The study released by Kaplan Test Prep surveyed admissions officers from 111 American Bar Association-accredited law schools around the United States, and found that an overwhelming 65 per cent believe it ‘would be a good idea if at least a few law schools close.’ The concern about the overproduction of graduates came despite 92 per cent of respondents saying they felt more optimistic about the state of legal education in the country than they did 12 months ago.

Quality or quantity?

An ongoing downturn in applications to US law schools has fanned fears of a ‘brain drain’ from legal education to other disciplines in recent years. With that backdrop, one could suspect that admissions officers’ concern is less about the total number of law graduates, and more about the overall quality of students passing through law school. Kaplan Test Prep’s data suggests it is both an uptick in applications and growing reluctance to cut available places which doesn’t click easily with the suggestion that there are too many law grads hitting the job market. Around 78 per cent of respondents said they felt confident that applications to their school would increase for the next admissions cycle, up considerably from the 46 per cent who said they expected increases in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of schools which cut available places has fallen consecutively for the last three years, from 54 per cent in 2014, to 35 per cent last year and 24 per cent in Kaplan’s most recent survey.

Sources: BusinessWire; Above the Law