The Financial Costs of Law School – A Revealer

The great amount of misleading data and half-truths about law school financial costs and employment prospects have reached a point, where, reluctant organizations are being forced to part with data they would have loved to keep hidden away.

The wide range of protests in all circles about how the ABA drags it feet over publishing law school related employment data has been so acute that the ABA has launched a data portal with two-year old data. However, the ABA has promised that ‘in the future' public availability of data would be quicker, and as soon as the collation is completed. That's good news for future generations of students. But even the little data that has been released has been sufficient to make some calculations which were difficult to do before and our kudos go to Law School Transparency for finding out the real financial costs of law school education.


In March, based upon the newly released data on the ABA web site and their own sources, the U.S. News & World Report stunned the public by putting up lists of the top ten law schools that led to highest and lowest student loan debt. It also reported that students passing from ABA accredited law schools were saddled with an average of $100,433 debt.

So, one can understand the general reluctance to provide latest and accurate information by the ABA and its accredited law schools. But the joke is still on the students as the U.S. News & World Report had done it calculations according to its own definitions – calculations that did not take into account either inflation, or the inevitable percentage increase in tuition fees or associated interests, or the fact that at least half of the students have to bear non-discounted costs.

The real figure of law school debt riding on the shoulders of students passing out from ABA accredited law schools has been recently calculated by the Law School Transparency taking into account all the factors that reports by other sites missed out on. LST considered a 3% tuition inflation, a cost of living inflation of 2%, the interest accrued for each semester using appropriate weighted interests – 6.8% for the first 10.25 K and 7.9% for the rest, to round up the actual non-discounted costs that 50% of students have to bear. Though LST may have still left out many incidental expenses, the average real financial cost of law school for those who would graduate in 2016 comes close to $200,595! That's almost double of what had been put up by U.S. News & World Report.

Until now, most organizations have not been following a principle rule of publishing when it comes to law school data – data must be relevant for decision-making. For those who are thinking of applying for law schools now, and who would be graduating in 2015 and 2016, the data published by US News & World Report on law school debt is irrelevant, because it does not reflect what ‘they' as prospective students today, would have to bear ultimately as law graduates. The US News & World Report data relates only to those who have no chance to use the data to take decisions – they are already in law school.

People will continue to enroll in law schools for law practice is one of the most required and hallowed professions. Corporate greed makes itself felt everywhere, from law firm management to law school management; no one is beyond its influence. However, the LST data would help those who are still in a position to determine their courses of life and decide whether the cost-benefit of law school appeals to them or not. At least, there would be few post purchase regrets and students enrolling in law schools would be fully aware of what they are getting into.

ABA is doing its exercises in transparency and is in a damage control mode making new roars every day about the measures they are ready to take to enhance transparency. Pretty amazing, considering that the ‘transparency' should have been there in the first place, and it beats me how an organization can claim appreciation for trying to remedy its own faults. Considering that the lack of transparency helped mislead countless law students for generations. But, at the end, the word is out, ABA is getting tough.

But people remain doubtful. Law School Transparency has established a section called “ABA Watch” to monitor and engage the ABA Section of Legal Education in the matters of transparent flow of consumer information to the public from law schools.