Legal Education and the Housing Bubble

Over at the Conglomerate Blog, Christine Hurt (Illinois) has an interesting post comparing law school debt to the sub-prime mortgage market.  Here's a taste:

For a couple of decades now (and until a few years ago), the conventional wisdom was that real estate would always rise in value and that the world would always need lawyers.  Home ownership at whatever cost, particularly with tax-deductible interest rates, was better than alternatives such as renting; financing a law degree with student loans, some of which was low-interest and tax-deductible, was an equally good investment given the value of the law degree.  Just as something about home ownership seemed intrinsically good, so did getting a law degree, from any law school. . . .  Anyway, more and larger houses were built; more and larger law schools were built.  Then, as if on a dime, the world changed . . . .

This post was included in a flurry of recent posting at the Conglomerate about the future of lawyering and legal education.  Interesting stuff!

Mike Kent

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