Ahhh….The fresh acceptance letters to law school. How exciting! You were accepted to any number of law schools in California (we have a lot of them here). In fact, you can have your pick of any number of correspondence law schools that are not ABA approved, and the best (and worst) ABA law schools in the country. While it is true that some wind up much better off in making the law school journey, the reality is that far too many wind up broke and strangled by nondischargeable student loan debt they’ll never pay off. Let’s discuss the law school student, and their metamorphosis from enthusiastic person to eventual financial and emotional ruination. In non legal parlance, the vast majority of you are simply fucked. Hell, I’ve had lawyers asking for jobs for $20 per hour, even when they had $250K in student loan debts. It’s true, and here’s my warning to those of you who haven’t really thought this through.
The Prospective Law Student Mating Session Starts – You Are Thinking It’s Marilyn – But It’s Really A Hostile Pig In Disguise, Followed By A 12 Step Program
Naturally, my humor is meant to drive how a point. Stop being offended and read on. If you are offended by this, then damn, get out of law now. You’ll thank me later. Law is a tough business, and the tough will eat you alive. My analysis applies with equal fervor to very good law schools. There are too many lawyers, and not enough jobs.
Your Date With Marilyn – Excitement, Allure & A Possibility of Getting Lucky
Marilyn is so gorgeous. The illusion of what she offers keeps your mind occupied on the wrong things. She wants you to look at her outward appearance in all her splendor. Marilyn wants you to focus on her beauty, and not to see how ugly she truly is inside. Once you do realize there is very little inner beauty, you realize that you are too far along to stop now. The truth is starting to emerge, and you no longer lust after her. In fact, you are getting repulsed by her.
Law school has created many rich lawyers. The lure of prestige is strong. Getting into law school isn’t easy for decent schools, and downright difficult for the best. Marilyn doesn’t offer herself to just anyone. I mean, how many other guys wanted Marilyn and failed? Lots. They were denied admission to your school after all. After about a year, you start seeing Marilyn for who she really is. Fear sets in. You’ve been “catfished.” Marilyn did her best to hide her inner workings – the financial doom of school school debt. On closer inspection, Marilyn’s outward beauty gives way to the her evil twin – the one she didn’t show you: the greedy, nasty pig of law school debt. But, like an evil spirit, she will make her evil twin known to you. The law school scene resembles mostly high school. Students are forced to take the same classes, have the same schedule, and do mostly boring assignments. You are not working, and taking on huge amounts of student loan debt to pay the $50K plus tuition. By the way, law school tuition is about the same whether you attended Harvard on the east coast or Western State in California. You will also borrow to cover living expenses. The pig is getting fatter by the minute and it wants food (e.g., your money). Our proverbial pig doesn’t eat table scraps tossed on the ground or left by trash cans. No, she gets to eat first, and takes it right from your mouth before you even taste anything. The pig eats before you, and the pig’s appetite gets larger and larger. Marilyn fooled the hell out you!
From pure fear, Marilyn’s low-cut dress, sexy legs and alluring smile and beauty are not on your mind. That evil twin pig has finally confronted you. The greedy pig is your fast-accumulating student loan debt. Interest starts on it as soon as the money is borrowed, and gains tremendous speed after three years. You borrow $150K – $200K to go to law school, with minimum payments of at least $1K per month upon graduation, and for the next 20 years. The pig is going to be fed, and fed well. If you decide to stiff the pig, you will find the pig to be rather nasty about it. The pig knows you CANNOT stiff it. The pig has powerful allies – the courts – the Congress, and your credit score. The bankruptcy court will not entertain your attempts to discharge the debts in bankruptcy. You can’t wipe it out in bankruptcy, although there was one reported case in Ohio of a partial success. The pig has access to the courts to force you to pay her, and even has the Department of Justice to sue you (yes, I’m not making this shit up) to enforce your payment obligations. I know of a lawyer who tried to stiff the government on his student loans, and was sued by the DOJ. For those of you who watched Goodfellas, when the restaurant owner now was in debt to the mob, the response was: “Business isn’t good? Fuck You! Pay me!” So it is with the pig: “You’re unemployed? Fuck You! Pay me!
Using the barely functioning intellectual skills acquired from law school, you finally get it: Marilyn is a two headed monster. The beauty lures you in, and the pig keeps your enslaved. If you met the pig first, you would not even bother admiring Marilyn’s beauty.
