Department of Bad Ideas: Law School

Most readers are aware that WC is a lawyer in Real Life, or at least what passes for Real Life. Long-time readers know that WC is sharply critical of law schools and the law school industry.

According to Paul Campos, writing in Salon, the legal industry will generate 21,000 new jobs in 2012. Law schools will graduate 45,000 new lawyers from American Bar Association-accredited law schools. There’s a whole additional horde graduating from non-accredited law schools with degrees that are nearly worthless, even in California.

This blog post can almost stop there. There will be jobs for less than half of the new law school graduates.

But it’s worse. Most of those law school graduates will matriculate with student loans. The average student loan balance will be in the range of $150,000. The loan bears interest at the rate of 7.5% per year. That’s $937 in just interest every month. Most grads lucky enough to land jobs will start in the range of $30,000 – $60,000 year. Assuming you are making enough to pay off the loan over a 20 year term, that salary will never let you buy a house, create a retirement account or build a nest egg. And the unrelenting supply of new lawyers will make it tough to argue for raises. Or start your own shop.

You can argue that the interest rate is outrageous. The loans are nondischargeable in bankruptcy; there isn’t any real credit risk. Yet the rates are two or three times mortgage loans. But that’s the rate, and no one thinks they are coming down any time soon. You can argue that tuition of $40,000 – $60,000 per year is outrageous. But law school tuition continues to increase at multiples of the inflation rate. You can argue lawyer salaries are ridiculously low, especially for starting lawyers, but the law of supply and demand is even more unforgiving and inflexible than interest rates and tuition increases.

In fact, its pretty clear that in many cases, even among those young lawyers who can find work, it’s hard to argue that a legal education will ever pay for itself.

Don’t misunderstand, WC likes the practice of law, finds it intellectually rewarding and compared to, say, nature photography, financially rewarding. And stressful. And maddening. And sometimes infuriating.

But for a new young lawyer, who finished in the middle of his or her class? More like lifetime financial handcuffs.

Which is too bad. Alaska and the rest of America need bright, competent, skilled and hardworking young lawyers. Just not quite this many.