Law School Applications At A 30 Year Low

One of the stories I’ve been following is the drop in law school applications.  Here’s the latest from the LSAC:

As of 01/18/13, there are 199,877 Fall 2013 applications submitted by 27,891 applicants. Applicants are down 20.1% and applications are down 22.3% from 2012.

Last year at this time, we had 51% of the preliminary final applicant count.

Those figures suggest applications will be fewer than 60,000 for the application year.  The ABA Journal points out this would be a 30 year low.  68,000 applied for law school last year.  These figures may be the new normal despite an improving economy.  [MG]