How bad is LSD in North Carolina? Despite our Editor’s college minor in economics, we never knew that the market for law schools was so sensitive to the economy. Leary Davis, founding dean of Campbell University’s law school, explained in a recent interview that “Demand for law schools goes in cycles, surging during economic slumps. During the past few years, the job market has been poor, but placement of law school graduates has ‘just been phenomenal’.” Consider further:
North Carolina has only five law schools: Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill; Wake Univ.; UNC Central; and Campbell University.
North Carolina “ranks next-to-last in the United States in the number of lawyers per capita — one for every 502 residents, said Leary Davis. The national ratio is one lawyer for every 268 people.”
About half of the people who take the state’s bar exam went to law school outside North Carolina.
Charlotte, NC, is one of only two of the nation’s top 50 cities without a law school. The founding dean of Florida Coastal law school, Donald Lively, bemoans the fact that Charlotte is “substantially underserved. . . Actually, you could make the case that it’s unserved.”
Indeed, things are so bad that the public-spirited Elon University is rushing to fill the emergency shortage, despite funding difficulties (AP/rduNews14, “Elon pushing for law school despite funding problems,” 05-12-04). Elon’s president is quoted in one report:
“We like where we are,” he said. “We like being primarily an undergraduate institution.” But the university doesn’t want to miss this opportunity.
“It’s very clear to us that another law school is going to be started in North Carolina within the next five years,” Lambert said, adding that he doesn’t want to look back 10 years from now and say, “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”
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N.B. The North Carolina Bar deserves kudos, as it has done its best to weather the virulent bout of LSD in a manner that would avoid public panic over a scarcity of lawyers.
- As ethicalEsq has pointed out, they have courageously fought to broaden and strengthen the definition of Unlawful Practice of Law, to protect NC consumers from nonlawyers who might be tempted to offer legal services or assistance.
- They issued the N.C. Bar Alternative Billing Commission Report (1999), noting that Tar Heel “Lawyers Are Working Less and Making More Money,” and explaining that hourly billing flowered “during an era of undersupply of lawyers,” but was being undermined in the new era of competition and savvy consumers; and
They have steadfastly refused to champion Small Claims reform in their State, allowing North Carolina to achieve its position as the 8th worse small claims court system in the nation, according to HALT’s 2004 Small Claims Court Report Cards. With a jurisdictional limit of only $4000, very few North Carolinians will be able to solve legal problems without lawyers.