Law school is broken

American law schools take bright, ambitious young people and leave them broke, humiliated, deeply indebted and disaffected. They do this by squeezing them for student loan money for three years and then hurling them into an economy that can barely employ half of them.

Allegations of a shortage of lawyers in rural areas are unfounded on several points, and a previous article about small towns trying to attract young lawyers missed several critical facts.

First, law school tuition has skyrocketed even after adjusting for inflation. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's tuition at Harvard Law was $1,000 when he graduated in 1960. This is equivalent to around $8,000 today. The actual tuition at Harvard Law in $54,000 a year.

Second, entry-level employment has collapsed. Iowa's law schools produce 3.8 graduates for every law job according to Economic Modeling Specialists International.

Barely half of Drake's class of 2013 found work that required a bar license, consistent with the national average. Two out of three University of Iowa graduates - Iowa‘s public law school - left the state. Even experienced attorneys are now exposed to regular layoffs.

Third, the absence of young lawyers in rural Iowa is far more consistent with a mature market that lacks entry-level employment opportunities than a sign of a shortage of legal services. If a county seat town doesn't have any lawyers under the age of 40, there is probably a very good reason for that.

Fourth, law school enrollments have collapsed. This past fall, 104 people started law school at Drake, compared to 155 in 2010. This represents a major threat to the paychecks of those holding academic sinecures. Undergraduate GPAs and LSAT scores of the entering class are down sharply.

Fifth, law school debts are unpayable. Columbia is the most expensive law school, at $57,000 per year, and 'bargain' schools run between $20,000 to $40,000 per year.

When living expenses, accrued interest and undergraduate debt are added to that figure, it is not uncommon for a law school graduate to carry $200,000 in high-interest debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, all to enter a profession where, as previously stated, only half of graduates are able to secure jobs in their field.

The median salary for lawyers is $62,000 according to the National Association of Law Placement; the median is the middle of the pack, which means half the bar is earning less.

Pay can be far lower at rural firms, many of which operate on a strict 'eat what you kill” pay scale, and worse still for the nearly half who didn't get jobs as lawyers at all. Many of those salaries are zero. Your tax dollars underwrite these loans.

Law schools have graduated more than 250,000 students since 2009, and very few of them found work that paid enough to cover student loans and the cost of living.

We don't need any more broke, humiliated, disaffected law school graduates.

' Steve Waechter, of Grinnell, is a 2009 law graduate who lives at home and works in a factory to pay down student loans. Comments: steve.waechter@yahoo.com