Will Fewer LSAT-takers Mean Lower Tuition? (All the World Wonders)

James B. Levy, “December LSAT test-takers drop 16.5% from last year; first time test-takers down 22%,” in Legal Skills Prof Blog J-Dog, “LSAT, Law School Applications Down 10+% Year-over-Year” in Restoring Dignity to the Law Knut, “Are They Finally Paying Attention?” in First Tier Toilet ! In the light of this disturbing picture, one might [...]

Linkers Banquet—LSTB Doesn’t See the Forest for the Girls

Karen Sloan, “Law School Websites Getting Stuck in the Shade,” in National Law Journal A recent empirical study and ranking of the home pages for all 200 American Bar Association-accredited law schools found that 65 included photos of students in or around trees, a phenomenon the authors dubbed “Girls Under Trees.” I recently looked through [...]

The Law School Tuition Bubble: Tuition Increases Law School-by-Law School from 2005 to 2011, Part 3

[Read Part 1 (the setup) and Part 2 (the data)] Now is the time for modest changes in current federal student loan programs to increase the amount that law students may borrow. –Carolyn Lamm, former President of the American Bar Association, “Law School Educational Debt Has a Manageable Solution.” And modest changes President Lamm received. [...]

The Law School Tuition Bubble: Tuition Increases Law School-by-Law School from 2005 to 2011, Part 1

As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education. – Wisconsin Rules of Professional Conduct “Preamble: A Lawyer’s Responsibilities,” ¶6, (WI SCR Chapter 20) Introduction Last May, I started the [...]

The Law School Tuition Bubble Data: Tuition Increases Law School-by-Law School from 2005 to 2011

*****ATTENTION: THOSE WHO FIND THIS POST VIA A LINK SHOULD READ THE TAB AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG FOR MORE RECENT UPDATES***** [You really should read Part 1 before slogging through these data.] So folks, here’s a big page of data. If the tables are going off the column, I find hitting “CTRL +” [...]

FILM REVIEW: Default: The Student Loan Documentary

Krotala Films gave me the privilege of reviewing Default: The Student Loan Documentary. I didn’t expect blogging would lead me to film reviews. Indeed, that’s more my brother’s bailiwick. But like Marty McFly, when someone calls me chicken… While I don’t have an eye for composition (Default had an attractive color scheme and looked great [...]

Taxpayers! Do Not Let IBR Turn Law Schools Into Winston University!

When I put the law school tuition bubble and income-based repayment together in my mind, I remembered a lesser-known Saturday Night Live sketch, “Winston University,” in which Billy Crystal sells a fraudulent education to college-bound high school students.  The pitch: Your parents cough up $12,000 a year to send you to Winston University…We split it [...]

Financialism, Bubbles, & Law Schools

Tom Armistead, “Jungle-ethics Financialism vs. Free Market Capitalism,” in Tom Armistead’s Instablog ThoughtOfferings, “The Mystery of Japan’s Private Debt Levels Solved?” in Thought Offerings Andy Xie, “What We Can Learn as Japan’s Economy Sinks,” in Caijing.com.com Alan Nasser, “The Student Loan Debt Bubble: Curse of the First ‘Austerity Generation’,” Global Research via LewRockwell.com Financialism, Bubbles, [...]

A New Year’s Resolution for Law Students: Organize.

Today, American law schools are like factories that no force has the power to slow down — not even the timeless dictates of supply and demand. So writes David Segal in his epic New York Times article on the crisis facing the legal profession. He’s wrong, though analysis pieces obviously aren’t the place for serious [...]

Link Slowly and See—Dean Slings Stones at the ABA

I have three this week: (1) Michael L. Coyne, “Law, Beyond the Reach of Many,” in the Worcester Telegram Reading through this piece, I thought, “Wow, this guy’s really done his homework and really likes Massachusetts School of Law.”  Then I realized that Coyne is actually one of MSL’s deans.  MSL, if you recall, is [...]