Kate33

In response to David from FL:

With all due respect, I think the employment outlook was much rosier decades ago, when you began your practice. I know of many barred attorneys who have been either unemployed or underemployed for years, working as glorified, underpaid research assistants to pay the bills. Some were honors grads of top tier schools, so a lack of initiative on their part was not a factor. The overabundance of attorneys in this country is largely due to a failure of the profession to properly regulate itself and limit the proliferation of new law schools. They have sprouted up over the last decades like weeds. Why? Because they are quick profit mills. Unfortunately, revenue was the main focus with little attention given to the long-term impact: oversaturation of the market for attorneys and rise in the numbers of underemployed or unemployed JDs. I don't think anyone in this country would argue--at least with a straight face--that there are not enough lawyers in America.

Also, the bar pass rates were significantly higher then. If you look at the data pertaining to pass rates over the decades, there is clearly a trend downward in many states. In a "too little, too late," knee-jerk response to the skyrocketing numbers of new law schools, many state bars are raising pass scores to limit competition against established firms. Of course, no one will ever admit to that on-the-record. My state, NV, is a classic case in point. I have heard so many rumors here from well-respected, well-established attorneys that NV deliberately limits its admissions to no more that 60% of applicants every year because attorneys here decided they did not want any more competition and pressured the bar examiners to lower the pass rates. A few rumors I discount; years of rumors and stories from prominent attorneys, uh uh.