Your Descent Into Hell – Drugs, Alcohol And Depression. You Are Unemployed, Marginally Employed, Or Working A Shit-Law Job And Broke With Crushing Student Loan Debt
Graduation day! The pig has been low key until now, and not saying much, although you do get those student loan statements online, and the balance is now over $200K! For now, the pig feasts off the other suckers who already graduated. There’s plenty of food for him to eat, and then he turns his attention to you, three years later. Damn, the pig got fat. Wait. That’s $200K at 4% interest, and the interest rate goes up over time if inflation goes higher? Yes. Bad at math, that’s $8K in interest on the $200K this year. If the rates climb to 7%, that’s $14K in interest. If you made the minimum $1,000 payments, you’d never pay it off since $12K isn’t enough to even pay the damn interest of $14K! To get over that hurdle, you’ll need to send in $2K a month, which only reduces the $200K to $190K in one year. Suppose you find a job for $60K per year (there are many paying less than that). After taxes that’s about $48K per year. Try taking half of your net pay to pay the student loans. You are left with $24K to pay rent, gas, car, food and insurance. You are broke! The pig is taking over your life, and doesn’t give a shit about your situation. Yes, you are a lawyer, but you are a broke lawyer. Remember when you met Marilyn? Now Marilyn has taken off her mask – she’s led you down the path of destruction, and introduced you to a greedy, insatiable monster consuming all your income! Reality sets in – you are in financial trouble. From your measly $24K net pay, you need an escape, and slowly set aside $300 to $500 per month for drugs and booze. Of course, the $48K per income assumes you’ll pas the bar. That’s a bad assumption for many students at lower-tiered schools. For example, only 13% of Western State grads passed the February 2018 bar exam. For now, I’ll count you among the 87% who failed and live with that nasty pig (and now, your parents). Welcome to rock bottom.
Moving Back Into Your Parents’ Home.
You call your mom and dad, and they offer you solace – your old bedroom is still available, which can help you pay off your student loan debts faster. At age 28, you now are back living at home. “Goodnight mom!” It feels weird and bad simultaneously. You were “the lawyer in the family.” There was supposed to be a great outcome for you. Living with your parents poses several logistic problems for you. Going on dates means never going back to your place. I mean, your parents are there. Your date will feel uncomfortable. There’s no way in hell she’ll let you make out with her while your mom and dad have the tv blaring in the next room. Those few moments when you are alone with your girlfriend quickly turns to shit as mom peaks in says with embarrassment, “Uh, hello!” I’ve come up with some great excuses you could use, but there’s no sense in charging you, since you’d never pay it anyway, right? (More on that later). Assuming that moving back saved you $1,000 month in rent, and lived at home for five years, then you saved $60K in rent. (For lawyers trying to keep up, the saved rent is $1,000, x 12 (months) x 5 (years)). During this time you paid $24k per year for five years, or $140K to the pig. (Again, that $2K per month x 12 months x 5 years). Yay!!! But the pig isn’t a pig for no reason – the pig demands interest. Your loan balance was reduced, but it’s still about $150K after five years. You are now 33, and still paying $2K per month on a debt that hangs around your neck. What are you going to do? You could wait until your parents die, and then inherit the house. After all, you already live there. Meanwhile your sister – the one who graduated debt-free with a liberal arts degree making $50K per year out of college – is now five years into her career, making about $70K, has a nice car, a nice apartment, and is about to get married. The reality of the law school scam has set in.
Before Enrolling In Law School, Ask Marilyn Her Bar Pass Rates
Marilyn doesn’t want to talk about the realistic lack of job prospects for her graduates. No, she wants you to look at her cleavage, and become distracted. She wants you to think everything will be fine. Marilyn does give you some data about her “true” self on the school’s website, but you are fool to listen to that happy crap.
Let’s take a look at Whittier (while it was still open) and Western State College of Law. I have always been fond of Whittier Law School. Many years ago I was thinking of enrolling in their night program so that I could continue working my full-time job. Same with Western State Law School. These two schools weren’t prestigious, but so what? They filled a niche for working people and got you into law. It was a means to an end. Let’s take a look at their statistics to show my point. Whittier’s Bar Passage Rates For Feb. 2018: 0% For First Timers & 16% for Repeaters
https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/FEB2018_CBX_Statistics.pdf
Unless you pass the bar examination, you will not land a lawyer job. Without gainful employment, your student loan debt continues to grow until you suffocate and die. In February 2018, 17 Whittier law grads sat for the California bar exam, and NONE passed the test. 123 persons from Whittier failed and retook it again, but only 20 passed. That’s a bar pass rate of ZERO% and 16%, respectively. Let’s make it worse – only 17 of 140 Whittier law grads passed the bar, which is a 12% pass rate.Imagine 88% of your classmates at Whittier failing the bar. We need to understand this is a serious problem – the greedy beast of a pig demands its food (remember, its “Fuck You! Pay Me!” and you need to pass the damn test to have any chance of keeping the pig satisfied. No bar pass – no law license. Imagine the doom and mental depression of these students. 123 of them are forced to endure the exam again while being unable to get a law job until they pass. Meanwhile, the pig gets fatter, the law professors get fatter, and the school gets fatter (word is that Whittier sold its campus for $35 million).
Western State College Of Law’s Bar Pass Rate For February 2018: 29% First-Timers and 8% Repeaters, With A Combined 13% Pass Rate.
