Meeting the Needs of Society and the Market

Notwithstanding the dramatic decline in law school enrollments over the past seven years, the number of law school graduates continues to significantly exceed the number of available entry-level bar-passage-required and J.D. advantage jobs. At the same time, millions of citizens have unmet legal needs because they cannot afford the cost of legal services. What does the future hold for law graduate employment? Will there be growth or contraction in particular areas of legal employment? Do we have a broad enough view of the law jobs of the future? What, if anything, can individual schools, or the legal academy as a whole, do to help bridge the justice gap? Should regulators do anything to respond to the changed environment, such as by adopting an employment rate accreditation standard or by tightening the bar passage standard