The drop in number of LSAT takers indicates, reports Jacob Gershman in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, "the law-school bubble hasn't stopped deflating." Here you can read the article.
This month that number dropped 11% from October 2012 and 45% from October 2009.
Those statistics should escalate the angst among junior faculty at law schools. Recently Seton Hall Law School was able to save their jobs through concessions from senior faculty. At New England Law School, faculty members have been offered buyouts. If not enough accept, those who are allowed to keep their jobs could be adding two more courses a semester and have to be in the office from 9 to 5.
Professors at law schools and those in law school preparing to teach law might find themselves in the same pickle as we humanities professors in the early 1970s. The government had projected a surge in the need for college teachers in the humanities. That didn't happen.
A whole generation of us in doctoral programs had to reimagine careers for ourselves. Many worked for the government in agencies such as Social Security. A number of us such as myself landed on our feet in communications jobs. Others went into academic administration. A few hung on and became what were called "gypsy scholars." They chased contract college teaching jobs around the nation.
It will be interesting to observe how law professors who can't hold onto their jobs find ways to make a living. Will they encounter as grim a struggle as displaced lawyers are?