The Law School Admissions Game

The weekend edition of USA Today leads with a story on the sanctions law schools are facing based upon poor bar passage rates. The ABA will convene a conference to require accredited schools to ensure that at least 75% of graduates pass the bar within two years. Right now 75% of student must pass the bar within five years of graduating. The article point out that, because of various loopholes within ABA standards, schools with passages rates as low as 50% are not being sanctioned. The article includes a searchable index of bar passage rates for all law schools in the nation.

Where does the problem originate? It has long been a reality that there are too many people with law degrees chasing too few jobs. But that reality became even more dire in the mid-2000s when the legal industry suffered from the economic collapse. As law school admissions declined, law schools became less selective, to the tune of admitting students with little hope of passing the bar. The ABA has been slow to respond.

As law school graduates are finding the bar impossible to pass, student loans are coming due. And, where law graduates have previously struggled to find a job, they are now struggling to earn a license to even look for a job.

The cynical side of me doesn’t envision ABA standards to actually tighten given that law schools have a financial incentive to do what it takes to keep tuition dollars coming.