Over at Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha (Wash U) assesses trends involving the market demand for new attorneys and law school enrollment (here). As Brian notes, "law schools now pump out about 45,000 graduates annually at a time when the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 28,000 new lawyer positions per year." Why? Brian argues that the current law school business model demands as much. Specifically, law faculties have gotten bigger during the past two decades and, as a result, "bigger faculties must be paid for through some combination of more bodies (J.D. and LL.M) and higher tuition." Not surprisingly, Brian predicts "tough times" for many law schools in the future.
UPDATE: Ted Seto's (Loyola-LA) alternative interpretation of the data also warrants note.
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