The cost of law school tuition continues to rise. The average tuition to attend a private law school is about $30,000 per year and approximately $20,000 per year to attend a public law school, not including books, housing, meals, etc. (Internet Legal Research Group, 2011). Many law schools do not allow students to work during law school. Others allow students to work after the first year of law school. Some law schools offer part time attendance while others only offer a full time program. Upon graduation, many students are faced with loans of $75,000 or more.
Typically, students sign promissory notes for their loans. Students may sign a note providing them with up to 30 years to pay off their loans. To pay for their loans, students expect to have great jobs upon graduation, such as working in a law firm. The more prestigious the law firm, the better, because they tend to pay higher salaries. The so-called silk stocking law firms pay great salaries and thus select the best students. In the fall 2011, the average starting salaries for recent law school graduates at Chicago, IL top law firms was between $130,000 and $160,000 (NAPL Directory of Legal Employer, 2011). In 2011, the average salary for partners in all types of Chicago, IL law firms was between $96, 000 and $345,000 (Payscale.com, 2011).
Law schools compete for the best professors. For example, practicing attorneys with relevant experience, publications, teaching experience or service make great candidates for law professors. These same individuals make great attorneys and are likely earning the substantial salaries mentioned above. To attract these individuals into teaching, many law schools must offer them salaries above the level of other professors at that institution. For example, at the University of Memphis, associate law professors earn $120,000 versus $66,276 earned by associate professors in the College of Education (Office of Institutional Research, 2011). To support the higher salaries offered to law professors, law school students are often charged a higher tuition. For example, law students at the University of Memphis pay $741.50 per credit hour, while non-law students pay $338.50 per credit hour (in-state tuition rates) (University of Memphis, 2011). The cycle of paying law professors a greater salary than other professors and charging law students more tuition, leads to cost disease.
One suggestion for alleviating the cost disease in this area involves law firms containing first year salaries. These first year students have very little experience to justify substantial salaries. For example, at a prestigious Atlanta, GA law firm, first year patent attorneys earn $165,000 right out of law school! Typically their salary continues to increase each year until the associate either makes partner and buys into the law firm or is released from the law firm.
Another suggestion is to seek career law professors who have interest in teaching and scholarship instead selecting former practicing attorneys. Professors and can have successful careers while contributing to the profession through their research, writing and teaching. Focusing on hiring career professors versus career attorneys may allow the institution to keep law professor salaries more in line with salaries of other professors in similar positions at the institution instead of competing with the pay structure of practicing attorneys. These changes may aid in the reduction of the cost disease of increasing law school tuition.
References
Archibald, R. B. and Feldman, D. H. (2011). Why does college cost so much? New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Internet Legal Research Group (2011). Law school ranks by tuition. Retrieved from http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/tuition.php/1/asc/Tuition.
NAPL Directory of Legal Employers (2011). Employer Info. Retrieved from http://www.nalpdirectory.com/.
Office of Institutional Research (2011). Salaries of full-time faculty by college, and faculty rank – fall 2010. Retrieved from http://oir.memphis.edu/WebReports/FacultyAndStaff/EmployeeFactbookFall2010.pdf.
Payscale.com (2011). Salary by city for law firm partner jobs. Retrieved from http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Law_Firm_Partner/Salary/by_City.
University of Memphis (2011). Fee schedule for in-state students, fall 2011/spring 2012. Retrieved from http://bf.memphis.edu/finance/bursar/2011-12_Fee_Chart_UGIS.pdf.
University of Memphis (2011). Fee schedule. Retrieved from http://bf.memphis.edu/finance/bursar/2011-12_Fee_Chart_LAW.pdf.
