Despite Tough Market, Harvard Law School Is Still a Safe Bet

With rising tuition costs and shrinking employment opportunities for law school graduates, students across the country are questioning their decision to go to law school—but not at Harvard.­

Facing a job market still recovering from the recession, law schools have seen a 13.4 percent drop in applicants. Those who do apply submit 18.8 percent fewer applications.

Although applications to Harvard Law School fell by 14.6 percent last year and 16.4 percent the year before, this year is different, according to the school’s Assistant Dean and Chief Admissions Officer Jessica L. Soban ’02.

“We don’t look anything like that,” she said, adding that official numbers will be released in the fall.

As law schools throughout the United States struggle in the face of a shrinking number of opportunities available to graduates, employment rates for Harvard Law School alumni have remained somewhat constant over the past 20 years, according to Soban, a former Crimson business editor.

“It’s a really attractive time to go to a top-tier law school,” she said.

A SAFE BET

For the past three years, the Law School’s after-graduation employment rate has been about 95 percent. Most recent graduates have found full-time, long-term positions in the legal field that required the passage of the bar exam. As of mid-February, 515 of the 590 graduates of the Class of 2012 had filled such positions, according to Mark A. Weber, assistant dean for career services at the Law School. At just over 87 percent, that figure is significantly different from the comparable 56.2 percent national employment rate reported by the American Bar Association.

At schools across the country, the problem is the economy as graduates struggle to find work despite their new law degrees.

“My sense is that whether law school is worth it or not... strongly depends on how well-situated a school is and what its employment numbers look like,” said I. Glenn Cohen, who was recently granted tenure at the Law School. “For schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, our students do very well. Our numbers are fantastic. It’s a pretty easy bet.”

The debt accumulated in law school, which often totals more than $100,000, makes less sense for students at lower-ranked schools, he said.

Weber said that students today are behaving rationally and performing a “cost-benefit analysis” as they assess employment opportunities after graduation.

“Many are saying that in their particular situations, it’s not a value proposition they want to take, especially when the prospects for post-graduate employment are grim,” he said. “Fortunately, that’s not a question that students at Harvard are asking.”

First-year law student Elizabeth T. Burns said she thinks Harvard is still a good bet.

“The Harvard Law School name gets you places,” she said.

According to Weber, this sentiment is widespread as Harvard students remain optimistic about job opportunities after graduation despite economic uncertainty.

“When you go to a top-tier school, the outlook is always good,” he said. “The real difference is during difficult economic times, it’s just a little bit harder and may take a while longer to land a job.”

A WORTHWHILE EDUCATION

Part of Harvard’s advantage extends beyond its name to the classroom experience.

Harvard Law professor William P. Alford said that the comparative value of the education at the Law School and other top law schools contributes to the optimistic prospects of its graduates.

“There’s an incredible diversity of law and legal viewpoints about the law among the faculty here,” he said. “It’s really great for students to get that exposure to that range of viewpoints. It’s a very stimulative environment.”

Alford said that a Harvard Law School education can prepare students for many professions, although he noted that students should not rule out the possibility of practicing law.

“You are simultaneously engaging in the world of ideas and the application of those to behavior,” he said. “The best legal education is going to help people think of multiple solutions to a problem.”

Another reason Harvard Law School graduates fare better in the post-recession job market could be the programs instituted to make low-paying public interest jobs financially viable.

“The problem isn’t that there are too many lawyers,” said Law School Dean Martha L. Minow. “It’s that there isn’t enough access to justice for poor people.”

The Law School’s Public Service Venture Fund provides fellowships for students entering the public sector, while the Low Income Protection Plan­ forgives student debt.

AN EXPANDING PROFESSION

In addition, the interdisciplinary nature of the Law School’s curriculum gives students an advantage after they graduate by enabling them to pursue jobs beyond the standard legal route. The Law School faculty, which includes an increasing number of professors with Ph.D.’s, has recently expanded to non-traditional areas of law with institutes like the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics.

“The current generation of aspiring students has only greater opportunities, which include the expanding global connections,” Minow said. “People with legal training are at the heart of addressing some of the most pressing legal issues in the country today.”

Burns agreed that the options for law students are now more varied. “A legal education is not necessarily a one-track path to a firm anymore,” she said.

For example, Harvard Law School prepares students for careers in the healthcare field, which represents a growing sector of the legal profession, according to Cohen, who teaches courses in bioethics and health law.

“With the Affordable Care Act, a 1,600 page document, the result has been the need for a huge amount of lawyers,” he said. “I happen to teach in health law where we have a significant under-supply of intelligent J.D.’s. I think that the fact that Harvard has great programming in this area is a huge plus for us.”

Hoping to attract more interdisciplinary students to the Law School, Harvard recently announced a new deferred admissions program for juniors at Harvard College that specifically targets students with backgrounds in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math.

“There are lots of jobs where those skills are in high demand,” Cohen said.

—Staff writer Dev A. Patel can be reached at devpatel@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @dev_a_patel.