Those hoping that a multiyear trend of declining law school applications and admissions would come to an end this year are confronting disappointing statistics.
Applications for the class that begins law school this fall are down 8 percent following double-digit declines the two previous years, according to statistics compiled by the Law School Admission Council. That adds up to a total drop in applications of 37 percent since 2010, and likely means an entering class of around 38,000, a University of North Carolina law professor tells the National Law Journal (sub. req.).
If law professor Alfred Brophy is right, that would be the smallest group to enter American Bar Association-accredited law schools since 1974, the article says. In 2010, a total of 52,488 individuals began their first year of law school.
Brophy called the numbers “a real morale buster,” and said it’s unclear when the enrollment decline will stop. “Law school just isn’t the path into the middle class that it once was,” he told the legal publication.
