Practice Management

To me the law school experience is financially depressing, and I cannot be alone in this regard.  It is not that I do not see it as a wonderful opportunity still, or a reward, because I do.  It has just become (or it is at least becoming) unaffordable except for students with the best off of parents and family.

I saw a TV program the other night on the rapidly rising cost of higher education in our country.  It showed a young, bright lady going to college in California who wanted to go to law school.  However, despite working three jobs (a job on campus during the day, a job at night and a job on the weekend), taking as much money as her family could give her, and whatever paltry scholarships she could get, she still found herself graduating from undergrad $50,000.00 in debt.  Law school would likely add another $100,000.00 to this, and she just did not feel like she could afford it.  Her solution was to forgo her law school acceptances and take a year off to work and try to build up some money.  But, how likely is that?  Given the types of jobs available, she will have to start paying back student loans.  She will have to pay living expenses.  Besides, how much of a $50,000.00 debt can she be expected to pay down in a year, or how much could she really save toward her first year of law school.

I personally feel the pain with my daughter.  Texas public universities have doubled tuition in a 5 year period.  Last year the University of Houston told the legislature and the press that it was increasing tuition 6%.  That did not include increased fees, new fees, substantially higher book prices, and made up additional tuition unrelated to the tuition normally charged.  For my daughter the increase amount to 16%.  How can someone manage when they do not know from one semester to another whether they can afford to continue with an education in to which they have placed so much time and energy?  No only this but UH is drastically decreasing the free money it gives in the way of scholarships to most students so it can better help fund those whose families are making under $30,000.00 a year.  Well, of course, my daughter made hardly anything, but that is not the point. Obviously, these great increases effect those at the lower end than it does my daughter or my family.  But, the truth about it is that the free spending habits of universities and law school are destroying the ability of those in the lower ranges to go to school.  These students sign decide on a law school now based upon scholarships given and later taken away.  They cannot count on a scholarship every semester until they finish regardless of their grades  And, it is damaging those children like my daughter to succeed.

Most students coming out of law school do not go to work for Big Law.  They do not start out with six figure incomes and benefits.  But, law schools convince them they need to come out of school with six figure loans, only to start off in five figure incomes, most without any great benefits.

Given this, you have to ask at some point whether law school is justified?

The bigger question is what can be done about it.  It affects more than my daughter.  This level of debt will stop or prohibit law school graduates from going to work for themselves, or to start their own ventures.  It will prohibit them from going to work for non-profit agencies.  It will probably prohibit them for going to work for the government as they will have student loan obligations that exceed their monthly mortgage payment.  And, those that either make this selection, or can find no alternative but to work for a small firm or go solo, could very well be looking at student loan defaults and the fear of losing their law licenses for failure to pay their students loans.

So, my point is that the Third Wave practice of law can be, and is likely, threatened by these irresponsible law schools that cannot control their spending or strive, at whatever cost to their students, to increase their rankings.

I believe that the solution starts with not asking what can be done, because that question is too broad and is depressing to the point of inaction.  None of us can do something so comprehensive as to correct the entire program with the stroke of a brush.

The solution then starts with asking, what can I do?  Because, for this there is an answer.

One solution I would suggest is to raise our own scholarship fund for those who agree to go out on their own, or take a job that is more rewarding but offers less pay.  It will not work to just give the money to law schools, because they will take it and just increase tuition still further.  The goal might not be to cover all tuition, but to cover enough of it to reduce the dependence of these students on debt.

Oh, I know most of you think, great somebody else that wants me to give money!  Well yes.  Why should we not be able to raise let us say a $100,000 to help 20 students.  We are talking about $1,000.00 from a 100 solos, small firm practitioners, Third Wavers, carpet commuters, connected lawyers, future lawyers and the like.  If we love our work so much, we should do a little something to make it better for some of those to follow.

It is just a thought, but I would appreciate hearing from you on this idea.