Recently, I’ve seen an increase of articles concerning the state of the legal profession. Some people are blaming the current recession for the lack of law jobs, decreased salaries, and disappearing bonuses and benefits. Others feel that the legal profession was already sinking due to outsourcing and poor regulations. Just look at some of the comments that I’ve seen over at the ABAJournal:

“This is the inevitable popping of the legal services bubble. There are simply too many law schools, too many law students, too many lawyers. Time to shut down some low-ranked schools and shrink the class sizes of higher-ranked schools to reflect the new reality.”

“Fewer law students need to expect to get big firm jobs, and law schools need to do a better job managing expectations and recruiting students who have the desire to work in smaller to mid-size firms.”

“I went to a tier 2 school and graduated in the top 1/4 of my class. I would kill for a small firm job or any job for that matter. I am 160K in debt and virtually unemployable. Law schools should do a better job in not falsifying job stats.”

Do you agree with these sentiments? Can the legal profession be saved by restricting access only to Tier 1 graduates?

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