GEORGE LEEF: The Canary In The Law School Coal Mine?

In his recent City Journal article Machines v. Lawyers, Northwestern Law School professor John O. McGinnis explained why the demand for lawyers will keep shrinking. “Law is, in effect, an information technology – a code that regulates social life. And as the machinery of information technology grows exponentially in power, the legal profession faces a great disruption not unlike that already experienced by journalism, which has seen employment drop by about a third….”

Throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, law was a growth industry and a great many people (especially students who had taken “soft” majors in college) figured that earning a JD was an attractive option. Naturally, law schools expanded to accommodate the throngs of degree seekers, who were aided by federal student loan programs. Going to law school both delayed the need to start repaying undergraduate loans and appeared to be the pathway into a bright and lucrative career.

That’s not true anymore.

Indicative of the new law school reality is the announcement by the administration of the Western Michigan University Thomas Cooley Law School that it will close its Ann Arbor campus at the end of 2014.

A crucial factor in the steep declines in law school enrollment is the ready availability of information on the job prospects for graduates.

My colleague Ben Barton has a book on this subject, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.