Ask The Professor: How Can Law Schools Survive? Take Responsibility

The law school model needs a true revamping, not merely a repackaging, in order to survive.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” is a well-known Shakespearean phrase. With the steep drops in today’s law school enrollments, some curious minds may ask: is Shakespeare partly to blame?

The answer is that the blame significantly falls on the shoulders of the law schools themselves. Law schools have not taken responsibility for what is happening and are quick to cite reasons beyond their control. Their failure, however, to adapt to a changing landscape and refusal to let go of a time-dated model are primary reasons many are electing not to go to law school.

I am not talking about reducing law school from 3 to 2 years (which should be done) or just lowering the tuition costs (which also must be done), but a true revamping of the education — not merely repackaging it.

Law school enrollment fell for the fourth straight year in 2014. In fact, the 2014 law school entering class is the smallest since 1973, according to the American Bar Association. The total number of J.D. students nationwide is the lowest since 1987, and “new student enrollment is down by nearly 28% since its historic peak in 2010, when many flocked to law school during the economic recession.” The current decline in students going to law school is stark and law schools are feeling their wallets getting lighter. For example, the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School laid off more than half of its faculty this past summer.

These troublesome enrollment figures have posed critical questions for law schools. How can law schools survive? Should they all survive?

Cutting costs but providing the same product is not the solution to the problem.

Arguably the drop in enrollment has occurred for a multitude of reasons. The substantial rise in law school tuition over the past few decades is a significant concern for many considering beginning a law school education. And so is taking on a six-figure debt load. In addition, the high unemployment rate for law school graduates in conjunction with the prospect of repaying thousands of dollars of loans has made law school an unpopular choice among many in recent years. Today, that sentiment is reflected in the decreasing enrollments which are also partly due to concern about whether law school is worth the expense with low prospects for employment.

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Law schools are at a crossroads. And the way in which schools adapt to these changes will directly impact how, and if, law schools survive. “But given the deterioration in attendance, what strikes many in law school academia is how modest the response by law schools has been thus far,” noted Elizabeth Olson and David Segal in a December 17, 2014, New York Times article. Unfortunately, law schools have not adapted to the changing landscape, but they must in order to survive.

Law schools award a J.D. degree, but it is a mere name change from the LL.B. it used to award in the 1970s. Nothing changed but the name of the degree. In fact, if you watch The Paper Chase, a 1970s movie, you will see little has changed in how law schools educate students.

Law schools are holding on to a model that is a Bachelor of Laws, an education in law. Students want to be educated to do something. They want a return on their investment, and until law schools can show that the investment a student makes will yield a return, enrollments will continue to drop.

I am tired of hearing school administrations say that students have to take responsibility for their own education. It is time the law schools acknowledged their responsibility to educate students for a purpose.

Law schools have to stop blaming other factors like the economy. We get it, times are tough. What law schools need to do is train the students to use their degrees to earn a living in today’s economic environment. Be flexible and adapt to the current market conditions.

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Law schools need to align themselves with the growing long-term hiring trends. While some may hold a bleak outlook for the legal profession and the future employment prospects for law students, there are many newly emerging and thriving areas of law in need of attorneys. Law schools need to increase their clinic offerings and offer students more academic specializations that could lead to better employment prospects upon graduation. There are several industries and legal practice areas currently undergoing significant changes.

In an article published by the State Bar of Wisconsin, Robert Denney outlines the current national and global practice trends. According to Denney, the practice areas with the most demand for attorneys include energy law, regulatory law, and health care law. This is not surprising given the massive overhaul of the U.S. health care industry with the recent enactment of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), which is creating a demand for attorneys in government agencies, hospitals, and law firms. Other rising areas of practice, according to Denney, are financial services, corporate law (more and more companies are expanding their in-house counsel roles as a way to cut costs), and intellectual property law.

The growth of these specializations shows that the legal profession is not dying; it’s just changing. The areas of high demand today may not be the same areas of demand from 30 years ago, but there is still, and always will be, a need for attorneys.

As I previously mentioned, the failure to adapt to a changing landscape and holding on to a model that is outdated is one of the primary reasons many are electing not to attend law school. Contrary to popular belief, Shakespeare’s quote — “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” — was not intended as a criticism of lawyers, but instead to highlight the important role that lawyers can play in society. Law schools have a duty to ensure all law students have the tools to one day play an important role in society.


Professor Joseph Marino has been a fixture in the world of legal education for the past 40 years. Whether you’re just starting law school, about to take the bar, or an attorney in need of CLE, he and Marino Legal Academy are here to help. He is the Director of Marino Bar Review and the Marino Institute for Continuing Legal Education. He writes a bimonthly column, Ask the Professor. Visit the Marino CLE page on ATL, connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook, or email him via info@marinolegal.com.