法学院还有没有未来

    这些法学院正在追随加利福尼亚大学哈斯汀法学院（University of California Hastings College of Law）的脚步——该学院于去年春季宣布减招20%。院长吴华扬曾在当时表态称，如今“法学院太多，法学生也太多，我们必须采取行动。”

    卡普兰还发现，47%的法学院提高了本学年提供给学生的经济资助金额。科罗拉多大学（University of Colorado）法律教授保罗•坎波斯曾经撰写了《法学院骗局揭秘》系列博客（Inside the Law School Scam），他认为，这预示着法学院正在降低自己的入学标准。

    坎波斯长期追踪法学院的统计数据，他表示，本学年申请法学院的总人数较2003-2004学年的申请人数减少了三分之一。

    法学院就读人数自2010年以近5.25万人创下历史高位以来，至今已经下降了约15%。据美国律师协会数据显示，本学年的全日制及非全日制学生共计4.5万人。

    “这样是无法持续的，”坎波斯警告称。“美国文化里有种狂热的信仰，认为高等教育总能收回成本，但这就像没有进行资产证券化的次贷危机。当人们意识到这个学位毫无价值时，整个体系就会崩溃。”

    美国国家法律就业协会（National Association of Law Placement）的法学院就业数据回顾显示，法律领域的状况已经滋长了一段时日。这项回顾发现，过去25年里的法学院毕业生共计近140万人，其中有三分之二找到了需要法学博士学位的全职工作。

    即便如此，美国律师协会仍然暂时批准了更多法学院的设立。该协会的官方网站显示，其中包括加利福尼亚大学欧文分校法学院（University of California-Irvine School of Law）和麻省大学法学院达特茅斯分院（University of Massachusetts Law School-Dartmouth）。

    不论情愿与否，如果法学院想要压服本校心怀不满的毕业生发起的抗议活动，就必须提升自己的表现。本月早些时候，圣地亚哥的一名法官拒绝驳回4名托马斯杰弗逊法学院（Thomas Jefferson School of Law）毕业生的诉讼，他们诉称自己是在就业数据的误导下才就读了该校。校方将需要就这些数据的出处做出解释。

    译者：薄锦

    These law schools are following in the footsteps of the University of California Hastings College of Law, which announced last spring that it would reduce its admitted student pool by 20%. Hastings' dean, Frank Wu, noted at the time that there are "too many law schools and there are too many law students and we need to do something about that."

    Kaplan also found that 47% of law schools have increased the amount of financial aid they are giving to students for the current school year, a sign to Paul Campos, a University of Colorado law professor who writes the "Inside the Law School Scam" blog, that law schools are lowering their entry standards.

    Campos, who tracks law school statistics, says the total number of law school applicants for the current academic year, is one-third lower than the number in the 2003-2004 academic year.

    Law school enrollment is down by about 15% from 2010, which was a record high with nearly 52,500 students signing up for classes. This academic year, the number was 45,000 full- and part-time students, according to the ABA.

    "This isn't sustainable," warns Campos. "There is a zealous faith in American culture that higher education always pays for itself, but it's like the subprime mortgage scandal without securitization. When people realize it's a worthless degree, the system is going to collapse."

    The legal field's problems have been growing for some time, according to a review of law school employment data from the National Association of Law Placement, which found that two out of three of the approximately 1.4 million law school graduates over the past 25 years have found full-time jobs requiring juris doctor degrees.

    Even so, the ABA has provisionally approved the creation of even more law schools, including the University of California-Irvine School of Law and the University of Massachusetts Law School-Dartmouth, according to the bar association's website.

    Like it or not, law schools may have to up their game if they are going to overcome the objections of their own disgruntled graduates. Earlier this month, a judge in San Diego refused to dismiss a lawsuit by four Thomas Jefferson School of Law graduates who claimed they enrolled on the basis of misleading job placement data. The school will need to explain how it came up with its numbers.