Judging the pros and cons of law school

In these tough economic times, law school graduates are hurting like everybody else, and men and women considering law school should be asking if the financial sacrifices are worth it. A recent front-page story in The New York Times business section — "Is Law School a Losing Game?" — uses the story of a law school graduate with $250,000 of unpaid student loans and no job to make the points:

•Some law schools deceive prospective students by providing misleading and even untrue information to U.S. News & World Report.

•Law school is too expensive.

•Law firms are downsizing.

The article then questions the decision to attend law school — a decision that many Virginians soon will be making.

I'm not an unbiased observer. Now teaching at the University of Richmond School of Law, I've spent most of life as a lawyer or law professor, teaching at 16 law schools and serving as dean of two of them.

I am proud of what I have done; I am especially proud of what we are now doing here at Richmond. Having said that, let me also acknowledge the truths in The New York Times article.

It's true that students rely heavily on the U.S. News & World Report rankings in choosing a law school. And it's true that some law schools have improved their U.S. News rankings by providing misleading data.

While the number of such schools is open to question (all that I can state with certainty is that the number does not include Richmond), there is no question that the U.S. News rankings don't provide students with the information they need in deciding whether and where to go to law school.

And there is no question that law school is expensive. Too expensive. There are far too many people who, like the person profiled by The New York Times, graduate from law school owing more than $200,000 in federally guaranteed loans that they might never be able to repay. The costs of legal education borne by students, their parents and all taxpayers should be reduced. And can be. Here are a couple of modest proposals:

•Use technology to reduce costs through interschool cooperation. For example, if five students at school A want to take an important but limited-interest course such as Water Law and there are seven such students at school B and 10 at school C, each school offering its own Water Law course is not an appropriate use of students' or taxpayers' money. Inexpensive technology enables students at different schools to remotely take the same course taught by one professor.

•Increase the use of a law school's physical plant and reduce the time that a person is out of the job market as a law student by fully running law schools 12 months a year. Enrich summer offerings and encourage students to start law school in the summer of their first year so that by going to law school for three summers a person can enter the job market in 27 months time, instead of the present 36 months.

Obviously, as The New York Times article points out, the job market for lawyers is not what it once was. Unless there is a significant change in the economy, there are going to be people who start law school in 2011 who will not get a law-related job when they graduate. And that is what we tell prospective law students here at the University of Richmond.

We also tell them that not finding a law-related job does not make law school a "losing game" — it does not make an informed decision about law school a bad decision. We tell them to talk with Richmond graduates with jobs in business, education, government and nonprofits.

Like most people who go to law school, I think that being a lawyer is a wonderful job — almost as good as being a law professor. The work that most lawyers do is interesting and well-compensated. More important, a lawyer has unique opportunities to help people avoid problems or solve problems that could not be avoided.

While being a lawyer is a wonderful job, it is not the only wonderful job. And, it is not the only wonderful job for which a legal education is helpful.

The skills that legal education emphasizes and develops — analysis, advocacy, precision in communication, problem solving — are universally important. In Virginia, and elsewhere, a significant number of successful government leaders, university presidents and business executives are law school graduates.

These men and women did not "lose" by going to law school; many have enriched their lives and their communities — and found inspiring careers that make a difference in the world.