The global economic meltdown has students looking in the dwindling legal field, rather than in the disastrously impacted finance and banking sector.

The number of British law students planning to eschew the legal profession when they leave law school has fallen from 18% in 2007 to 13% in 2009.

Only 17 percent of the 2,500-plus students surveyed are considering working in investment banking, down from 25% two years ago.

Fifty percent of undergraduates want to be solicitors; 16% want to be barristers; and 22% would be happy either way.

Of those not intending to be lawyers, civil service and academia are the most popular options.

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Laptop computer use and its educational implications have sometimes generated heated debate among legal educators. LSSSE findings show that student use of laptops for keeping and reviewing notes and calling up previously briefed cases goes together with high levels of engagement in courses. So when used effectively, laptops may well enhance learning, rather than being a substitute for other kinds of course engagement or simply a distraction.

Also from the report: More than 90% of 1L students regularly come to class prepared, but only 75% of 3Ls do so. And 18% of students feel that their law school contributes very little to developing a personal code of values and ethics.

BTW, did anyone else notice that the LSSSE authors forgot to pay for their images? Oops.

Via The Chronicle of Higher Education via The UW Law Library.

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