BAD NEWS FOR THE BAR …
|| By FITSNEWS || Bloomberg has an exhaustive feature report out this week detailing how American lawyers are … well, getting dumber. In fact the report is on the cover of its August 24 Businessweek magazine.
Wait … how can that be, right? Right?
According to the news service, 2014 was the worst year on record for takers of state-level bar exams – with multiple states seeing huge declines in passage rates. In fact scores on the multiple choice section of the exam registered their largest one-year decline in the four decades that the test has been administered.
Whether or not the profession is in crisis – a perennial lament- there’s no question that American legal education is in the midst of an unprecedented slump. In 2015 fewer people applied to law school than at any point in the last 30 years. Law schools are seeing enrollments plummet and have tried to keep their campuses alive by admitting students with worse credentials. That may force some law firms and consumers to rely on lawyers of a lower caliber, industry watchers say, but the fight will ultimately be most painful for the middling students, who are promised a shot at a legal career but in reality face long odds of becoming lawyers.
Who is hurting most under this “dumbing down” of the profession (you know … aside from clients who rely on capable representation)?
Small firms.
“Big law firms say shrinking law school classes and less qualified graduates haven’t cut into their talent pool,” the report found.
Interesting …
Also of interest? Bloomberg’s report came out on the same day the website Above The Law posted a ton of charts and graphs revealing the ongoing decline in Law School Admission Test (LSAT) takers.
“People seem to have gotten the message that maybe law school isn’t the best place to be right now,” the website’s Keith Lee wrote.
Given the number of attorneys who read this website, we look forward to hearing their thoughts …
40 comments
You don’t suppose the for-profit law schools have anything to do with this trend?
Have you answered to you defense of the Democrats mutilating babies, yet?
Until you do…STFU. Because I don’t want to hear from you until you explain yourself, and the mutilating of innocent REAL babies to sell their parts for your GREED. Start talking ASSHOLE. NOW!!!!
Get a job. Until you stop making me pay for your health care and stop cashing those welfare checks I don’t want to hear from you.
You think? The number of qualified good lawyers is probably about the same as it has been in the past. But the for profit law schools are flooding the market with holders of law degrees who would never have made it into established law schools. Is that all bad?. No, it has brought down the cost of legal services. But it has also increased unnecessary and frivolous litigation. Starving lawyers will take cases that most lawyers will not take. And people now need to be more careful than ever. A law degree just does not mean what it use to mean.
Also I would note that Will said a declining passage rate of bar exam was evidence that “lawyers” were getting dumber. Well frankly, that statement is, how do I say this . . .dumb. You are not a lawyer until you pass the bar exam. You merely hold a law degree.
So are Democrat voters and their media.
Your stupid ass is supposed to be a political authority, yet you never WARNED us about Obama. Now he’s made a mess of our country – babies being mutilated – with the Democrat Party.
And you got you head up your ass.
Wouldn’t declining LSAT’s suggest it’s the school PRIOR to law school that’s the problem? (also, law at the lower school levels isn’t exactly a great money maker once they are out, maybe people are wising up)
Anyway, it’s not just lawyers that are getting more dumb, it’s everyone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtCDSnIzGQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJIjoE27F-Q
The decline is in LSAT takers, not scores.
Yeah, I caught the distinction in the middle of typing my statement…but I thought about it more and I’m just wondering if people just don’t feel confident about the whole LSAT thing in general…it’s hard to say people are “dumb” when the #’s of those taking the test are dropping. It’s just a strange article, and I’m obviously just as dumb for posting on it so my Idiocracy links are relevant.
:)
The lack of qualified candidates graduating from law school seem s to coincidence with the lack of qualified candidates across the spectrum. Highly educated engineers, medical doctors, and every discipline seems to be on the decline. We import more and more foreign educated professionals year after year.
Our institutions of higher learning have become more interested in graduating students with a higher level of “social awareness” than educating students in a specific discipline.
They are willing to do the thinking most Americans aren’t willing to do.
All the smart people want to work on Wall Street. What’s that tell you?
Many of the kids going to law school today do not know how to write well because they have had no passion for literature. They have come along in a text message and email society. They did not have time for books and skated through school without reading much. In order to speak well, one must write well. One learns good writing by reading.
“…Many of the kids going to
lawschool today do not know how to write well because they have had no passion forliteratureeducation.”There fixed it for you.
Thanks. I agree.
I am a lawyer and can say one of the biggest myths perpetuated in the legal world is that being a lawyer is akin to rocket science. The truth is, with the exception of intellectual property, tax, and other highly specialized practice areas, anyone of average intelligence can be an effective attorney.
You comment is almost nonsensical. The entire profession of law has become specialized, you named two out of hundreds of specialities and subspecialities. We no longer have the small town lawyers who drafts simple wills, does divorces, handles real estate closings, and handles litigation cases. If you have a lawyer like that get rid of him.
