Law School is a Scam Forum

[Igloo2022]

Faculty make a lot less in law school than they do In private practice, though, so it’s not like you’re paying partner-level salaries. Do you have actual evidence that the cost of law school has increased with the cost of faculty, or that there’s even any relationship between the two? That’s contrary to everything I’ve ever heard about law school costs and finances. Again, law school tuition frequently underwrites programs in the rest of a school - it absolutely doesn’t all go directly to faculty salaries, and faculty salaries have not increased in past years at the same pace as tuition.

I mean, there is a colossal difference in QOL between a law professor and a Biglawyer. Profs. get many unstructured months per year (they "work", of course, but they sure aren't stuck in some office), don't have bosses (after tenure), and don't have clients. Not to mention the incredible intellectual freedom. The jobs just aren't comparable. This is one of the reasons why many people who could easily get into t13 law schools out of undergrad instead choose traditional university academia. It's a better life than biglaw, if you can actually land the job (which is far from easy in the humanities). Many law profs. are cerebral types who would languish in corporate law firms, which is why "they require 200k+ salaries to take the job, or else they would do biglaw" just doesn't hold.

[MaxMcMann]

Faculty make a lot less in law school than they do In private practice, though, so it’s not like you’re paying partner-level salaries. Do you have actual evidence that the cost of law school has increased with the cost of faculty, or that there’s even any relationship between the two? That’s contrary to everything I’ve ever heard about law school costs and finances. Again, law school tuition frequently underwrites programs in the rest of a school - it absolutely doesn’t all go directly to faculty salaries, and faculty salaries have not increased in past years at the same pace as tuition.

I mean, there is a colossal difference in QOL between a law professor and a Biglawyer. Profs. get many unstructured months per year (they "work", of course, but they sure aren't stuck in some office), don't have bosses (after tenure), and don't have clients. Not to mention the incredible intellectual freedom. The jobs just aren't comparable. This is one of the reasons why many people who could easily get into t13 law schools out of undergrad instead choose traditional university academia. It's a better life than biglaw, if you can actually land the job (which is far from easy in the humanities). Many law profs. are cerebral types who would languish in corporate law firms, which is why "they require 200k+ salaries to take the job, or else they would do biglaw" just doesn't hold.

I mean if law school professors still kept the awesome lifestyle but were now paid 50k a year, I don't think you'd see a flood of Harvard/Yale grads falling over themselves to become one the way they currently do. As in most areas of life, you get what you pay for. And intellectual freedom or not, people have mortgages to pay and children to raise for the most part.

I did have one eccentric prof who said he probably spends under 30k a year and does law purely for the intellectual challenge but I doubt he's in the majority.

[QContinuum]

I mean if law school professors still kept the awesome lifestyle but were now paid 50k a year, I don't think you'd see a flood of Harvard/Yale grads falling over themselves to become one the way they currently do. As in most areas of life, you get what you pay for. And intellectual freedom or not, people have mortgages to pay and children to raise for the most part.

I did have one eccentric prof who said he probably spends under 30k a year and does law purely for the intellectual challenge but I doubt he's in the majority.

Oh, supply would certainly drop, but I doubt there'd actually be difficulty recruiting folks. Plenty would jump at the chance to hold a tenured job where you only teach one or two classes per semester and have the rest of the time to do whatever you please. Plenty of YSH (and other T13) grads take relatively low-paying PI jobs instead of BigLaw. The old saying goes, "you don't go to YLS to get rich". Most YLSers don't pursue the path of maximum wealth because there are "better" (sexier, more exciting, more impactful) opportunities they can chase, including legal academia.

[LSATWiz.com]

I mean if law school professors still kept the awesome lifestyle but were now paid 50k a year, I don't think you'd see a flood of Harvard/Yale grads falling over themselves to become one the way they currently do. As in most areas of life, you get what you pay for. And intellectual freedom or not, people have mortgages to pay and children to raise for the most part.

I did have one eccentric prof who said he probably spends under 30k a year and does law purely for the intellectual challenge but I doubt he's in the majority.

Oh, supply would certainly drop, but I doubt there'd actually be difficulty recruiting folks. Plenty would jump at the chance to hold a tenured job where you only teach one or two classes per semester and have the rest of the time to do whatever you please. Plenty of YSH (and other T13) grads take relatively low-paying PI jobs instead of BigLaw. The old saying goes, "you don't go to YLS to get rich". Most YLSers don't pursue the path of maximum wealth because there are "better" (sexier, more exciting, more impactful) opportunities they can chase, including legal academia.

Yeah, I think you'd see a lot more professors who practice law as well. It would probably negatively impact how many articles they publish but nobody really cares about these articles aside from other professors.

In many areas, $50K pre-tax just isn't enough to live on.