In spite of an increasingly competitive legal job market, Boston University School of Law administrators said more students are applying to law school, and at BU, pre-law students said they believe the economy will turn around by the time they enter the industry.
BU School of Law received 7662 applications this year, a 29 percent increase over last year’s 5907. Nationally, law school applications have surged by 5.5 percent, LAW administrators said.
“Many applicants may have decided to pursue graduate school while the recession plays itself out,” LAW spokeswoman Mary Gallagher said.
In a Kaplan survey of students who took the LSAT in February, 40 percent of students say the recession influenced their decision to apply for law schools, according to a press release.
“Recessions often inspire people to look to law school to ride out the storm, transition into a new field, or broaden their education to make themselves a more attractive candidate,” Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions Pre-law Programs Director Jeff Thomas said in a press release.
BU economics professors said it is common for the legal job market to shrink during an economic downturn.
“The legal industry provides services to all businesses,” assistant professor Joshua Lustig said. “When there’re less business activities during a recession, the demands for lawyers would certainly go down.”
However, professors said the legal industry will likely recover as the economy picks up again.
“I very much doubt the current downturn will last the three or more years between now and the time that pre-law students enter the job market,” BU economics department Chairman Kevin Lang said in an email.
Associate professor Daniele Paserman said the demand for lawyers is always high, unlike some industries that may never recover from a recession.
“It’s different from manufacturing in the 1980s, which never recovered,” Paserman said. “It’s not like we’ll start hiring lawyers from China when businesses pick up again.”
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Katie Bartz said she is hopeful the economy will improve by the time she enters the market.
“I have two more years of undergrad, plus another three years of law school,” Bartz said. “I’ve known that I want to go to law for a while, so I’m not going to be put off by a temporary softness in the job market.”
Though some law firms may lower salary due to the recession, students said they are not concerned about possible salary decrease.
“Lawyers are still some of the highest paid professionals today,” CAS junior Jill Warzynski said. “Even if their salaries do drop, I feel that they’ll be able to get by and make a decent living.”
But some students said they are not choosing their careers based on salary.
“I am not becoming a lawyer for the money,” Hicks said. “I am doing it to help others and to make sure that the law is being used justly.”
Law applications on the rise
Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
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