The Red Velvet Lawyer

As you know, I have followed the debate between the authors of the report -- The Economic Value of a Law Degree -- and the author of a book -- Failing Law Schools (FLS) . I thought we were about done with the back and forth, but now it seems the author of FLS , the Law Professor at Washington University School of Law, Brian Tamanaha, has gotten help from a member of his faculty.  The story appears  here . Tamanaha has targeted a group of expensive ($40,000+/per year), mostly California law schools, that also have low employment stats when you look only at the category of  full-time jobs requiring bar passage.  I've discussed how to understand the reported employment numbers  here . In the end, I agree that prospective students should carefully consider the decision to go to law school.  They should carefully adopt a strategy that gets them the best education possible at a reasonable cost.  I discuss one possible strategy here .  And yes, they should consider whether they

I graduated from law school in 1982.  At that time, 7.6 percent of new law graduates became solo practitioners;  40.3 percent entered small law practices (2-10 lawyers);  about 11 percent entered firms 51 to 100 lawyers in size;   only 15. 6 percent of new law grads entered large firms of 101 plus lawyers, and more women did that than men; and  NALP, the Association of Legal Career Professionals, did not keep a separate category for firms with more than 500 lawyers. See trend report here .  According to an earlier trend report , in 1982, about 10 percent of new law grads entered business and industry. About 23,000 students graduated from law school in 1982. Fast forward to 2007, the year of record employment among lawyers, NALP reports that: 3 percent of new law grads became solo practitioners (a 4 percent drop); about 33 percent entered small law practices (2-10 lawyers) (a 13 percent drop);  about 6 percent entered firms 51 to 100 lawyers in size (a 5 per

This past week, a number of news outlets and bloggers reported on a new economic analysis of the value of a law degree.  The authors make a persuasive, well-researched argument that a law degree confers measurable life-time advantages on law graduates compared to persons who get only a bachelor’s degree. The report:  Micahel Simkovic and Frank McIntyre, The Economic Value of a Law Degree (unpublished manuscript 2013) is found here .     Simkovic, an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law, and McIntyre, an Associate Professor of Finance and Economic at Rutgers Business School answered the following questions:  Does a law degree typically increase the earnings of law graduates compared to what such individuals would likely have earned with only a bachelor’s degree? How does the law school earnings premium vary by gender and at different points in the distribution of outcomes? How much of the increase in earnings is higher hourly wages, and how