and the present day in which the legal profession has seen massive cuts in employment. This “new order” is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

“These are grim days for large corporate law firms, which like everyone else were kneecapped by the recession, but have since emerged into a harsh new economic order where their old business model appears to be collapsing.”

“And when I say many, I mean law schools. Talk to an academic about the changing value of a law degree, and there's a decent chance they'll play down the recent trouble in Big Law”

“Without Big Law's explosive growth, it's impossible to imagine that law schools would have ever expanded or raised tuition the way they did during the good times. With Big Law on the rocks, we can only be thankful that schools themselves are now shrinking.”

This source will provide the basis for an entire argument within my paper. The argument of the failure of big law is one that is sometimes looked over by other sources. By having this argument in my piece I believe I will achieve a more complete and cohesive analysis of the legal education crisis. 

Research Blog 9

When discussing the crisis in legal education, much is agreed on. Throughout all of my research, I have yet to come across a source denying the fact that law schools are in a downward spiral. The simple fact of the matter is numbers do not lie. All across the board, law schools are losing money. Each year more and more students choose to avoid pursuing a legal education in favor of other career opportunities. Yet the students and institutions are not the only ones suffering. Many major legal firms have minimized staff, been subject to massive buy outs and even dissolved completely since the economic downturn of 2009. With seemingly no end in sight, it stands to reason that this crisis is only the beginning of a much larger problem in higher education. Some have even gone so far as to say that law schools are the “bleeding edge” of the higher education bubble. What is most astonishing, is that there is almost a total consensus amongst those in the legal profession that this crisis is very much a real issue. Very few have been bold enough to speak up in disagreement, and those that do, have only done so in brief interviews. That being said, one cannot expect a bunch of lawyers, writing on a very personal subject to agree completely. Arguments arise mainly around the discussion of how this crisis came to rise. Even in this discussion there is much agreement. In my research I have found that each argument presents valid points and I have used almost all of these arguments in my paper. Of these arguments, two can be debated more so than the rest. The idea of greed comes up in almost every piece written on this topic. First many are quick to point out the greed of the institutions. This greed can be observed in the past 30 years of tuition increases that have far outweighed average income growth. Few articles mention another greed that existed over time, the greed of the students. So many students went to law school only to make large amounts of money. Six figure starting salaries were expected by almost all graduates. The argument made against school is naturally a stronger one as it can be backed up by indisputable data. While the argument against student greed is more qualitative. Although it may not be readily defended with specific numbers, there is little doubt in my mind that students own greed did not play a role in the events that have unfolded. Entering a job market with such high expectations certainly damaged the market. This can be observed now in the astonishingly low starting salaries that many new lawyers are obtaining. In my research I found that only about 30 percent of new lawyers are making over 60,000 dollars annually. With a smaller market lawyers are now forced to accept jobs that many of the predecessors would have considered to be below them. Contrasting the greed of students with that of the institutions is one of the few debates in this crisis. However it still stands to be agreeable amongst most. Perhaps this speaks to the severity of the situation.  

Research Blog #7

The “case” for my research is the analysis of the crisis in legal education, its causes and repercussions for students and intuitions. Of these principle issues, the cause has been the most influential. When an institution as long standing and reputable as legal higher education experiences such an influential crisis, the root of the issue becomes highly debated. Through my research, it seems as though an “unstable model in legal education” has ultimately doomed the law schools. They have high fixed costs, which have been traditionally passed off to the students. This model seemed to place no limit on costs, assuming that a market would always exist for the service provided. However the financial crisis of 2009 and the collapse of numerous major law firms greatly reduced the demand for new lawyers. The institutions, knowing that the market was declining, continued to increase costs and attract new students with promises of six figure salaries upon graduation. Almost instantly students recognized this and drastically reduced the number of applicants and enrolling students. This now spawns the crisis in which new lawyers cannot find jobs and schools cannot fill seats.

This case is supported by mainly every analysis of the root of the legal education crisis. The title “unstable model in legal education” comes from Paul Campos, a professor of law at the University of Colorado. Campos provides a strong argument for the unstable model which provides specific data and examples to solidify all the mentioned claims above.

