Kellye Testy
There are a number of factors here. One is the job market. The second is the declining respect for the rule of law we see in our world. I think a lot of students are being counseled not to go into law on misinformation. When the job market shifted, so much of what everybody heard about was a very small slice: Big Law in New York. There's still some thinking out there that even is a student goes to a good law school, there's not a robust job market for them. That's just not true. I'm hearing reports that many prelaw advisors still have the recession-era Big Law shakeup in their heads, and they're saying to their best students, Don't do this. Go be a scientist. Be a coder.
We want young people following their own passion and we need great people in law. LSAC is going to step into that space and help advisors understand the opportunity of legal education and who its right for.
The pre-law network in the U.S. is not as well organized and funded as you see in medicine. We want to make that network more robust. We're going to work much more closely with community colleges to increase the availability of information about legal education.
I think it's a communications issue. At the same time, I don't want to minimize the structural change to our profession. That's big part of it.
Law Schools Are Losing Smart Applicants. How Do They Lure Them Back?