11 Jul Law Schools: Smallest Entering Classes Since 1970s

In a dramatic and accelerating trend, law school entering classes in the US in 2014 were down 11% from the prior year and 24% over the last 3 years alone. And the applications this year are down another 9%. This represents the smallest total number of new law students in a year since the Brady Bunch was doing their thing in the 1970s. This according to the Boston Globe. The exception: the higher end schools such as Harvard Law, which are seeing increases.

Reasons: of course the high and increasing cost of law schools (some schools have frozen tuition in response to the declining enrollment), and the lackluster legal job market. Also, there’s no big law show on TV these days. Sounds dumb, but back in the day when shows like LA Law made lawyer life sound exciting, fun and lucrative, applications soared. Despite the need to lay off professors and cut course offerings, we do not yet see a crisis mentality among Deans and others at schools, unless they are hiding it very well. Some point to the increases in top school admissions and say that’s a sign things are turning around.

Is this a recession-based blip that will eventually reverse? Is the model broken where the cost-benefit analysis of law school is more and more problematic these days? Will this become the new normal with smaller and smaller new law student classes? Is that necessarily bad for the profession? If we find a way to manage tuition and scholarship dollars and offer a 2-year law school option, I believe greater numbers of applicants will return.