The most comprehensive and easy to access summary of the crisis in legal education I have found in the New York Times article by Ethan Bronner “Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut.” Bronner gives a very well rounded and well supported report of the current crisis in legal education. The article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html

Research Blog #6

This graph demonstrates the principle issues in legal education today. The steep drop in the number of applicants is representative of the struggling job market for new lawyers. The second bar which represents new student enrollment in law schools represents what is ailing the institutions. The drop in enrollment has crushed schools fiscally.  

Lit. Review #3

Ethan Bronner
Author 

As this article comes from a well respected newspaper, it is very comprehensive and introduces and briefly discusses the many facets of the law school crisis. It provides quotations from heads of Universities as well as professors from schools all across the country. The article describes the issues plaguing law schools and gives an inside look at how some administrators are dealing with the changes. It also provides facts and information about schools who have already fallen victim to the crisis such as Vermont Law School.

Bronner, Ethan. "Law Schools’ Applications Fall as Costs Rise and Jobs Are Cut." The New York Times. N.p., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html?_r=0>.

Ethan Bronner, deputy national editor, was most recently national legal affairs correspondent for The Times. Before, he was Jerusalem bureau chief, following four years as the newspaper’s deputy foreign editor. Mr. Bronner has also served as assistant editorial page editor of The Times, education editor and national education correspondent. Right after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he worked in the paper’s investigative unit focusing on Al Qaeda. A graduate of the College of Letters at Wesleyan University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. With such credentials, Bronner is clearly a reliable source when discussing this matter.

“A time bomb on our admissions books”- this concept asserts that for many schools that have weathered the storm thus far, there is still a waiting “time bomb.” All though they have made it this far, eventually the declining number of applicants will ultimately doom them.

“new environment”- the idea that law schools must now reinvent themselves and transform the entire process of receiving a legal education.

“Many of the reasons that law jobs are disappearing are similar to those for disruptions in other knowledge-based professions, namely the growth of the Internet. Research is faster and easier, requiring fewer lawyers, and is being outsourced to less expensive locales, including West Virginia and overseas.”

This quote provides several examples of how the job market for lawyers has suffered. I certainly will be able to work these examples into my writing when discussing the sharp decline in the job market for new lawyers.

“Students are doing the math,” said Michelle J. Anderson, dean of the City University of New York School of Law. “Most law schools are too expensive, the debt coming out is too high and the prospect of attaining a six-figure-income job is limited.”

Having a quote such as this from the dean of the City University of New York School of Law will certainly be helpful in my writing. Undoubtedly I will find a place for this in my paper.

“There is also discussion about permitting students to take the bar after only two years rather than three, a decision that would have to be made by the highest officials of a state court system”

This is something that has not come up in any article so far. I’m very interested to see what I can find about this though some more research.

Lit. Review #2

Katherine Mangan
Author 

This article focusses on how the decreasing demand of students to attend law school. It discusses the severe drop in the number of applicants as a result of the consistently decreasing job market for new lawyers. This article also provides insight from those within the suffering institution. Within the article a number of Law School administrators are quoted and asked questions. This article provides a well-balanced analysis of the issues facing students and institutions alike.

MANGAN, KATHERINE. "Law Schools Confront 'New Normal' In Job Market." Chronicle Of Higher Education 59.19 (2013): A3. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

Katherine Mangan is a national correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education since 1986. A graduate of Williams College, Managan has been published for her writings on many different aspects of higher education hundreds of times. As she has been employed by a national publication for the past 27 years and has had her work published and edited many times over her tenure, she stands to be a reliable source when discussing the crisis in legal education.

“Turmoil in legal education”- refers to current trend of former students backlashing at their former universities through the court of law.

“Thinking like a lawyer”- A train of thought that involves cognitive reasoning and a stifling of personal emotion. This approach has not been used by many former students seeking to recover damages they feel as though they incurred as a result of their former law school.

