A recent LA Times article reported that dozens of recently graduated law students across the country have decided to file or join class action lawsuits against their law schools, alleging the schools lured them in with misleading reports of their graduates’ success. Since it was published on April 1st, I thought that it might be a joke, but I am sorry to say it was not.
Nearly 20 lawsuits – five of them against California schools – are being litigated at a time of dim employment prospects for lawyers. Much of the work once done by lawyers can now be done by computers. Online services, for instance, have made law libraries largely unnecessary and are allowing corporations to do more work in-house.
One of the students who joined the class action lawsuit stated that while he believes his degree is a useful tool, the lawsuit was intended to combat “systemic ongoing fraud prevalent in the legal education industry that could leave a generation of law students in dire financial crisis.” You cannot make this stuff up.
I have a lot of friends who are lawyers, law students or thinking about enrolling in law schools, and I applaud them. I know it is not easy or cheap. That being said, suing your school because your industry is changing is ridiculous.
Of the five lawsuits in California, judges have allowed three of the suits to proceed; two have not yet been heard. One of the people consulting on the cases is someone who filed a similar class action case against the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and settled for $40 million.
So while law school applications are plunging due to the scarcity of legal jobs, these select students proceed with their lawsuits. There are a lot of opportunities out there for law grads. While they might not be a starting salary of $130,000, it is a job. Life is about choices and not all law degrees lead directly to a law firm. Be open minded and don’t sue!