The nominally anonymous LawProf wrote a nice essay about erasing the stigma of failure. This is a big problem in the legal business because he suggests that half of the former law school graduates and more than half of the future legal eagles will not practice law in the coming years. The oversupply has been building for some time and we’ve all been letting shows like “Ally McBeal” blind us to the cold, hard reality.
LawProf mixes in some good academic jargon to make it seem serious, but the point is pretty simple: we overproduce and toss aside the people we don’t need. Then society tells them it’s their fault when it really is a systemic issue of overproduction.
It’s worth noting that this overproduction has been rampant in many fields for many years now. PhDs are in a huge oversupply. Liberal arts majors are a dime a dozen. It’s just a bit shocking to hear that it’s true for lawyers, but it shouldn’t be any surprise because it’s happened with every other field. The world has more talent than it can use.
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