"I've been so candid with my faculty that I worry about faculty morale, but without that understanding, they're still going to come in with unrealistic demands," he said. "The question is, is this a blip or is it permanent? I happen to believe we're dealing with a profound, permanent structural change" (page 1)

This quote comes from Frank H. Wu, dean of the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.This quote is the first one that I have come across that comes directly from the mouth of the head of Legal institution addressing and conceding to the fact that law schools are undergoing permanent changes. Using this quote in my writing will provide a strong example of how widely accepted the principles of the law school crisis are.

“Law schools produce more than 44,000 graduates each year--about two for every new opening for a lawyer or judicial law clerk, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (Page 1)

This quote is like many others that I have come across that really puts things into perspective when discussing the job market for new lawyers. Small credible bits of information like this are very useful in many elements of writing and I plan to utilize this and others like it when addressing my topic as well as supporting the claims of former students.

“Reports of unemployed graduates who are drowning in debt and suing their schools gave many would-be applicants pause as the number of applications tumbled a cumulative 25 percent over the last two years. And as of last month, the Law School Admission Council reported that applications for the fall of 2013 were down nearly 25 percent from where they were at this time a year ago” (Page 2)

Of any quote, this summarizes the issue that schools are currently facing. An entire topic that thousands upon thousands of pages have been written is summed up in this short quote. 

Works Cited

Works Cited

Eckman, Drew. "Chalk Talks - Rethinking Lawsuits Against Law Schools: Graduates must Overcome Significant Hurdles to Prevail Against Alma Maters." Journal of Law and Education 42.3 (2013): 575-83. ProQuest. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Horwitz, Paul. "What Ails The Law Schools?." 111.6 (n.d.): 955-977. Web. 15 Oct. 2013

Mangan, Katherine. "Law Schools Confront 'New Normal' In Job Market." Chronicle Of Higher Education 59.19 (2013): A3. Master FILE Elite. Web. 15            Oct. 2013.

Mattox, Kari Ann1. "Transparency And Accountability: What If The Federal Gainful Employment-Debt Measures Regulations Applied To Law Schools?." Educational Considerations 40.3 (2013): 26-29. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

McEntee, Kyle P.; Lynch, Patrick J.; Tokaz, Derek M. "The Crisis In Legal Education:    Dabbling In Disaster Planning." 46.1 (n.d.): 225-267. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Research Proposal

John Cotton

Professor Goeller

Research in Disciplines: College!

10/8/13

Research Proposal

Working Title: Law School: Flirting With Failure

Topic:

I will research and discus the many factors that are currently pushing many law schools to the brink of failure. Currently law schools are experiencing, for the first time in history, a sharp decline in the number of applicants. This drop off has come as the result of many factors. Of these factors the two most prominent are the ever-increasing cost of attendance and the ever-decreasing job market for new lawyers. Naturally this decline in students is hitting schools where they feel it most, their wallets. Many schools are facing a future of financial uncertainty due to the sharp decline in tuition-generated revenue. To further their issues, groups of recent graduates who have failed to obtain employment are now threatening class action lawsuits against their alma mater. With so much uncertainty about the future of legal higher education this topic generates a great amount of debate and discussion.

Research Question:

What has caused Law schools to suffer such a steep drop off in the number of students and what information about the potential job market did they withhold from applicants and enrolled students? Also could the demise of law schools across the country be a precursor to the failure of other non-legal higher education institutions?

Theoretical Frame:

           The University of Michigan Journal of Law Review contains three separate pieces discussing the “legal education crisis.” While providing different insights, each of these articles emphasize the severe implications that are already being felt amongst students, graduates and institutions. The Crisis in Legal Education: Dabbling in Disaster Planning is one of these three. Much like the other two this article points out that for students and graduates, the crisis is already here. They are on the forefront whereas the institutions are still on the brink of crisis. The three authors of this piece McEntee, Lynch and Tokaz argue that “the personal disasters faced by recent graduates may be precursors to and industry-wide institutional disaster for legal higher education” (the crisis in legal education 226).This theory is key in examining law schools because despite law students being the first to feel the pain, Law schools in turn may become of precursor of things to come for other branches of higher education. The idea that law schools are the “bleeding edge” of the higher education bubble is widely accepted and holds serious implications for higher education.

