For students who have had their hearts set on going to law school since childhood, David Segal's recent New York Times article, "Is Law School a Losing Game?" offered a familiar but oft-ignored warning: law school is difficult and expensive; proceed with caution.
In his article, chronicling the overwhelming debt and the unforgiving job market faced by an estimated 44,000 hopeful American JDs each year, Segal argues that the decision to pursue a legal degree should not be taken lightly, since, contrary to the statistics being published by the schools themselves, it's an investment that doesn't necessarily offer great returns. Of the 44,000 new graduates each year, only 26,000 find work in the legal field, according to statistics published by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). The remaining 20,000 have to find a way to pay back their extensive student loans—often up to $250,000—with jobs outside their domain of expertise.
One of these new graduates, Kimber Russell, uses her blog (shillingmesoftly.blogspot.com) to warn prospective students of the harsh realities of the legal services market in the United States. Both she and Segal point to the graduate employment statistics that schools publish as the source of the problem. These statistics determine school rankings, and thus the amount of funding and the calibre of new prospects they receive. This conflict of interest often results in the statistics' drastic exaggeration. Fourth-tier law schools will report rates of employment at 90 per cent nine months after graduation, counting those who work at McDonald's as well as post-grads working only on the day the survey was taken.
"It's pretty well-known that, for a long time, the statistics they've been putting out are grossly inflated," Russell says of the fourth-tier schools. "[They are] the worst offenders, in my mind."
Fact-fudging is not limited to the less prestigious schools, though. Segal gives the example of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., which often provides temporary jobs for unemployed recent graduates in the university's admissions office. These positions are typically offered in January and February, which coincides with the nine-month mark, and new hires are then included among the number of Georgetown's statistically employed graduates, boosting the school's ranking.
"What the schools are saying doesn't jive with reality," Russell says. "If you're dropping that much, the law school should be held to a standard ... the schools are culpable. It's not all delusion and wishful thinking on the part of the students."
The current situation is the result of a confluence of factors. In 2006, the American Bar Association approved the practice of outsourcing entry-level jobs, while the 2008 recession brought massive layoffs and a surge in all professional school applications by those looking to weather the economic downturn by returning to the ivory tower. In the wake of what Russell calls a "perfect storm," the market for entry-level law jobs is over-saturated, forcing indebted JDs to look elsewhere for employment. It's often necessary for recent grads to start earning money immediately since student loan repayments begin upon graduation and are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, and loan default results in the removal of your legal licence. Russell puts half of her monthly salary toward debt repayment—and considers herself lucky by comparison.
Meanwhile, North of the Border...
The situation in Canada is drastically different, and certainly more promising for prospective students. Much of what ails the American market has been preempted in Canada by an entirely distinct system in which there are both fewer schools and less divergence in terms of academic quality.
"The situation's a lot better in Canada because we have far fewer law schools," says Leeann Beggs, director of career services in the Faculty of Law at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "The likelihood that you're going to get into your profession is very good."
While there are almost 200 American law schools, there are only 20 in Canada, all of which are highly competitive and prestigious. Because they are essentially "all tier one schools," Beggs says, it is very difficult to be admitted, but students can also be assured they will receive a high-quality legal education once they are there. Before passing the bar, law students are expected to article, or work and learn at a law firm in some sort of legal apprenticeship. Furthermore, there seems to be no sort of legal outsourcing being practised in Canada.
"It's pretty tightly controlled who gets access to legal work here," Beggs says.
This is in direct contrast to the hundreds of American law schools, not all of which are accredited—some of which are online—that graduate thousands of new lawyers each year who must then fight for a diminishing number of entry-level jobs. As a result of the Canadian system, recent graduates in this country have a much better chance of gaining the employment they desire. They have already been singled out as the best and the brightest and are competing against a much smaller pool. Some expectations may have to be lowered in terms of starting salaries, says Beggs, but new lawyers should have no problem getting a foot in the door.
The McGill Advantage
The story at McGill is even better, says Catherine Bleau, director of the Career Development Office in the Faculty of Law. McGill Law students receive both the standard Canadian common law degree and a civil law degree, due to the school's "trans-systemic" approach. Because of this unique approach, graduates can practice virtually anywhere they like: bilingual and with both degrees, they have access to markets in Quebec and the rest of Canada, as well as some states in the U.S. They are in such high demand, Bleau says; that about two years before graduating, almost half of the students will have jobs secured through organized recruiting.
is a member of the 
3 comments