1. Legal jobs went away.
2. There was a temporary, substantial INCREASE in law school attendance.
http://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_1920w/Boston/2011-2020/2014/07/06...
When the economy went south, law school seemed like a "safe bet". This turned out to be a catastrophic mistake, as it came at the peak of the bubble in law school enrolment. There had never been such a gap between the number of students and the number of legal jobs.
Articles starting appearing circa 2010 that described a nightmare of $160,000 debt and no legal job. As students began to realize the world had changed, the decline began.
Parents are a big part of the problem. The boomers largely haven't caught on that a BA and a JD are no longer the good choices they were back in the 1960s and 1970s.
I'm in LSAT prep and I talk to a lot of pre-law applicants. They're now generally far more aware of what's at stake. But I only talk to the ones who are good at planning – I expect there's a decent amount of students who go into law school without realizing it can ruin their life.
Here on HN, we're in a bubble. Recruiters are a constant complaint. "Ugh, I hate all these people trying to offer me well-paying jobs".
Consider what's it's like to be 26 years old, with a BA and now a JD. You have about $160,000 that cannot be removed through bankruptcy. You have no assets and no marketable skills. You can't get a legal job, for structural reasons. And non-legal employers now give you a wide berth because you're overqualified.
Worse, you did everything you were "supposed" to do. Turns out it was cargo cult advice.
That's the situations thousands of young people find themselves in. Even going for one year and quitting can be crippling. You get $40,000 of non-dischargeable debt for your troubles.
If you happen to be giving career advice, here are the circumstances under which you should go to law school:
1. You have a burning passion to be a lawyer.
2. Said passion is based on actual knowledge of what lawyers do.
3. You can get into a T14 school, OR
4. You can get into a T100 school with a full scholarship, OR
5. You can get into a school very well regarded in the local area where you want to practice, OR
6. You have a legal job more or less in the bag upon graduation, through family, OR
7. You are rich and want to be a lawyer for what prestige it still carries
We need lawyers, and at some point the legal education market will sort itself out I'm sure. Schools will close, people will realize they need to do the math. I expect tuition will drop eventually.
But while the bubble is bursting, potential law students need to exercise extreme caution.