           Recently there has been a great controversy over the idea of law schools purposely misleading applicants about post-graduation employment. Those who argue this believe that schools, acting in their own interest, mislead applicants into believing that upon graduation, employment was almost guaranteed. However once many of these students graduated they learned that gaining employment as a young lawyer is far more difficult and limited than the impression given by schools.  Kari Anne Mattox believes that Law Schools should now be held to the same standards that for-profit universities have been held to since 2011. This standard requires that schools educate students on the real employment level of recent graduates. Even more so, if they are working in their field and for what type of employers. Through the use of government policy, law schools may be forced into greater transparency. If schools are more transparent then applicants will be more informed and may be able to avoid the pitfalls that have devastated many recent graduates. This would solve issues that are confronting institutions and students alike.

Research Plans:

I have utilized news articles, legal publications and other scholarly works in order to research and analyze my topic. Many of my sources come from those who have experienced the downward trend in legal education first hand. I also plan to bring a personal approach to my paper by conducting an interview with my brother who is a 2009 graduate of Seton Hall Law School and has experienced firsthand the current job market. By using sources close to the issues at hand I hope to achieve a meaningful and accurate understanding and subsequent analysis of my topic. 

Lit. Review #1

The main focus of this article is about the current trend in class action law suits being brought before many law schools by recent graduates who have not obtained employment. In these cases, the graduates are arguing that schools mislead them about employment opportunities available to them upon graduation.  This article also provides numerous facts about student loans and increasing tuition.

The author of this article Drew Eckman is a graduate of the University of Louisville Law School. Being a lawyer himself Eckman knows a great deal about the legal higher education system. Also as this article was published in the Journal of Law and Education, he holds a great deal of credibility.

American Bar Association (ABA):  founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation of model ethical codes related to the legal profession. The ABA has 410,000 members. Its national headquarters are in Chicago, Illinois; it also maintains a significant branch office in Washington, D.C.

Law School Transparency: the ability for incoming students to know exactly what recent graduates of this school are doing currently. While many schools give employment numbers, they do not specify type of employment. This idea of transparency advocates that la schools must be completely honest to students about employment as well as school operations.

“The national median salary for graduates of the law school class of 201 1 was $60,000, which was 17 percent lower than it had been just two years earlier.” (Page 1).

This quote will be useful in introducing the issue of decreasing salaries for new lawyers.

“In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts only 73,600 new lawyer jobs from 2010 to 2020." But just three years into that decade, already about 132,757 new lawyers have hit the legal job market.9 When the supply of new lawyers seeking employment exceeds the demand for their services, the salary legal employers are willing to pay them will drop.” (Page 3)

This bit of information will provide to be very useful as in all of my other research I have yet to find a statistic such as this. This clearly shows how the supply of lawyers far outweighs the supply. This point can serve many roles in my writing as it provides a high “shock level”

“In May of 201 1, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) in San Diego became the first law school to be sued in a class action for allegedly misrepresenting its post-graduate placement rates.18 Since then, the alumni of at least fifteen different law schools have filed similar class action lawsuits” (page 7)

This will certainly be helpful when discussing the new phenomenon of former students attacking their former schools through the court of law. Using this quote will definitely be a good introduction to the developing trend. 

Research Blog #3: Privatization

Just as it has had a profound effect on undergraduate studies, privatization has greatly effected graduate schools as well. Although the effects may be measured in most graduate I will be focusing specifically on law schools. Law schools are currently finding themselves on the brink of disaster. It is no secret that new lawyers are having an unprecedented difficulty in finding jobs. With such a job market and continuously soaring tuition prices, many students are choosing to forgo law school. This sharp drop off in enrollment is having a profound effect on schools. After all if schools cannot fill seats, they are losing valuable tuition money. If this current trend continues it will only be a matter of time until some schools may have to shut down. While not every issue facing law schools comes as a result of privatization, one key issue does. The cost of attending law school, just as undergraduate, has skyrocketed in the past few decades.  As the documentary “Price of Admission” mentioned the price of education has increased much faster than the average family income. One of my sources, Paul Campos’ The Crisis of American law school presents the fact that the average American family brings in only 17 dollars more in real income, that is inflation adjusted income, then they did 40 years ago.  The article also provides that in 1985 the cost of attending the average public law school was 3,746 dollars (in terms of 2011 inflation adjusted dollars) and that in 2011 the average cost to attend a public law school was 19,788 2011 dollars. This common trend amongst undergraduate and graduate schools of rapidly increasing tuition is due at least impart by privatization. 

