Excess of Democracy

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Visualizing the continuing decline of the law school student body, 2014

One of the posts that has had the most staying power on this site was a post and a chart last year, "For legal education, the worst may be yet to come." We can now confirm that the decline continues, and the Class of 2017 is much smaller than previous classes--and that the bottom still has not been reached, given LSAT and applicant trends.

An ABA Journal piece discloses that the total incoming 1L class in 2014 was 37,675, the smallest since 1974, and down from the peak of 52,488 in 2010. Coupled with the declining LSAT data from LSAC, it paints a grim picture for legal education through at least 2017, and likely through 2018.