<p>Do away with law school as we know it. There is nothing about the practice of law that demands three years of post graduate study. Legal studies would be a 5 year undergrad course of study including a year focused on legal practice. There would be a one year legal apprenticeship required after that, with starting salaries commensurate with other other entry level jobs. Those who just want a degree in legal studies but do not want to practice would not do the 5th year or the apprenticeship. </p>
<p>There are many areas of the country in which there are too few lawyers. There is a real need for legal representation for the disadvantaged. There are many who cannot consider this representation because of the debt load.</p>
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<p>I’m kinda skeptical of this . . . can you tell me the names of 2 or 3 areas which have a lawyer shortage?</p>
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<p>Perhaps that’s because professionals can’t/won’t work for free and the economically disadvantaged can’t pay lawyers. Even if the newly-minted JD had zero debt, s/he is still not gonna setup shop in an economically depressed ares bcos there is no income to be had. Instead, the plethora of lawyers results in ambulance chasers, and a lot of advertising on tv, all searching for that next big class action suit. </p>
<p>Unlike medicine, which has medicare/medicaid…</p>
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<p>It’s really pretty simple. Schools can’t charge more in tuition than students can afford to pay. You can’t charge $45K a year if almost none of your prospective students have access to that kind of money.</p>
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<p>I don’t think very many people borrow money for law school with the expectation that they will be worse off. As it turns out, students aren’t great at figuring out whether borrowing money to attend law school is going to make them better off, though a significant part of the problem is misleading information coming from schools.</p>