Proposed Law School Changes

Law School Grads and Unemployment, High Costs of Law School, Debt, Economics, Dying Demand for Lawyers… The gloomy forecasts continue… So, where are the solutions to the current Law School Crisis?

There is also some general agreement that law schools are  not doing a good job in preparing students to practice law…Preparing future lawyers with practice-oriented courses, teaching law office management, providing bar review courses and transitioning 2 and 3L students into apprenticeships and teaching assistantships.

Few question that there must be significant changes to the legal education system. Solutions are almost always tied to economics—How to deliver a superior product at a lower cost.

Law School Financial Reform

Limit Federal Loan Eligibility:  This suggestion is that law schools who meet gainful employment regulation standards would lose their eligibility for federal loans. The emphasis for education, therefore, becomes providing degrees that would enable students to repay their student loans and revoking their eligibility if they do not. The end result is that many underperforming schools would go out of business. The intended result of the regulation is to encourage these institutions to lower their tuitions, leading to lower student debt, and preparing students for employment. Is this practical, how would the requirement be regulated? Read more at  https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2012/06/20/new-gainful-employment-regulations-may-impact-college-students

Limit the amount of loans law students can borrow: Limiting the amount that students can borrow in federal loans and private lenders based on analysis of the ability of the student to repay based on the school they attend.

Restricting Income Based Repayment:  This proposal would lead to attorneys above a certain income level not being allowed to enroll in Income Based Repayment. IBR is based on having a disproportionate debt-to-income level… Absolute income level is not an indicator of the difficulty to repay loans. It is unlikely that this proposal would save money as the administrative costs and the burdent o certain attorneys might be prohibitive.

Reduce Tuition – Cap Education Loans:
University of Colorado law professor, Paul Campos,  states:  “The cost of law school needs to be reduced to what it was a generation ago,” he writes. “This would happen practically overnight if the federal government put reasonable caps on educational loans.”

Cost Cutting by the Law School

Cost-cutting by the law school is as necessary as the need to cut the cost of the education to the students. This proposal would result in the need for fewer instructors and reduced costs to the law school

Two-Year Law School?

The case for a shortening the legal degree from three years to two has been presented. Many agree that the third year of law school is useful, but not crucial, and that a law student could take the bar exam before completing their degree, and if they pass let them practice.

Law firms already have to train new hires as the third year of education doesn’t do much to prepare a lawyer for actual practice.

Offer two years of academic instruction and a third year focused on the student’s career choice. The third year would include internships and clinical training. During this third year students would remain connected to their teachers through interactive electronic communication and at the end of the year the students would return to the classroom for a series of lectures and seminars designed to bring together the academic lessons of the first two years and the practical experiences of the third year.  Add a hands-on clinical component to legal education in the students’ first year. The intent is to clarify for many students, early, some of the realities of the practice of law.

Increased Attention to Clinics

There  has been discussion about how to make training less costly and more relevant, with special emphasis on the last year of law school. A number of schools are doing this which also gives students more hands-on training.

Non-lawyer Specialist Programs

Creating one or two year training programs for non-lawyer specialists who perform tasks that are currently done by lawyers.  This would result in delivery of a lower cost training to students who might not ever end up in a high-paying attorney specialist jobs but would support those specialties.
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21571213-could-law-schools-be-ready-change-their-ways-two-year-itch
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/how_to_improve_law_school_required_clinical_training_capped_loans_are_among/
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/inside_the_law_school_scam_appellate_briefs_corporate_sponsors/

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