California, Kids, Law Schools, New York Times

In Five Years, Will the Endless March Of New Lawyers Finally Stop?

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A reader sent in an encouraging list from the New York Times. Well, encouraging to me and others who want the demand for legal education to decrease to levels the legal economy can sustain.

According to this story, the Times asked 18 high school seniors in San Diego to predict their futures over the next ten years. None of them saw themselves as lawyers. They saw themselves as doctors and nurses and scientists, but not attorneys….

Granted, 18 kids in California is hardly statistically significant. And our cynical reader asked the rhetorical question: “Wonder how many of them will nevertheless end up in law school in 5 years, though?” And I get it, nobody says “I want to review documents and defend depositions when I grown up.”

But I take this news, along with the recent decline in law school applications, as encouraging. At the very least, the fact that 18 high school seniors didn’t come up with “lawyer” demonstrates that getting L.A. Law and Boston Legal off the air is at least having some positive impact.

If we could somehow keep these kids from obtaining useless liberal arts degrees, and then taking the LSAT and going to law schools because they are afraid of getting real jobs, things might be better for the few serious individuals who actually want to be practicing lawyers.

High-School Seniors Predict Their Future [New York Times]
Law School Loses Its Allure as Jobs at Firms Are Scarce [Wall Street Journal]

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