No Massachusetts, Law School Should Not Be More Like Medical School

Lisa van der Pool, “Report: Law school should be more like medical school,” in Boston Business Journal. van der Pool is given the task of reporting on what the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Task Force on Law Schools, consisting of 14 lawyers, thinks needs to be done about “Law, the Economy and Underemployment.” Task force co-chair [...]

Give Credit Where Due

Rachel M. Zahorsky, “Law School Closings and Changes to Student Loan Bankruptcy Laws May Be Ahead, Says Former Dean,” ABA Journal. Former law school dean at Nebraska and Houston, Nancy Rapoport, favors bankruptcy reform for student debtors. This is important because law professors are usually more interested in discussing the need for reforming legal education [...]

The Verdict Is in on the Lottery, Why not Law School?

Jenn Ladd, “Law School Letdown,” the Baltimore Sun. The article isn’t bad, but the tagline is: “With a hefty price tag and a shrinking number of jobs, is law school worth all the effort? The verdict is still out.” The Sun, though, is in sort of a bind. Often local newspapers will only consider their [...]

‘What the Numbers Don’t Say: Law School Applicants Are Getting Older, Not Dumber’ on the Am Law Daily

“What the Numbers Don’t Say: Law School Applicants Are Getting Older, Not Dumber“ So I saw the first Softies show in 12 years. It was a real treat. I was so inspired that I started banging chords on my guitar. Then I realized that Jen Sbragia has something I don’t: talent. But when it comes [...]

Bloomberg Casually Slaps Law Schools, Uses Some Misleading Facts

Josh Block and Janet Lorin, “Law School Debt Exceeds $100,000 Amid Jobs Shortage,” Bloomberg. I have to say this has been a weird week for media coverage on law schools. On the one hand they’re somewhat more critical of law schools and show a willingness to research some facts, but on the other hand, they’re [...]

BLS Updates Its 2020 Employment Projections: For Law Students, It’s Very Bad

It turns out the Bureau of Labor Statistics updated its Employment Projections in February, though the Occupational Outlook Handbook will have to wait until later this month. Data for 2010-2020 are now available. For lawyers, the 2010-2020 projection is even worse than 2008-2018, when the BLS predicted that the legal profession would add 98,500 new [...]

‘Clever Plans to Reform Legal Education Won’t Make Legal Services Any Cheaper’ up on Am Law Daily

It’s a revised version of my post from a couple weeks ago, “WSJ Op-Ed Reaches Acceptable Conclusion on False Premises.” Link is here: “Clever Plans to Reform Legal Education Won’t Make Legal Services Any Cheaper“ Hopefully this will inspire better proposals from reformers.

Not Your Parents’ (or Grandparents’) Profession

In a post a few weeks ago, I teased the BEA for a clear typo on its Web site. For my previous Am Law Daily post, which was based on that, I called the BEA to find out what was what. Turns out my guess of 1,277,000 persons engaged in industry was close (coincidentally), it [...]

‘New BEA Data Showing Legal Sector Grew 2.3 Percent in 2010 No Reason to Celebrate’ up on Am Law Daily

New post on the Am Law Daily: “New BEA Data Showing Legal Sector Grew 2.3 Percent in 2010 No Reason to Celebrate“ Somewhat improved over the original post, as always.

It’s 2012. Where’s My ‘Hyperinflationary Great Depression’?

Behold, the curse of a long memory. Last January, Google Alerts sent me an e-mail informing me that the National Inflation Association (“Preparing Americans for Hyperinflation”) issued a press release predicting that the higher ed bubble was “set to burst beginning in mid-2011. This bursting bubble will have effects that are even more far-reaching than [...]