Numbers. But, I should have included another 10 years. Graduates during the twenty year period from 1995-2015 were pinched the most.
First year law school enrollment:
1965-66: 24,167
1970-71: 34,289
1975-76: 39,074
1980-81: 42,521
1985-86: 40,796
1990-91: 44,050
1995-96: 43,676
2000-01: 43,518
2005-06: 48,132
2010-11: 52,488
2015-16: 37,058
2019-20: 38,283
The profession will be shedding thousands of lawyers per year over the next decade. That will open opportunity for the new graduates.
Women law school graduates (now 50%) also have an interesting impact. An American Bar Association study found that 10% of women law school graduates were not working in the profession 7 years after graduation and another 14% were working part-time. Male graduates showed 1% not working and 2% part time. So, the effective size of new law school graduating classes may be about 10% less than it appears.
Wow, thanks for the explanation. I actually did consider law school in my mid 20s, which would have had me entering the profession around 1998-2000 with a lot of debt.