1972, November, Pg. 15. Legal Education at the Crossroads.

• Author: by Robert F. Boden

2 Colo.Law. 15

Colorado Lawyer

1972.

1972, November, Pg. 15.

Legal Education at the Crossroads

15Vol. 2, No. 1, Pg. 15Legal Education at the Crossroadsby Robert F. BodenThe following article, by Dean Robert F. Boden of the Marquette University Law School, appeared in the June issue of For the Defense, the newsletter of the Defense Research Institute. It is reprinted here as a significant comment on the burgeoning enrollment of law schools and growth of the legal profession. A chart showing increased admissions to the Colorado Bar has been appended by the editors to illustrate the growth of the legal profession in Colorado.America's law schools are riding the crest of an unprecented wave of popularity. Beyond all prior prediction, and out of all proportion to population increase or the present need for lawyers, students are clamoring for admission to law school. This phenomenon is ascribed to a variety of causes, including such predictable factors as population increases and large numbers of returning veterans. But these alone cannot account for law school candidate increases from 30,528 in 1963 to 74,092 in 1970 to 107,479 in 1971 to 137,500 in 1972.(fn1) This staggering increase seems to result from a combination of lack of opportunity in other callings, student awareness of recent economic advances by the bar and, most importantly, a ground-swell of belief by American young people that "law is where the action is" and that the way to effect social change is through the legal system. In addition, the increase is partly caused by an amazing interest in legal education on the part of women (who now account for 10 per cent of most law classes) and by the expanded enrollment of minority and disadvantaged groups.

What does this portend for the bar and for legal education? The answer is trouble for both. The 147 ABA approved law schools now have a capacity to glut the market with lawyers within the next several years and to double the size of the licensed American bar by 1985. The U.S. Labor Department predicts that between now and 1980 there will be 14,500 new legal jobs per year in this country.(fn2) In 1971 the law schools produced 17,000 new lawyers. By 1974 the number will reach 30,000.(fn3) The placement problem is obvious, as is the threat to the bar and to the public in a vast oversupply of lawyers. The...