Kaplan Bar Review has undertaken a new survey and the results are out. 63% of law school graduates feel that law school’s 3rd year is completely unnecessary. This finding resonates with President Obama’s recent controversial statement to that effect. 712 law schools graduates were surveyed by Kaplan and 449 or 63% of them answered positively to the question: “Do you think the traditional three year law school education can be condensed into two years without negatively impacting the practice-readiness of new attorneys? The majority of students felt that the third year of law school could be cut with no material repercussions.
According to Business Insider, if the students had to take on a third year of law schooling, apparently 97% of them would prefer to “spend time actually practicing law” via part time work, or internships, rather than taking electives as law students typically do. Law schools face a declining enrollment currently, and are rather reluctant to cut revenues from tuition. Some schools are managing their legal programs without cost reduction. Brooklyn law school has managed to create a law school program that has three years of law school crammed into two years. The course requirements and cost are the same as a three year program, but students will save on living expenses overall. Brooklyn Law School Dean Nicholas Allard commented about the school’s program, “We’re not going to admit people unless we’re sure they can do they extra work. It’s a solution for people for whom time is money.”