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The glass is half-full. The glass is HALF-FULL. THE GLASS IS FREAKING FULL.
Seriously, it takes an optimistic soul to run a law school nowadays, especially one that keeps popping up on lists of schools that are facing financial crises.
Brooklyn Law School Dean Nick Allard seems to be that sort of man. He's the leader of the club that's too expensive for you and me. (BLS, 50k, better win the lot-ter-ry!) Dean Allard recently made a list of law school predictions for 2014, which were published by the Brooklyn Eagle. Here they are, in shortened form, with a few annotations.
For his sake, and the sake of students everywhere, we hope his wildest fantasies come true.
Seriously? The working class hates the lawyer because, out of arrogance, we demand "respect and reputation," instead of actually trying to help him. Also, we charge too much. The upper-class hates the lawyer because we overbill and joke about it via email.
And there is little hope of the recent grad filling the oft-vacant role of noble neighborhood shingle-hanger with reasonable rates. Why? BLS charges 50k. Per year. Plus interest, if you use student loans to finance your education.
Wait, the ABA leads things? We thought they censured law schools over minor issues, provided CLEs, took divisive stances on issues that have nothing to do with the practice of law, and had really nifty conferences. We haven't seen much, in terms of leadership, during this recent industry collapse, however.
A debt-ridden law school upped their entering class size? Actually, yeah, we'd imagine a few schools will take that route.
Two-year programs mean similar revenue (summer classes cost $$$ too!), but faster churn (graduating classes every two years!). Spot-on, old chap! Plus, the President thinks the third year is a waste of time so ...
We hope so. Truthfully, this is exactly what needs to happen. But some school has to blink first. And when they do drop merit scholarships and tuition, their admissions stats, and by extension, ranking and "prestige," will drop along with it. The sticker price of a law school education shouldn't be $150,0000, especially when that education merely nets happy, warm, prestige points and suffixes.
After five straight years of decline, is there anywhere to go but up? (Knocks on wood.)
What's our prediction? Nothing will happen. Employment rates will continue to stagnate, especially since Class of 2013 was the biggest yet, in terms of 1L enrollment. For the Class of 2016, which started back in September, we saw some schools cut class sizes to maintain admissions standards (Washington and Lee), while others bloated their class size for revenue purposes (Wake Forest). The net effect will be a smaller entering class for 2014-2015.
As for tuition cuts, we'd imagine a school with plummeting demand will probably bloat its class size while slashing tuition. They stay afloat, but stats and prestige suffers. No one else follows.
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