HIGHER ED BUBBLE AND LAWYERS FINALE – In my book I argue that legal practice in America has divided into two distinct categories – very wealthy corporate lawyers and everybody else.  Why does it matter?

It really matters for the higher ed bubble, law school edition.  Law schools, from Harvard to Thomas Jefferson Law School, are priced and run as if they are sending their graduates exclusively into corporate law and millions in earnings, when in fact they are sending most graduates to the 50k a year market.  Outside of the top 15 or 20 law schools in America only the top 5-10% of any given class will join a large law firm and receive a huge payday.

The small town lawyer used to loom large in the American psyche.  When an American of a certain age pictured a lawyer he thought of Abraham Lincoln, Atticus Finch, Perry Mason, or Matlock.

These lawyers were regular guys who took the business that walked in the door.  If you went to law school expecting to be Perry Mason or Matlock you were certainly disappointed by how boring your life was, but not by what you earned.

After L.A. Law and The Firm Americans stopped thinking of lawyers as solo practitioners and somehow decided that all lawyers were good looking, interesting, and super, extra rich.  This drew a whole new wave of confused history majors from college to law school, and floated a thirty year boom in the number of law schools, the number of law students, tuition, and profits.  This was awesome news for law schools, less so for everyone else.

The worm has turned since 2008 and there are fewer applicants and fewer students and they are haggling more over tuition.  Law schools have likely not hit bottom yet, but the correction is in full (and well-deserved) swing.  More on this later.