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