Excess law school graduates by state and region

Law Graduate Overproduction by State (2011)

Law Graduate Overproduction by BEA Regions (2011)

The above graphs are the product of Matt Leichter, who blogs at Law School Tuition Bubble. You can check out his blog for his methodology in compiling the data. Naturally, these are rough estimates at best. And, by the way, darker is not better. For a chart showing the data by state, see Leichter’s blog.

The other news concerning law school enrollment appears in the following charts recently released by the Law School Admission Council, which show that 13.4% fewer people have applied to U.S. laws schools this year resulting in an 18.8% decline in applications (good news for society, bad news for law schools):

Succinctly put, it’s outrageous that institutions recklessly expanded their law school capacity without any regard for the students and graduates who are left with huge debts and bleak job prospects. Worse yet, new law schools are still being opened. The reason is simple: law schools are (or at least, were) big money makers for their institutions. Now new lawyers are paying the price.

If you have a burning desire to practice law, then by all means go. But do so with your eyes wide open. And select your law school carefully.

I’ve covered many of the issues in these previous posts: Law school isn’t the slam dunk it used to be; Shocking job prospects for new lawyers; Reasons not to major in pre-law; Thinking of pre-law?; Legal education is on the verge of major changes (perhaps); Do you want to be a lawyer?; and Pre-laws should take a look at W&L.