After some lean years, law schools might be poised for a comeback.
More people are sitting for the LSAT, the exam required for entry into most U.S. law schools. And law schools in North Carolina and around the country say applications for next fall’s class are up from last year — in some cases significantly.
The uptick in interest is welcome news for U.S. law schools, where enrollment has fallen to 40-year lows in the wake of the Great Recession.
So what’s behind this revived interest? Law school officials have some theories.
Economic recovery
The Great Recession hit law firms hard. Some laid off attorneys. Many cut back on hiring new law school grads. Prospective students shied away from borrowing $100,000 or more for a degree that no longer guaranteed a high-paying job.
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From 2010 to 2015, according to the American Bar Association, the number of law school applicants fell by nearly 40 percent. Overall enrollment at U.S. law schools this fall stood at a little more than 110,000 — 25 percent below the peak in 2010.
North Carolina’s six law schools — Campbell, Duke, Elon, N.C. Central, UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest — fared a little better. Applications at all six are down 35 percent since 2011, according to the numbers they reported to the ABA. Combined enrollment declined 10 percent.
Since 2015, however, the Law School Admission Council reported increases in people sitting for the LSAT in each of the past two years. The number of people taking the exam is up about another 25 percent this year.
Officials at all six N.C. law schools say their applications are running ahead of last year. Applications at UNC-Chapel Hill are “slightly up,” according to a spokesman there. Wake Forest reports a “significant jump.” Applications to Campbell University’s law school as of mid-December are up about 8 percent over a year ago.
Jay Shively, assistant dean for admissions and financial aid at Wake Forest University School of Law, said more undergraduates are showing up to hear his presentations during college visits.
“My gut tells me that there’s more interest in law schools than there’s been in the past few years,” Shively said. “Employment may not be at pre-bust levels, but it’s definitely a healthier job market than it was five or six years ago.”
In the wake of the Great Recession, some law firms are revamping their traditional partnership management arrangements and starting to embrace innovation and new technology. Luke Bierman, dean of the Elon University School of Law, said such changes have been wrenching for those in the legal profession.
“As with any changes, they create dislocation and opportunity,” Bierman said. “A lot of smart kids might figure that there are some jobs (available) and that maybe this isn’t a bad time to get into the legal profession.”
A Trump bump?
One of the defining moments of the start of Donald Trump’s presidency was thousands of attorneys rushing to the aid of people stuck at airports after the sudden announcement of a ban on refugees and citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Law school admissions officers say those positive images of lawyers have stuck with prospective law school students.
Dexter Smith, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at Campbell’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, said many law school applicants say they’re interested in civil rights, immigration, health care and international law.
“These are issues that are very prominent in the media right now,” Smith said. “There’s a little more interest now — a little more passion — in civic duty.”
Catherine Bonventre, the pre-law adviser at Guilford College, said the students she meets with don’t usually list the president as one of their motivations for considering law school.
Rather, she said, they talk about a passion for social justice or immigration law. A couple said they were inspired by Amal Clooney or Bryan Stevenson, high-profile human rights attorneys who spoke at Bryan Series events the college sponsored.
“I wouldn’t rule out the impact of Trump,” said Bonventre, an assistant professor of criminal justice. “But nobody’s explicitly said (his name) to me.”
New programs
Bierman said applications to Elon Law are up 60 percent since last year — and that Elon is one of two U.S. law schools with an increase in application volume of more than 50 percent.
He suspects the jump is fueled by the recent overhaul of Elon Law. Most law schools require three years to complete a degree. Elon’s standard program is now just two-and-a-half years, and its curriculum puts more emphasis on real-world legal experiences than traditional law schools. The school graduated its first class to complete the 2.5-year program in December.
“We’ve shown that this kind of learning is viable and has a place in legal education,” Bierman said. “I think it’s exciting to this generation of students.”
Wake Forest’s law school announced in November that it would accept scores from the GRE, the most widely taken graduate school exam, in place of the LSAT. Shiveley said it’s too early to tell if this decision has had any effect on applications.