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.