A radically changed job market since the financial meltdown — in which law firms have retrenched, salaries have fallen and many new attorneys have struggled to find a job that puts their J.D. to use — has led to a precipitous drop in law school applications.
Enrollment in 2013 was down 24 percent from what it was in 2010, making law school a bit more of a buyer’s market. So even as hiring shows signs of recovery and average starting pay inches up from the post-crash low of $78,700 for the class of 2011 to about $82,400 for 2013 grads, many schools are dreaming up new ways to make their programs stand out.
More than a dozen schools now offer some form of a compressed program, an innovation pioneered by Northwestern Law School in Illinois in 2009. Brooklyn Law School launched a two-year option last summer, for example, in which students start by accumulating six credits over the summer, then take 14 credits in the fall and 15 or 16 each term thereafter, with three-credit intersessions between semesters and an externship during the second summer.
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Regardless of how you crunch the credits, the load makes for an intense two years. “It’s clearly not for everybody,” says Brooklyn Law President and Dean Nick Allard. “It’s for highly motivated, highly qualified and mature students.” He notes that most of the 30 students in the first class arrived from the work world.
It’s no coincidence that these programs appeal to a more seasoned student, agrees Drexel Law School Dean Roger Dennis, who notes that one aim of starting the Philadelphia school’s two-year program was to appeal to a wider audience. While not required, work experience is strongly preferred for admission to Northwestern’s accelerated program.
In another nod to shifting economic realities, law schools have been expanding their interdisciplinary options. Stanford Law School, for one, now offers 27 joint J.D. degrees; possible add-ons include computer science, bioengineering, public policy and medical degrees.
In addition to its unusual post-J.D. master’s program in space, cyber and telecommunications law, the law school at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln boasts one joint degree in law and public health and another that adds gerontology, both of which Dean Susan Poser sees as being increasingly attractive in the highly regulated hospital and nursing home industries.
And while joint law and MBA degrees are nothing new, some schools are now packing business studies directly into the J.D. curriculum. Northwestern, for instance, collaborates with the university’s Kellogg School of Management to offer law students a concentration in business enterprise, and the law school operates the Entrepreneurship Law Center, where students team up to advise small businesses.
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Beyond using class time to teach skills like writing briefs and reading a balance sheet, law schools are rapidly implementing other sorts of practical training. Some emphasize simulation; others, real-world experience. “There’s quite a lot of momentum in experiential education,” says Daniel Rodriguez, dean of Northwestern’s law school.
Other schools have borrowed a page from medicine to incorporate clinical rotations or “residencies.” At New York Law School, 3Ls now spend the entire year in three 10-week clinical rotations that have them working with officials at the New York City Law Department and on civil litigation at the Legal Aid Society, for example.
In one of the most radical reforms, Elon University School of Law in North Carolina will introduce a complete overhaul of its curriculum this year. The program will shift to trimesters so students graduate in two and a half years and can prep for the February bar exam and enter the job market in the spring. The new curriculum is much more intentionally sequenced; shadowing a litigator leads to participation in moot court and then to a residency with a trial and appellate practice firm, for example.
“The real innovation here was to take legal education and make it logically progressive,” says Luke Bierman, dean of the Elon law school. “We want to make sure students learn each part before they move on.”
While experiential learning is the latest buzzword in legal education, the extent to which students can truly participate in proceedings remains highly regulated by the American Bar Association, which accredits law schools.
“You cannot give legal advice to somebody unless you are a licensed attorney,” Nebraska’s Poser points out. So clinics that serve real clients are typically limited to third-year students certified by their state supreme court to work under the supervision of a lawyer.
The limitations frustrate some educators, who can see the potential for even greater innovation. Rodriguez believes that falling enrollments could jeopardize some law schools, ultimately pressuring the ABA to allow greater freedom of movement.
By some measures, there’s never been a better time to apply to law school. Thanks to declining enrollment, applicants may find that they have a greater shot at top-ranked programs.
The University of California–Berkeley School of Law accepted 20 percent of those who applied last year, compared with 12 percent in 2012. George Washington University Law School‘s rate jumped from 30 percent to 45 percent.
Median LSAT scores and GPAs have drifted downward in many cases, too. “We’re taking chances on riskier applicants,” says Harold Krent, dean of Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law. “That’s not unique to us at all.”
At the same time, many schools below the ranks of the elite are slashing the cost and offering more financial bait to lure top candidates. Elon has lowered tuition by 12 percent and guarantees that costs for the class of 2017 will remain constant. Brooklyn Law is cutting tuition by 15 percent this fall and has raised money from alumni to fund more need-based aid.
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Such generosity may not last long, cautions Northwestern’s Rodriguez, who likens the trend to an arms race. “More law schools are giving more financial aid than they have in many, many years, and they’ve needed to do that to fill their classes,” he says. “But it’s not sustainable in the long run.”
Meanwhile, well-qualified prospective lawyers have an unusual opportunity to look for just the right sweet spot of eased admission requirements and more money.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Graduate Schools 2016” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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