Silly British People

Law school regulatory boards across the Atlantic are now "cracking down" on legal education due to the perceived oversupply of lawyers.

The review . . . will examine routes to qualification and the requirements placed on law schools in light of the likely future shape of the legal market.

College of Law chief executive Nigel Savage welcomed the review and argued that it was long overdue. He added: “It [the review] must be root and branch and embrace the undergraduate degrees as well as post-graduate courses. It also needs to look at matching what lawyers do within the legal services market with a brand new education and training framework.”

The occasion for this review?

According to the Law Society, 7,000 people completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in 2008, but there are only 6,000 training contracts available this year.

Translation: about 1,000 people are getting screwed, or 14.3% of people who complete the LPC.

What a silly, knee-jerking country. Here in the United States, we value liberty and inclusiveness, and wouldn't budge a muscle until at least 15,000 are getting screwed. We have an oversupply graduating every year of around 36% and, owing to those time-honored American virtues like giving an advanced education for anything that moves, securing the freedom to publish misleading information, and creating mental debtor's prisons.

Thank goodness we revolted from such weak-kneed peoples.

Sarcasm aside, the ABA has finally taken some steps to investigate the defects in the legal education system in this country. They should have done it back when the problem became apparent, like the British, but better late than never, so here's hoping we see some actual progress on that front.

Finally, I found this line from the article amusing:

Green said: ". . . a law student can be generated at virtually zero marginal cost.”

Will someone please tell this to Stanley Fish?