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.