Despite Burl Moseley’s gargantuan efforts, people are still applying to law school. And to make matters worse, the numbers are growing over time! The Law School Admissions Council recently released their findings on the number and demographics of this year’s applicants — Reuters has coverage:
The number of applicants was up 5.7% over 2023, according to final figures from the Law School Admission Council. In all, 64,912 aspiring lawyers applied for a spot this fall — making it the second-largest applicant pool of the past five years. Only 2021’s pool of 71,035 was larger, a gain attributed to the pandemic.
In all, 3,478 more people sought a seat at the 197 American Bar Association-accredited law schools this year than in 2023.
The upward trend in law school applicants is good news for the profession as a whole. Several states are suffering from a lack of qualified and willing lawyers. There are other access to justice issues like having a large enough team to share the workload or public defense attorneys being systemically underpaid, but all of the fixes fall through if there’s no new blood coming in to the profession.
The final figures show that the number of minority applicants has also increased. The real question is how many of them got in. That information is expected to come to light in December.
Law School Applicants Rose Nearly 6% This Year [Reuters]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
