Professor Elam

Thursday May 6 2010

Deflation, a collapse in asset values continues to stalk the world. The latest victims are law school graduates. The WSJ reports that even the top law school grads are not finding jobs. Well, they are not finding the jobs they want, six figure fat cat big time downtown where will we eat lunch today jobs. Hmm, I wonder what the application list looks like for say assistant county attorney here in San Antonio?

This is not surprising. Television and movies would have you believe lawyers are sort of crusading civil and criminal super heroes, jumping into action to rescue the environment and the under represented. So law school applications swelled. And the ever increasing numbers of liberal arts grads, with no outlet for their talents, often decide, well, I know, I'll become a lawyer. Accustomed to going to college, what's another three years of hitting the books, is just what they are really trained to do!  And so the sea of unemployed English and political science majors, not to mention sociologists, head to law school

Understand that the pass rate on the bar exam is probably over 85%. And the ones that do not pass the bar often 'practice' in an office handing court appearances off to someone else. 

The CPA exam sports one of the worst passing rates of all professional exams. Take a look at the state board page, section counts, to see what I mean. This tends to at least limit the number of people entering the profession. A sober examination of the previous link should give one understanding why I have mentioned alternate certifications. In a worsening job market, the one with the most certifications is more likely to be chosen, it is just that simple. 

Years ago, observers noted that Japan produced a lot more engineers than lawyers, the US was the other way round. I have not seen any articles about the over production of engineers in the US…..