Research Blog #2: Scouting the Territory

Since my original post, I have refined my key points that I will discuss. I did this by reevaluating my topic idea and addressing direct question which I will ask. These questions can be found in my original post which I modified earlier today. I have browsed through the articles that Professor Goeller commented on my original post and I have also found a few of my own.

Eckman, Drew. "Rethinking Lawsuits Against Law Schools: Graduates Must Overcome Significant Hurdles To Prevail Against Alma Maters." Journal Of Law & Education 42.3 (2013): 575-583. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Abstract:  The article discusses various lawsuits which have been filed by law school graduates against law schools as a result of a weak employment market for inexperienced attorneys in the U.S. as of July 2013. Student loan debt and the costs associated with attending law school are addressed, along with class action litigation in the U.S. The National Association for Law Placement's Executive Director James Leipold is mentioned, as well as U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and alleged misrepresentations of post-graduate placement rates by law schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mattox, Kari Ann1. "Transparency And Accountability: What If The Federal Gainful Employment-Debt Measures Regulations Applied To Law Schools?." Educational Considerations 40.3 (2013): 26-29. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 1 Oct. 2013

Abstract: The article presents an analysis which compares the guidelines to assess transparency and accountability for law schools in the U.S. It compares the guidelines between the American Bar Association (ABA) and the U.S. Department of Education's Gainful Employment-Debt Measures regulations. It suggests that the principles of the regulations are relevant for these schools. It also mentions that ABA's requirement for accreditation will help increase employment rates in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campos, Paul1. "The Crisis Of The American Law School." University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform 46.1 (2012): 177-223. Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (H.W. Wilson). Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Abstract: The economist Herbert Stein once remarked that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Over the past four decades, the cost of legal education in America has seemed to belie this aphorism: it has gone up relentlessly. Private law school tuition increased by a factor of four in real, inflation-adjusted terms between 1971 and 2011, while resident tuition at public law schools has nearly quadrupled in real terms over just the past two decades. Meanwhile, for more than thirty years, the percentage of the American economy devoted to legal services has been shrinking. In 1978 the legal sector accounted for 2.01 percent of the nation's GDP: by 2009 that figure had shrunk to 1.37 percent--a 32 percent decrease. These two trends are not mutually sustainable, If the cost of becoming a laivyer continues to rise while the economic advantage conferred by a law degree continues to fall, then eventually both the market for new lawyers and for admission to law school will crash. In the early years of the 21st century, this abstract theoretical observation has begun to be confirmed by concrete events. The ongoing contraction in the employment market for new lawyers has combined with the continuing increase in the cost of legal education to produce what has begun to be recognized as a genuine crisis for both law schools and the legal profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In just skimming through the main points of these articles I have found exactly what I was hoping to find. Amongst these three alone, I have found a plethora of information pertaining to, increasing costs, student loan debt, the shrinking job market, institution accountability, as well as numerous subtopics. My research has eased my concern about a void in up to date information and has actually made me quite confident that I will have an ample supply of information to write a comprehensive paper on this topic! 

Research Blog #1: Initial Topic Idea

For my final research paper I plan to research the "law school crisis" which has swept across the United States the past decade. In my research I plan to research and answer the following questions: why is the job market for lawyers so weak? Why do law schools still promise applicants that they will go on to earn massive salaries upon graduation? Why has there been such a large drop off in the number of law school applicants? and how are law schools dealing with the decline in students? I have selected this topic because I have a close connection to this crisis. In 2009 I watched my brother Graduate from Seton Hall Law School, as any little brother would be I was extremely proud of his accomplishments. However in the year following his graduation, I watched first hand the struggles that graduating law students now face. The nonexistence of a job market being the greatest.