A
decade
ago,
it
seemed
like
law
school
tuition
would
follow
Bitcoin
straight
to
the
moon.
We
all
warned
that
the
relentless
cycle
of
increases
would
eventually
divert
talented
prospective
lawyers
who
realize
that
they
have
career
options
that
don’t
involve
effectively
buying
a
second
house
worth
of
debt.
And
so,
with
total
cost
of
attendance
over
three
years
at
the
very
top
schools
capping
out
at
a
little
over
$325,000,
the
fever
may
have
finally
broke.
So
we
may
be
saved
from
law
school
debt
creeping
into
the
half-million
range.
For
now.
Professor
Paul
Campos,
who
literally
wrote
the
book
on
the
law
school
tuition
bubble,
revisited
the
financial
condition
of
America’s
legal
academy
and
found
that
tuition
increases
—
once
leaping
by
40
percent
in
real
terms
over
10-year
spans
—
had
inched
up
a
mere
4
percent
since
2015.
Harvard
Law
School
tuition
and
fees
Nominal
dollars/July
2025
dollars
BLS
CPI1955-56:
$837.50.
$10,0581965-66:
$1,581
$16,163.
60.7%
increase1975-76:
$3,160.
$18,696.
15.7%1985-85:
$10,235.
$30,530.
63.3%1995-96:
$21,134.
$44,565.
46%2005-06:
$36,470.
$59,263.
33%2015-16:
$58,242:
$79,073.
33.4%2025-26:
$82,560.
3.8%
This
collapse
isn’t
happening
because
law
schools
suddenly
found
religion
about
fairness
or
access.
These
places
still
happily
fleece
22-year-olds
who
haven’t
yet
learned
the
difference
between
Erie
and
Eeyore.
The
collapse
is
happening
because
demand
is
collapsing.
As
schools
pushed
the
price
higher
and
higher,
they
naturally
cut
off
access
to
more
and
more
students.
Some
tried
to
justify
high
tuition
as
part
of
an
effort
to
offset
tuition
breaks
for
those
who
couldn’t
afford
it,
but
the
reality
was
a
self-perpetuating
cycle
of
making
school
less
affordable
to
cover
up
the
fact
that
it
was
less
affordable.
The
resulting
series
of
discounts
finally
took
their
toll:
The
result
was
that
15
years
ago
net
tuition
was
79%
of
sticker,
ten
years
ago
it
was
67%,
and
two
years
ago
it
was
57%.The
result
is
a
24%
decline
in
per
capita
real
tuition
over
thirteen
years,
and
even
that
number
is
inflated
for
practical
purposes
by
the
fact
that
the
top
dozen
or
so
elite
schools
have
still
managed
to
raise
their
prices
by
about
5%
over
that
time
frame,
although
even
they
have
been
hit
by
the
cold
hard
reality
of
a
bubble
that,
if
it
hasn’t
burst
for
them,
is
nevertheless
no
longer
inflating
For
years,
Biglaw
firms
took
a
lot
of
the
blame
for
the
tuition
bubble
as
the
supposed
sugar
daddies
underwriting
the
scam.
Higher
salaries
allowed
law
schools
to
convince
students
that
they
wouldn’t
have
to
worry
about
all
the
debt
once
the
annual
bonuses
started
rolling
in.
Never
mind
that
the
Biglaw
business
model
was
always
a
pyramid
scheme
of
its
own
and
most
of
the
young
associates
would
only
get
a
handful
of
years
in
the
sun
before
being
unceremoniously
sacrificed
like
a
legion
of
original
trilogy
stormtroopers.
And
yet,
while
law
firms
have
been
better
about
adjusting
compensation
to
market
realities
over
the
last
10
years,
the
schools
haven’t
followed
suit.
This
collapse
also
exposes
the
great
threat
of
“prestige
inflation.”
For
years,
law
schools
justified
tuition
hikes
by
waving
U.S.
News
rankings
around
like
a
televangelist
with
a
snake.
U.S.
News
didn’t
care
as
much
about
tuition
as
it
did
about
luring
more
high-scoring
students
and
schools
engaged
in
unnecessary
yet
pricey
buildups
that
would
make
Reagan’s
Defense
Department
flinch.
Once
U.S.
News
started
caring
about
debt
loads,
law
schools
harumphed
in
protest.
Now
comes
AI
to
spice
up
law
school’s
existential
crisis.
Despite
the
hype,
AI
isn’t
going
to
replace
lawyers,
but
it
will
replace
a
lot
of
lawyer
work.
In
other
words,
the
world
still
needs
lawyers,
but
law
firms
may
need
fewer
associates.
If
AI
allows
Biglaw
to
get
the
same
leverage
out
of
half
the
bright-eyed
associates,
that
means
many
more
law
school
grads
come
out
into
a
world
without
those
high-paying
jobs
that
long
justified
the
law
school
bubble.
More
to
the
point,
even
though
AI
isn’t
replacing
lawyers,
the
incessant
publicity
blitz
from
the
Silicon
Valley
bros
makes
a
lot
of
prospective
lawyers
think
it
is.
Which,
for
a
law
school
trying
to
get
asses
in
seats,
is
just
as
bad.
The
result
of
all
this
is
that,
after
seeing
one
ABA
school
close
in
the
previous
60
years
(Oral
Roberts;
grifters
gotta
grift
as
it
says
in
the
Bible,
King
Donald
version),
a
dozen
have
disappeared
over
the
last
decade,
and
several
more
seem
likely
to
follow.
Expect
mergers.
Expect
closures.
Expect
some
scammy
“JD-lite”
programs
where
schools
basically
charge
you
$40K
a
year
to
take
bar
prep
with
a
Latin
motto.
Be
careful
out
there.
The
law
school
tuition
collapse
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