As for average intelligence, I think persons with average intelligence can do almost anything if they work hard and keep up. Including rocket science. Success in a profession is generally about accumulating knowledge and experience. Knowing what to expect and how to respond to it. You do not need to be theoretical physicists, where you have to come up with something brand new that no one ever thought of. I have a good friend who is a Rocket Scientist at Johhs Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. He is a bright guy, but not Hawkins, He does not have to be, to be a good mathematician and engineer.
“You seem to have more than the average share of intelligence for a man of your background,” sneered the lawyer at a witness on the stand.
“If I wasn’t under oath, I’d return the compliment,” replied the witness.
A lawyer was arguing for his client before the judge on
two matters. In the first, the man’s wife was trying to get a divorce because he was impotent. In the second, his secretary wanted child support. The man lost both cases!
The law and medicine both are all about the barriers to entry. These jobs are overpriced mostly out of tradition and incumbency protectionism. Want cheaper healthcare? Train more doctors. Acceptance to Med school is almost arbitrary and political these days. There are dozens of fully qualified applicants plenty smart enough to practice for every spot available in medical schools.
It’s not just lawyers. The govt. run school system nationwide is purposely dumbing down America to make US more receptive to progressive rule. The herd instinct , if you will, as opposed to free thinking. When everyone gets the same govt. check there will be very little to complain about.
rogue, you are on to it….
The govt. run school system (tm Will Folks) nationwide is purposely dumbing down America (tm Glenn Beck) to make us more receptive to progressive rule (tm Fox News, Rush, Beck, Breibert). The herd instinct, if you will, as opposed to free ??? thinking (or listening to the right wing echo chamber).
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A big-city lawyer was representing the railroad in a lawsuit filed by an old rancher. The rancher’s prize bull was missing from the section through which the railroad passed. The rancher only wanted to be paid the fair value of the bull. The case was scheduled to be tried before the justice of the peace in the back room of the general store.
The attorney for the railroad immediately cornered the rancher and tried to get him to settle out of court. The lawyer did his best selling job, and finally the rancher agreed to take half of what he was asking.
After the rancher had signed the release and took the check, the young lawyer couldn’t resist gloating a little over his success, telling the rancher, ‘You know, I hate to tell you this, old man, but I put one over on you in there. I couldn’t have won the case. The engineer was asleep and the fireman was in the caboose when the train went through your ranch that morning. I didn’t have one witness to put on
the stand. I bluffed you!’
The old rancher replied, ‘Well, I’ll tell you, young feller, I was a little worried about winning that case myself, because that bull came home this morning.’
Q: What do lawyers use for birth control?
A: Their personality!
good one!
It was one of the most gruesome cases ever to come before the court, and if found guilty, the defendant would spend the rest of life behind bars. The case had not been proceeding well for the defense. Though there was no direct evidence, the circumstantial evidence was quite compelling. The only chance the lawyer had was to cast some doubt in the minds of the jurors. His only hope was to attack the testimony of the medical examiner.
Lawyer) “And prior to declaring the victim dead, did
you check his pulse?”
Doctor) “No.
Lawyer) “Did you perform CPR?”
Doctor) “No.”
Lawyer) “Did you do anything to determine if the
victim was still alive prior to declaring him dead?”
Doctor) “No.”
Lawyer) “Then, Doctor, isn’t it possible that prior to your declaring the victim dead that, in fact he may have been alive, and that it was your negligence that caused the death?”
Doctor) “Aside from the fact that his brain was in a jar on my desk, I suppose he could have been out practicing law.”
Q: What do you throw to a drowning lawyer?
A: His associates!
two in a row!
A woman drives home with the front of her car covered in branches, sticks, leaves, mud, and lots of blood. ‘I’m really sorry about the car,’ says the woman to her husband. ‘But I hit a
lawyer on the way home.’
‘Good Grief, Honey!! Well, that explains the blood,’ says the husband. ‘But what about the
other stuff?’
‘I had to chase him through the park,’ says the woman.
Admissions are down because the jobs aren’t there. A few years ago I hired contract lawyers for a project I could have staffed with paralegals but the lawyers were smarter for the same cost. It’s not unusual to find lawyers out three or four years who still don’t have jobs. But it’s a cyclical thing that’s likely to change.
interesting….
Supply and demand suggests this will mean loads of unemployed, sub-par lawyers with hefty student loans to pay off.
Nikki Haley employs more lawyers than any large firm in the state. Her entire administration is lawyers. And they are all “dumb.”
Her entire cabinet is full of lawyers who can’t make it in private practice so they jump to political appointments. Nice easy work if you can get it.
Our politicians are dumber also.
Smart people in America are just having fewer kids. Especially smart women – they tend to marry later and having kids gets put off until it is too late or too inconvenient. That and the Law has just been getting pummeled by oversupply for the last decade. Too many new law schools, not enough workman’s comp scams to keep them all in business. This last point is probably a result of less and less hard physical labor and manufacturing work happening in the state, at least by U.S. citizens.
Journalists: Getting Dumber, proof above.
That’s an inevitable result of the proliferation of law schools.
It’s not just lawyers. You should work in an agency that is the employer of last resort for engineers.