http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/09/24/is-the-bar-too-low-to-get-into-law-school
Setting the Stage: On September 24, 2015, the New York Times featured a discussion in the opinion section, labeled “Is the Bar Too Low to Get Into Law School?” The pieces were furnished by four academics and one legal practitioner. We will focus on the arguments of two of these “educators.”
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/09/24/is-the-bar-too-low-to-get-into-law-school/incoming-law-students-have-weaker-exam-credentials
Jerome Organ of the University of St. Thomas: In his article, “Incoming Law Students Have Weaker Credentials,” Organ admits that ABA-accredited commodes are admitting morons:
“[B]eginning in 2011, there also has been a continuing decline in the median LSAT scores of each entering class of law students.
This is probably a response to the weakened economy. Starting in 2011, with increased transparency about employment outcomes, it became clear that there were more law graduates than there were law jobs. That knowledge appears to have led many prospective law students to reassess whether the investment of time and money in a legal education made sense.
But for reasons that are hard to document empirically, graduates of elite colleges and universities with strong LSAT scores (who would likely still get good jobs upon graduation) have not been drawn to law school. Meanwhile, graduates of less elite schools, with weaker LSAT scores, have continued to enroll. Thus, law schools not only have enrolled fewer students over the last few years, they have also enrolled students with weaker test credentials.” [Emphasis mine]
Organ makes some excellent points. However, he fails to consider that many graduates of top college$ and univer$itie$ are typically bright enough to realize that the U.S. lawyer job market is GLUTTED – without having to step foot inside an ABA-accredited diploma mill. They can easily figure out that it is not worth incurring an additional $150K in NON-DISCHARGEABLE debt, for a chance to enter a declining “profession” is a piss poor investment. They know the score, regarding outsourcing, automation, predictive coding, the rise of flat fees, Biglaw clients moving away from the billable hour, etc.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/09/24/is-the-bar-too-low-to-get-into-law-school/the-bar-exam-is-not-the-best-test-of-a-good-lawyer
Cockroach Nicholas Allard of Crooklyn Law School: In his $elf-$erving opinion fluff piece, “The Bar Exam is Not the Best Test of a Good Lawyer,” Allard deposits the following verbal excrement:
“No one who graduates from an A.B.A.-accredited law school with a strong G.P.A. should have to take the bar exam. The current exam is very expensive, and not a great measure of competence to actually practice law.
At Brooklyn Law School — where the performance of graduates on the bar exam is consistently among the highest in New York and the US — we know from years of data that our students who perform well in law school, and get grades within the top 80 percent of their class, will almost always pass the bar. Their high G.P.A.s are more reliable predictors of professional success than their old LSAT scores, though the National Conference of Bar Examiners (N.C.B.E.) asserts the opposite without data.
Our students study exactly what the American Bar Association, the state courts and our faculty require — a process that includes constant testing, grading, calculation of class rank and supervised practical training. So why should our most ready-to-practice graduates, who will pass the bar anyway, spend the time, effort and money ($50,000 to $100,000 or more in lost wages and bar prep courses) on an outdated, unnecessary rite of passage controlled by the powerful N.C.B.E.?” [Emphasis mine]
It’s funny that this rodent NEVER made this case, until after the huge declines in bar passage rates starting in 2014. If he felt that strongly about this arrangement, then he should have argued this point earlier. By the way, does anyone think that another $2,000 for bar prep is more financially burdensome than $124,376.15 in student loans – for a TTT law degree?!?!
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/08/has-the-decline-in-law-school-applications-bottomed-out
The Numbers: On August 25, 2015, Paul Campos posted an LST entry labeled “Has the deline in law school applications bottomed out?” Scroll down to see how easy it has become to gain admi$$ion to ABA schools – in the span of a decade:
“Since the ABA Section of Legal Education saw fit to approve 17 (!) new law schools over the past decade, increasing the number of ABA law schools by nearly 10%, the ratio of total applicants to ABA law schools has declined even more, from 535 to 1 to 262 to 1. Total 1L enrollment this fall, if we assume that last year’s 80% acceptance rate can’t go any higher, will be around 37,200, meaning that first year enrollment will be down 30% from its 2010 peak, despite a sharp drop in admissions standards. Here’s the percentage of applicants admitted to at least one ABA school over the past ten years:
2004: 55.6%
2005: 58.6%
2006: 63.1%
2007: 66.1%
2008: 66.5%
2009: 67.4%
2010: 68.7%
2011: 71.1%
2012: 74.5%
2013: 76.8%
2014: 79.8%” [Emphasis mine]
Imagine if it was half that simple to get into medical school or dental school, in this country. Professions are supposed to have real standards, in order to protect practitioners and the general public.
Conclusion: Only law school swine could even pretend to debate the obvious: it is ridiculously easy to get into law school, especially in comparison to medical school or dental school admission requirements. Hell, you can receive a degree from a tiny Bible college, or earn a BA in Film Studies from a party school, and be accepted to a number of ABA toilets. In the final analysis, the pigs will do and say anything – in order to keep the gravy train of federal student loans rolling along. They DO NOT GIVE ONE GODDAMN ABOUT YOU, the student or recent graduate.