Each year as law students we ask ourselves – will I be able to secure a legal summer job? Then in 2L we ask ourselves the big question – the one we all stress over – will I land an articling position? In fact, speaking from personal experience, it seemed as though most of my 2L experience was consumed by this question. It’s a stressful time.
Over the past few years the legal job market has shrunk considerably… and there in enters fairly anxious law students. You start to question whether coming to law school was the right decision. Was the risk – financially, personally – worth it?
With supply outweighing demand, economic pressure to fix this problem has been placed, in particular, on law societies across the country. Being from Ontario I am familiar with LSUC’s (Law Society of Upper Canada’s) possible “solution” to this problem. LSUC, in response to changes in the legal profession, introduced the Pathways Pilot Project. Now students wishing to practice law in Ontario may either article or complete the Law Practice Program (LLP), which consists of a 4-month training course and 4-month placement, which by the way, to my knowledge, may go unpaid.
I see a few issues with this pilot project. First, word on the street is that this program is already viewed as a second-tier alternative to the traditional articling experience. Second, this program isn’t free – there is a cost, which isn’t insubstantial, associated to partake. Third, the 4-month placement, as stated above, is not guaranteed to be paid. While I applaud LSUC for taking a step in the right direction, I question whether the pilot project will eventually solve or simply delay the growing problem of oversupply in the legal profession.
Even with these types of programs, if other provinces were to follow suit, would the problem truly be fixed? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can’t help but wonder whether this is a self-perpetuating problem. In Canada, over the past 4 years, two new law schools have opened, one in Ontario at Lakehead University and the other, as we all know, in Kamloops BC at Thompson Rivers University. Don’t get me wrong, I love TRU Law, I’m just stating the facts. In addition, from what I could find online, law school admission rates are, on average, also increasing. I don’t know about you but this doesn’t add up.
I would argue that the legal profession, as a whole, is hyper aware of the oversupply, under-demand problem we now face but what is being done to correct it? I think I can speak for most of us law students when I say this – as someone about to enter the profession, this worries me.
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These are really important and difficult questions that I’m sure are on a lot of people’s minds – you are not the only one to be worried.
I think there is no serious question that there is an oversupply of newly trained law students, measured on one parameter (one that matters a lot to you): the availability of articling positions and jobs.
At the same time, there is also an undersupply. I know that sounds crazy, and it would seem impossible for both things to be true at the same time, but they are. The premise of opening a new law school in British Columbia was that there aren’t enough lawyers to meet the needs of a growing population. And there aren’t. There are so many people who need legal services but can’t access them – what is sometimes called the latent market for legal services. Someone is going to find a way to meet those needs (at least some of them) – it might be lawyers, but if it isn’t lawyers it will be someone else.
Obviously this doesn’t answer the big question for those of you entering the legal profession: how can you make a decent and stable living for yourselves? It’s true, as Susskind says, that the law doesn’t exist to provide jobs for lawyers. But it is nevertheless completely just and legitimate for you to want to have jobs – and to have good, satisfying jobs where you use your brains and do some good and have an acceptable standard of living.
I think it’s going to get harder to do that in the old ways, and you are right to worry about it. And, on the other hand, I think there are going to be some exciting new opportunities that didn’t exist before – and you should be optimistic about that. The path may be less clear than it was for the generations of lawyers before you. But it just might lead you somewhere more interesting and fulfilling.
Last term in Ethics we discussed this issue at length and this summer I found this article which speaks to the American experience: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/too-many-law-students-too-few-legal-jobs.html?_r=0
While I obviously benefit from the opening of Thompson Rivers I can’t help but think there is an big issue here. Acceptance rates are going up, new schools are opening and tuition rates for law school are growing at an astronomical rate across the country. My ethics paper last year was on how law school tuition is one of the factors exacerbating access to justice. The CBA Futures report states that:
“With job prospects declining while tuition is rising, we wonder whether students are forced to seek-higher paying jobs, while potentially eschewing work in small or solo practices or in the public interest. It is possible that high tuition and student debt limit socio-economic diversity in the student body and the legal profession. Similarly, it is possible that high tuition and student debt restrict access to law school for people from underserved or marginal communities who might work in those same communities as graduates.”
This is a “wicked problem” that law societies and law schools across the country will have to face sooner or later.
Leigh, I think your worries are completely justified. This program doesn’t necessarily fix the problem at all. More law schools, more students, same number of jobs.
Now I don’t know much about the details of this program, but what happens if you can’t get a job following the LPP? Would you become a sole practitioner? That seems like an expensive endeavour for an individual who just spent the past 4 years unpaid, likely taking on student loans.
Secondly, it worries me that this program is viewed as a second-tier alternative. I think it is an excellent alternative for individuals not interested in practicing law in the traditional law-firm setting. There are so many opportunities for lawyers that don’t necessarily require the conventional articling experience. This is a very novel way of allowing law students to possibly follow their real passions. I hope LSUC has recognized this and diligently promotes it as such.
Thanks for the post Leigh. This is obviously a relevant topic for those of us nearing the completion of law school. While I understand the stress it holds, I don’t think the anxiety connected to finding employment is restricted to law. I remember finishing my undergraduate degree and contemplating the possibility of finding a placement as an Urban Planner in my home province. Many of the recent graduates from my program had been unable to find permanent jobs. It was impossible not to worry about whether I could earn a living in the career I had spent 4 years working towards. While I never considered returning to the area I grew up in, I was fortunate to discover a possible job during a weekend visit to see my parents. I was later hired for a role that I attribute to a great deal of personal and professional growth.
Part of TRULaw’s mission was to address a critical shortage in rural lawyers. That is not to say that students graduating should be forced to work in those areas. However, with the problems you note about finding positions, it may be necessary for graduates to look beyond their preferred locations. As news outlets across the country continue to highlight the issue of access to legal services in rural areas, it may be hard to argue for limiting enrollment at law schools.
Great post Leigh!
It certainly does seem like a daunting time to be a law student. We’ve recently been exposed vast amounts of information explaining how the legal profession is in the middle of a radical change. Those who saw themselves working in the traditional big city law firm structure may have an even harder time finding jobs. Even if you do find a job it doesn’t sound like life is going to be very enjoyable.
This is discussed in “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century” by Ben W. Heineman Jr., William F. Lee, and David B. Wilkins. One of the areas of this article that stuck out to me was the recognition of the “mass exodus of young lawyers”. The article suggest that some reasons for this include: heavy loads of uninteresting work, the lack of meaning mentorship, and being buried in large teams.
It will be interesting to see how and when law schools will adjust their teaching styles (and enrollment strategies) to reflect these changes. That said, I think some of the onus lies on us to explore options outside the traditional law firm experience. Options like trying to find work in smaller more rural markets might be a way to not only alleviate the need for lawyers in those areas all but also could result in a more positive work environment.