Law school applications at a 30-year low nationally

Victoria Ronderos/Contributing Writer

This year, according to the Law School Admissions Council, law school applications have hit a 30-year low. In 2004, there were 100,000 applications, however, this year, the LSAC predicts that there will be about 54,000 applications to law schools in the country.

The University of Oregon, Stanford, Northeastern, the University of Southern California and the University of Akron have already responded to this call; they have changed their curriculum in ways to make students more interested in law school, such as creating more hands-on programs, allowing students to take the Bar exam two years after law school, instead of the conventional three, licensing technicians, freezing tuition costs and admitting more students they wouldn’t usually accept.

FIU’s College of Law is no stranger to this regression. According to the FIU Law Viewbook and fact sheets provided by the College of Law, in 2010, the University has admitted about 19.68% of their applicants, in 2012, they accepted about 22.15%. In 2010, in-state tuition for day students was $14,203. In 2012, the tuition became $18,463.

There is an abundance of lawyers who work in the corporate world, and a demand for lawyers for those outside the corporate and wealthy world, who usually need more legal advice and help than corporations, but can’t afford to pay them. These tend to be the poor, the low-income, and sometimes middle-class people and families.

“The lawyers aren’t evenly distributed. If you’re wealthy, or if you’re a business or a corporation, you can easily pay for legal help, but if you’re somebody who’s middle-class or low-income or poor, you often don’t have access to a lawyer,” said Peggy Maisel, a law professor and the director of the Clinical Program of the College of Law.

Maisel’s program helps those in need. Those who cannot afford lawyers usually seek legal advice and representation with law clinics, which are located in many law schools. Clinics have become a relatively new part of the legal curricula in the United States, creating hands-on training for students, which benefits students, the public and law firms seeking new employees with experience. Law students and professors run them and they provide free legal advice and representation to those in need.

“Students want to be able to make a living and students have different things that they want to do, but my experience is that, most law students coming into law school really want to help people, so through the clinics and the legal work they’re doing, they’re learning a tremendous amount, but they’re also really helping. They’re representing people who wouldn’t otherwise be represented, which I think an awful lot of law students really want to be doing,” said Maisel.

news@fiusm.com