Leipold writes, “I have been surprised recently that a number of law schools, through their dean or their office of career services, have called on NALP generally and on me specifically to develop a more positive message about the entry-level job market.” Leipold also stressed, “One request went so far as to urge me to describe the entry-level employment market as good. Ah, if wishing would only make it so.”
According to Leipold, ABA-approved law schools have been found to be collecting about $4 billion every year in fees and tuitions.
With law schools applications dropping, students becoming more aware of the situation; the government projecting long-term growth in the legal services at about 20,000 new jobs every year due to growth or replacement, and the system churning out 40,000 new J.D.s against that demand – the heat on law students is already high enough. But, the real business model that is being hurt, is the antiquated U.S. legal education system with the blessings of ABA approval that views students only as moneybags.
Desperation leads to lying, and with the national furor over misleading employment statistics (now being quietly and efficiently swept under the rugs by sympathetic alumni networks residing within court systems), law schools seem desperate to paint a rosy picture by other means. Including but not limited to calling upon trade groups and the media to provide silver linings.
Leipold mentions that while it is difficult to predict future job markets, at least “we know, for instance, that fewer than half of the members of the Class of 2011 found jobs in private practice … the median starting salary for the clasS fell 17% from that for the Class of 2009 … the Class of 2011 describe the weakest entry-level job market that NALP has measured in nearly 40 years …”