The Law School Scam?

There is a lot of truth to this video contending there is a law school scam.  I personally think there is a law school scam, but probably not for the reasons stated in this video.  For you see, you can argue that a lot of law school graduates are not getting employed immediately after law school, and that traditional law job are falling, but I hardly think it is because of India and China or the relatively small increase in law school seats.  The truth of the matters is that all traditional jobs in this country are dissipating.  It is simple not the way we work any longer in this world.

Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn".  It is a flexibility that too many law students lack, or it is a mode they get into that hurts their chances at good living.

We are being washed by the Third Wave and work styles and opportunities are changing.  They are not less.  They are not worse.  You can call it the "post-industrial" society and the "information age" if you prefer.  But, this society is represented by "subcults" or diverse lifestyles, "adhocracies" or fluid organizations that adapt quickly to change, and where information begins to substitute for most material resources.  As to the latter point, information becomes the main material for workers, each of which is only loosely affiliated.  Mass production is replaced by mass customization; offering personalized and cheaper goods and services.  Third Wave lawyers, like Third Wavers in every field work from homes or cubicles or small shared offices free from the confines of standardization, centralization, concentration, synchronization and bureaucracy, which have primarily contributed to the dissatisfaction of lawyers with the practice of law.  Third Wavers support and fight for diverse lifestyles.  Third Wavers do not employ other lawyers or staff so much as we operate within theseadhocracies or fluid organizations in which we as attorneys and firms come together only to work on specific cases or tasks.  In other words, we are freelancers.  We survive not on libraries, expensive associates, in-house computer systems, and high rise offices of marble and mahogany, but off the Internet, online research, information and social media.  In short, we do what attorneys were programmed to do -- we collect information, process information, analyze information, repackage information, and sell it in packages or in a means to make the lives of ordinary people and organizations better.  Shorter still, Third Wave law firms and lawyers provide personalization and mass customization of the law for the consumer or prosumer in a more cost effective manner.

And frankly, law school graduates are not ending up on skid row, as the video might suggest.  They are slowly finding and developing a life in the law in this Third Wave environment.  It is a shame they have to do it on their own.

The scam that law schools perpetrate is that ranking systems do not keep up with reality.  Law school are trying to please the ranking gods.  They do this by perverting statistics.  Then we expect them not to use these statistics to promote their law school.  Therefore they develop systems, training, and realities that do not reflect what is actually happening in the "real world".  Law schools are a bit like Ward and June Clever.  Those old show are fun to watch, but they are not realistic either.

The problem with law schools engaging in this deception is that they are wholly failing to prepare, train, or educate their attorneys for this "real world" or Third Wave environment.  They sell something that is not true, which is shameful because they could easily sell that which does reflect what is going on and what is likely to happen on graduation.  Sure, it has to be disappointing to go through law school being told there is a standard Dagwood or GeorgeJetson type of job out there for you when you graduate, and there is not.  But, there is work for you and lots of it.  The problem is that the law schools have mainly ignored (or just minimally complied with) any type of practical education.  They need to be producing practice read attorneys, without a lot of debt, that can take on the market because that is the reality of the situation.

There is no allusion in other professions about this.  Most doctors now they are going out on their own or into small group practices when they graduate.  Dentist know this.  Nobody has to solicit those to become a Realtor based on promises of high paying salaries, fast cars and an easy life.

The lie really needs to stop.  I agree.  I just do not agree that there is as much dissatisfaction out there as this video would suggest.  Maybe some initial upset as law graduates must learn on their own to adapt.

I wish I could start a law school that recruited students with the correct information, prepared them for the right things, and trained them for the real world experience of the Third Wave.  I think it would be one of the best law schools in the country, one of the cheapest law school in the country from a tuition standpoint, and one of the lowest ranked.  Why?  Because the rankings do not care about real world issues or real world matrix.  They are designed to sell advertising.  Statistics are combined to deceive.  I am not even sure such a law school could achieve ABA approval, but with a lot of work, maybe it could.

Comments

[Anthony]

Very interesting perspective.

[Monica]

Great blog! I will be graduating in May 2010 and I am scared as hell about not finding a job and not being able to pay back the student loans. I went to an out of state private law school by choice, because my home state of WV has one law school. I didn't want to get stuck in the "Appalachian Bubble." Now, I'm in debt $200,000 because of law school. My tuition has increased from $687 a credit hour to $995 a credit hour. On top of that, I almost died from a ruptured appendix the 2nd semester of my 1L year (one week before finals). Did my law school help me out? Nope.. they flunked me, took all my money and since I was already $47,000 in debt from that year they told me I would have to restart again. So two years later here I am. I love law, it is my dream, it is my passion. If I had to do it over again... I'd be a teacher. Summers off, $42,000 starting salary. Compare that to Legal Aid... I'm destined for bankrupcty and life as a pauper...

[Kevin]

Interesting post. While I think you're discounting the dissatisfaction, disorientation, and even despair out there (law school graduates may not be "ending up on skid row", but far more of us have come much closer than you'd expect), the important thing is that you're offering an idea and a way forward here. I appreciate that.

However, I'm not at all sure how someone in my position would get started. I have been a member of the Bar for some years now, but never practiced. I've been working in non-legal (and poorly-paid) jobs all my life so far, both before and after law school. The sum total of my legal experience consists of: a) a summer spent evaluating petitions for cert for a state Supreme Court justice, b) going through a hard-fought divorce, and c) helping my parents navigate a nuisance suit when the lawyer representing them grew unreliable and possibly senile.

In the absence of getting a legal education such as you propose to offer (I bet that even if it weren't allowed to replace traditional law school, you could get plenty of takers for it in the form of a one-year post-JD program), do you have any suggestions on how to start? Specifically:

1) How does someone with a law degree but no law firm experience get the minimal knowledge and savvy to start handling clients as a solo and not get sued or disbarred?

2) Then, how does that person market himself in the current legal environment? Maybe I'm just not very creative, but the only pitch I can think of is "I may not be an expert in what I'm doing, but I'm conscientious and trustworthy and very cheap."

I'm asking these things not because I've already decided it's impossible, or because I'm looking to have someone do the work and thinking for me. I just plain have no idea how I would begin to any part of this. (How could I have learned enough to graduate in the top 10% of my class yet still have so little clue about lawyering?)

Any ideas or suggestions of things to read would be appreciated.