Is it a sign of the economic times or a diminishing interest in the law? For the second year in a row, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) reported fewer people are taking the test it administers for entrance into law schools in America.

According to a New York Times article, the LSAC reported its biggest decline — 16 percent — in more than a decade in the number of tests it administered in the 2011-12 academic year.

“In all,” reported The Times, “the number of test- takers has fallen nearly 25 percent in the last two years.”

The LSAC said the test was given 129,925 times last year. In the 2010-11 academic year, the test was given 155,050 times. The peak year was 2009- 10 when the test was given 171,514 times.

What’s happening?

Most experts say the legal market has been hit hard by the recession, and the number of jobs for law school graduates has dried up significantly. American law schools turn out 45,000 graduates a year. That’s a big number to absorb in this labor market, say job watchers.

The trend isn’t positive. The Times interviewed lawyers and law professors who said the legal market will continue to contract, even if the economy improves, because technology is allowing more services to be done overseas cheaply. Also, companies are negotiating “more cost-efficient fee arrangements” from their law firms.

There was a time when a juris doctorate degree proved valuable in opening doors to high- salaried employment. It still does in some cases. But companies, if they are hiring young lawyers, are looking for the best and the brightest from elite law schools where prestige impresses the client list. Graduates from second-tier law schools lose out under this scenario.

In another development, at least 12 lawsuits have been filed against law schools for “misleading advertising.” The plaintiffs — law-school graduates — say they were assured by the schools that they would get a job based on the school’s post-graduate employment statistics. A New York judge tossed out the first case to hit the legal system.

Other cases are on court dockets in California, Florida, Delaware, Illinois and Ohio. We doubt they will be successful.

While society needs good lawyers, it doesn’t guarantee them a job.

“For a long time there has been this culturally embedded perception that if you go to law school, it will be worth the money,” Kyle McEntee of Law School Transparency, a legal education policy organization, told The Times. “ The idea that law school is an easy ticket to financial security is finally breaking down.”

If the downward applications trend continues, we can see some mediocre law schools going out of business and/ or tuitions being reduced in an attempt to reverse course.

Neither would be a bad idea.

— The Sun of Lowell (Mass.)

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