Keep Calm and Carry On

16 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2014

See all articles by René Reich-Graefe

René Reich-Graefe

Western New England University School of Law

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

This Essay examines some of the hard data available for today’s legal market and develops very basic forecasts and hypotheses about what the future will bring for the U.S. legal profession during the next decades. In conclusion, it projects that recent law school graduates and current and future law students are standing at the threshold of the most robust legal market that ever existed in this country — a legal market which will grow, exist for, and coincide with, their entire professional careers. Using admittedly back-of-the-envelope math based on current trends affecting the legal market (in particular, lawyer retirements, population growth, and additional demand for legal services driven by increased volume and complexity), the Essay estimates over 840,000 new employment opportunities for lawyers between 2010 and 2030 alone. In other words, the Essay projects that, statistically, the legal profession market is moving into the direction of close-to-guaranteed legal employment for all law school graduates over the course of the next two decades.

Keywords: legal education, legal employment, employment projections, legal job market, legal industry growth, legal profession

Suggested Citation

Reich-Graefe, René, Keep Calm and Carry On (2014). Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Vol. 27, p. 55, 2014, Western New England University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14-3, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2404603

René Reich-Graefe (Contact Author)

Western New England University School of Law ( email )

1215 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01119
United States
413.782.1451 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.wne.edu

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
788
Abstract Views
8,721
Rank
58,285
PlumX Metrics