The National Law Journal recently convened an online forum of educators and others interested in the future of law school and the legal profession. The forum is a must-read for anyone considering law school — both the main entries and the comments sections are filled with rich and provocative commentary. The forum starts here, in a post at the bottom of the page dated 10/27/11. To follow the debate properly, you should work your way backwards up the page and to page 2 and page 1 (it’s all in reverse chronological order, with no easy way to re-order it). You can also read a “highlights” version here, at least for now (law.com has an unfortunate habit of hiding their articles behind pay walls after a little time has elapsed).

There is broad consensus among the commentators that the practice of law and legal education are (or should be) undergoing major structural changes; the debate centers on how those changes will play out, and how law schools should adapt to best serve the profession. Make no mistake: these changes will affect the practice and study of law during your career. As you make decisions regarding whether and how to pursue a legal career, it’s critical that you take into account the likely changes, and the debates surrounding the future of the legal profession.

Alissa Leonard, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid,
Boston University School of Law
Wednesday, October 26th, 3:30 pm
W13 Machmer

This is an invaluable opportunity to get information about financial aid, loans, debt repayment options and scholarships from an expert.

It’s not much like Spring out there today, on this first day of classes, is it?

Regardless of the weather, it’s that time of year when students and alums who are thinking about applying to law school for Fall 2012 (a year and a half from now) should move from “thinking about” to “planning.”  At the top of your brand new law school application to-do list is planning for the LSAT: when are you going to take it and how will you prepare for it.  But there are a number of other items you should be thinking about as well.  To help orient you, I’ll be presenting Fall 2012 Application Info Sessions the week of 1/31 (i.e., the first week of February) — these sessions will give you an overview of the application process as well as provide you with time lines and check lists for the admissions cycle.  (For a preview, check out the soon-to-be-updated time line and check list on the pre-law blog.)

Look for the details of the info sessions to appear soon on the Events page as well as on the blog.

Current applicants (for Fall 2011) should have completed and submitted your applications by now.  If you haven’t, this should be your absolute top priority right now.  If you have, you need to turn your attention to your financial aid applications.  In order to complete the FAFSA and any individual school’s forms, you’ll need to complete your tax return for 2010.  Remember that for law schools, the FAFSA is not generally used to determine need-based aid (since there isn’t a lot of that), but to determine how much the school will certify you to borrow.  If the law school ends up overestimating your capacity (and underestimating what you need to borrow), call the financial aid office immediately to discuss your situation — in all likelihood, they will be very helpful.

All students and alumni, regardless of where you are in the application process: please note that my office hours are now available to all — I’m happy to meet with you to discuss anything from how to figure out whether law school is right for you to which offer of admission you should accept, and every step in between.  Just email me for an appointment, or take your chances and drop by during my regular office hours.

Finally, if you haven’t already, “Like” my Facebook page.  The blog feeds directly to the page, and I also post a number of smaller items directly to Facebook.  It’s the most efficient way to keep informed about law school, legal careers, and the pre-law advising office. You can also use the discussion section to connect with other applicants — share LSAT materials, prep together, organize a law school tour, etc.

I’m looking forward to working with all of you!

Yet another article, this time in the New York Times, telling you what you should already know if you’re a regular reader of this blog: law school is expensive and law jobs are not as plentiful as they once were. Do your homework before you take the plunge. From the article:

Instead of overhauling the rankings, some professors say, the solution may be to get law schools and the bar association out of the stat-collection business. Steven Greenberger of DePaul recommends a mandatory warning — a bit like the labels on cigarette packs — that every student taking the LSAT, the prelaw standardized test, must read.

“Something like ‘Law school tuition is expensive and here is what the actual cost will be, the job market is uncertain and you should carefully consider whether you want to pursue this degree,’ ” he says. “And it should be made absolutely clear to students, that if they sign up for X amount of debt, their monthly nut will be X in three years.”

And yet people keep fooling themselves into believing that a brand name diploma is worth the cost.  It’s not, of course.

But you are a UMass student or alum: you’re way too smart to buy that marketing ploy line of reasoning.  You know that when it comes to prestige at full fare vs. a solid education at a serious discount, the latter wins out every time.  Keep this in mind as you choose which schools to apply to, and especially as you make your final decisions next Spring about which school to attend.

This may be the one piece of advice I can’t repeat often enough: you should conduct a thorough, realistic cost/benefit analysis of whether law school is a good investment before you start laying down the big bucks.  A recent National Law Journal explored this issue at length (may require UMass login), and I strongly recommend reading the entire thing, but here’s one of the central points:

Even a committee of the American Bar Association has concluded that law school applicants need a dose of reality.

“Far too many law students expect that earning a law degree will solve their financial problems for life,” reads a recent message posted on the ABA’s Web site from the organization’s Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs. “In reality, however, attending law school can become a financial burden for law students who fail to consider carefully the financial implications of their decision.”

(Emphasis added.)

After you’ve read the narrative version,  then you can click over to watch the video version — produced by an anonymous blogger who blogs under the pseudonym Esq. Never — which exaggerates a little bit, and takes unnecessary pot shots at so-called “third tier” law schools.  It also assumes that the only reason that anyone goes to law school is to work in “BigLaw” — one of the super-large law firms based in New York, Boston or Washington (and I know that very few of the UMass applicants I see have set that as their goal).  But the underlying message is one to contemplate at length: a law school degree is no guarantee of financial stability.  In many cases, it represents a serious setback.

On Tuesday, April 7th, at 3:00 pm, the Pre-Law Advising office is running a workshop on financial aid for law school.  I’ll give an overview of the entire law school financing system, and answer common questions, like

• What are the various sources of money/loans?
• How do they differ — what are the relative advantages/disadvantages of each?
• How do you apply for them?
• What are the repayment options?

I’ll also answer any other questions you may have.  This workshop is geared toward those beginning law school in the fall, but is open to all.  It will be repeated on 4/22 at 12:30 pm.

The workshop will be held in E27G Machmer — the door is right off the stairwell at the north end of the building.

Two more recent articles continue to paint a bleak financial picture for law world.

Many recent law graduates finance their bar prep courses — and the eight to ten weeks of study post-law school with private loans.  A recent article on law.com tells how those loans are now becoming harder to obtain, an indicator of a potential tightening of the private educaitonal loan market as well.

In a separate piece, a commentator at American Lawyer magazine summarizes the most common predictions about the coming (dramatic) changes in the big law firms.

If you’re applying for Fall 2009 admission to law school, now is the time for you (and your parents) to complete your 2008 tax forms as quickly as possible so you can fill out your financial aid applications for law schools.  The FAFSA is available here.  In addition, each law school usually has its own financial aid application materials which you will need to complete.  As with your applications for admission, earlier financial aid requests are generally more successful.

Watch this space for news of Spring 2009 information sessions on financing law school.

The American Bar Association Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund offers up to $5000 a year to law students attending ABA-accredited law schools.  The Fund is “intended to encourage racial and ethnic minority students to apply to law school and to provide financial assistance to the scholarship recipients.”  Applications are now available online and are due no later than March 2, 2009.  The application is open to any citizen or permanent resident of the US who will be attending law school beginning Fall 2009, and who achieved a grade point average of at least 2.5 as an undergraduate.

Applications require financial information, a personal statement, recommendations and an official transcript, so if you’re thinking of applying, please don’t put this off.