At Least You Didn't Go to Law School in China

How do you say schadenfreude in Mandarin? Babel Fish won’t tell me. In fact, Babel Fish doesn’t even have an option to translate German into Mandarin or Cantonese. (I think that’s BS — I’m sure you can get a good schnitzel in Beijing — but that’s beside the point.)
Anyway, back to China. The ABA Journal reports:

A new study supports the tales of woe told by recent law graduates in China.

It is more difficult to find a job in law than any other profession studied, the China Daily reports. The story cites a June 2009 study by China’s Academy of Social Science and the Mycos Institute, a consulting company.

Mmm … terracotta law students.
I wonder how much (if any) private debt Chinese law schools saddle their students with?
Additional details after the jump.


In China — as in Britain, for what it’s worth — law is an undergraduate degree. But being unemployed after graduation is a universal concern. According to the China Daily:

Law has topped the list of the 10 most difficult professions to land a job in the country for two consecutive years, taking the No 1 slot in 2008 and No 2 in 2007, according to a joint study released in June 2009 by China’s Academy of Social Science and Beijing-based consulting company Mycos Institute. …
The study showed that the 2008 unemployment rate for law graduates was 23 percent in the six months after graduation, marginally higher than the average for all majors of 22 percent.
The 2008 Blue Paper on China’s Rule of Law, published by the Procuratorial Daily, also shows law graduates have the lowest employment rate among all bachelor’s of arts degrees.

The full China Daily article is worth clicking over to just for the brilliant cartoon.
If you are a new visitor to Above the Law and considering law school in China, I have a little advice for you. Please click here, here, here or even here. If the Chinese legal economy is anything like the American one, you should consider getting yourself a marketable skill — like plumbing — before majoring in law.
Oh, and here’s another piece of free advice to potential first-time readers: don’t read the comments on this particular post. Just trust me.
Cold winter for law graduates [China Daily]
The Job Market Is Tough for Law Grads in China, Too [ABA Journal]

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