Whether you are thinking about starting a law practice or just hoping to get a legal job, you might want to reconsider whether the law is even a good field for you. According to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, law school applications are at a 10-year low. Additionally, the article states that LSAT applications are at a 24-year low. Recession anyone?
If you weren’t aware, the lawyer job market is not so good at the moment. Heck, the job market as a whole is not so good right now. For many newly minted attorneys, the loans and the lack of jobs has become unbearable. For instance, it appears that one attorney was denied admittance to the Ohio bar – despite passing the bar exam – because he wasn’t repaying his large law school loans. Ouch.
I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing that law applications are down across the country. On the good side: the article does a nice job pointing out that now, perhaps many people are not going to law school as a “backup plan” or because they don’t know what else to do with their lives. Both are not good reasons to go to law school.
Many lawyers may think this is good news. In fact, many attorneys I know have made a comment that often goes something like this: “great, that’s what the world needs, another lawyer.” I wrote a post a couple months ago about how I counted over 30 attorneys in the little town of Northfield, MN which has a population of a little over 17,000 people. Seems like a lot of lawyers.
I do find it disconcerting that nobody talked about the bad job market that was coming at me when I started law school in 2004. In 2004, the economy was doing quite well. The housing bubble had not yet burst. In fact, some of my friends from college were doing quite well as a result of the inflated real estate market. Did I join in on those shenanigans? No, I went to law school.
I realize this blog is ostensibly about starting and building a law firm. Therefore, it is a self-made job market. But, when the economy stinks it is going to have an effect on any law practice. I worry about that. A lot.
I am hoping to be admitted by motion into the Minnesota state bar and move on with my life. I don’t regret becoming a lawyer, but I do regret not knowing how bad the job market would be when I got out of law school. I regret not being more informed. So, if anybody gets to this post and reads it, I hope you think twice about whether law school is right for you.
At the very least, I know I made an effort to inform somebody about the job prospects and large loan obligations related to choosing law school. If you read this, you can’t say somebody didn’t tell you so.