Link from Leiter: Numbers, facts, and the legal job market Forum

[whereskyle]

http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leit ... arket.html

(follow the hyperlink to the article.)

I suspect that the miasma of negativity should reside for at least another cycle, but here is some discussion that points to our current plight being a short-term, recession-driven hysteria, which will soon blow over. Any thoughts?

[Tiago Splitter]

I for one am shocked that a professor at the Western New England School of Law wants you to believe that her school is not a scam. This is seriously one of the dumbest articles ever written.

[patogordo]

I for one am shocked that a professor at the Western New England School of Law wants you to believe that her school is not a scam. This is seriously one of the dumbest articles ever written.

CYBER-MISCREANT

[patogordo]

Using admittedly back-of-the-envelope math based on current trends affecting the legal market (in particular, lawyer retirements, population growth, and additional demand for legal services driven by increased volume and complexity)

notably missing: money to pay for more legal services

[androstan]

In addition to the number of jobs for employed lawyers, there are many lawyers who are, for example, self-employed or only partially employed within the legal profession or who are not counted as “lawyers” in the BLS data. They, therefore, remain entirely unrecorded in the BLS Employment Projections 2010 base-year data.

Indeed, according to the ABA Market Research Department, the United States had a total of 1,225,452 lawyers licensed in 2010.20 Accordingly, there is a large lacuna comprising an additional half million of currently licensed lawyers who are not properly reflected in the BLS Employment Projections data.21 One may safely assume that, at present, a good number (though certainly not all)22 of those licensed lawyers are gainfully employed, too—mainly within the legal profession.

One may also safely assume that, during this decade, a significant number of them will retire, thereby making further room for others, including new law graduates.

The assumptions are safe. Inquiry ended.

[whereskyle]

So our take away is.... Still, far too many law schools.

[Tiago Splitter]

A more recent example of this journalistic “game of telephone” can be found in the February 2013 issue of the National Jurist. After referencing the prior ABA Journal source, the article How Legal Education Can Get Practical claims that “by 2020 there will only be 73,000 [sic] jobs available for 360,000 [sic] law school graduates.”29 Wait, 360,000 graduates in 2020 alone? That is more than a 700 percent increase from current graduation numbers in 2012 (44,495)30—so, every year for the remaining eight years of this decade (2013 to 2020) we are almost doubling the amount of law school graduates compared to 2012 levels?

lol.

My favorite part is the conclusion that because we have 1 lawyer for every 254 people now compared to 1 lawyer for every 636 people in 1961, demand for legal services must have skyrocketed.

[androstan]

tl;dr the article spends a lot of time ad homing law school critics/skeptics then makes a bunch of questionable assumptions with very thin support in order to draw its conclusions

[TigerDude]

Shame on Leiter for calling that essay "facts."

[FlightoftheEarls]

Shame on Leiter for calling that essay "facts."

CYBER-MISCREANT

[Blessedassurance]

why does his website say "A Member of the Law Professor Blogs Network" like it's significant?

[Mal Reynolds]

Leiter is a joke.