Only 5 of 17 Western State College of Law graduates passed the bar on the first attempt. For repeaters, only 4 out of 50 did. Again, to make it worse, let’s just say only 9 of 67 graduates passed the bar exam, or a total of 13%. Let’s say this a different way – 87% of the school’s graduates failed the bar exam in February 2018. These students spent three years in law school, racked up $150K or more in student loan debt and face an 87% failure rate? I mean, by comparison, Western State could brag a little and say that their bar pass rates are better than Whittier’s.
Only 5 of 17 Western State College of Law graduates passed the bar on the first attempt. For repeaters, only 4 out of 50 did. Again, to make it worse, let’s just say only 9 of 67 graduates passed the bar exam, or a total of 13%. Let’s say this a different way – 87% of the school’s graduates failed the bar exam in February 2018. These students spent three years in law school, racked up $150K or more in student loan debt and face an 87% failure rate? I mean, by comparison, Western State could brag a little and say that their bar pass rates are better than Whittier’s. For July 2018, 39 of 77 graduates passed the bar (51%), and 12 of 48 passed as a repeater (25%). Or, 51 of 125 passed (41%). These numbers are obviously better than the February 2018 numbers, but more graduates failed then passed by a 6 to 4 margin.
https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/FEB2018_CBX_Statistics.pdf
Beware Of Law Schools With Horrendous Expulsion Rates During The First Year
Not only are bar pass rates critically important, but expulsion rates are too. Why rack up legal debt and never get through the program? Some law schools set their curve at a “C” or “C+.” That’s dangerous for you. I’ll explain.
Pay deep attention to the “attrition” (expulsion, transfer and withdrawal) rates of a first year class. The kick-your-ass out of school rate is BRUTAL during the first-year of these schools. Why? Two reasons: 1) the school makes a shit-ton of guaranteed student loan money admitting unqualified students; and 2) these unqualified students will drag down the abysmal bar-pass rates (which were 13%) to near zero, so the school expels them after taking their money and ruining their brief legal careers. To do this, the school mandates a brutal curve based on a C grade, meaning 50% of the class will be in trouble right away. The “prestigious” schools (Harvard, Yale, etc.) have almost zero attrition rates, and curves that start at a B+. Take a look at Whittier’s “Involuntary” Attrition (kick your ass out rate):
https://www.law.whittier.edu/index/experience/consumer-information/#att
In 2013-14, Whittier kicked out 46 students, and 27 students transferred out (smart!) to a better school. In 2014-15, Whittier kicked out 52 students. These are startling numbers. Of the 221 students admitted in 2013-14, 21% were kicked out. 22% of the 2014-15 class were kicked out after the first year. By the way, the kick out rate drops in years 2 and 3, but the pressure to survive continues. This leads to a nasty student atmosphere where the curve matters. Get a couple of C-, or a D, and you are in trouble. Not only is the pig waiting for after graduation, but your classmates are gunning for you during school.
Western State’s Kick-Out Rates Are On The ABA Standard 509 Disclosures
This is the juicy information. Instead of displaying something like “attrition rates,” it’s buried in the Rule 509 disclosures (meaning you were technically notified about it). In the 2017-18 academic year, Western State kicked out 22 students, or 12% of the incoming class. That’s one out of eight students who hit the bricks. The first year student will rack up $50K in debt easily. For 12% of the students, they will enjoy being $50K in debt, their law schools ruined, and of course, lost even more money since they didn’t work that year too. Assuming a $50K per year job, that’s a $100k hit to 12% of the students (it’s actually more since the pig gets paid interest too).
Western State’s Employment Statistics
Once you wade through bar pass rates and kick out rates, the next thing to check are employment rates. You managed to not get kicked out, you passed the bar, but none of that matters if you can’t get meaningful employment, right?
In 2018, only 32 Western State law grads found a job requiring a JD, and only one of them wound up in “BIGLAW.” It says the school admitted 155 students, so 47 (of the students who weren’t kicked out) found jobs, which sucks. There is no denying Western States incredible presence with Judges (the school says 16-18% of the bench in OC, Riverside and San Bernardino are WSCOL graduates), which is truly amazing. They didn’t become judges without at least 10 years of experience first. I give the school well-deserved props for making such a strong splash on the bench. But (and you knew there would be a “but”), what about the huge number of students who are graduates, and without a job and cannot pass the bar?
I know a graduate of the school who failed the bar repeatedly. The agony of this situation is not fair. Do not admit students who cannot pass the bar exam. Do not force them to struggle with nondischargeable student loan debt while being underemployed (or unemployed). You, as the pre-law student, now can see that the illusion of law school is that you are working your way up the ladder socially and economically. To be sure, there are always those in the group that benefit from enrolling in the same program as you, and wind up doing great. Be very sure of your decision. Law school is three years, there are too many lawyers, and not enough jobs. The pig of student loan debt will haunt you, as you cannot eliminate it in bankruptcy, and it will be like a mortgage tied around your neck. I took the plunge, but I knew the risks. The “takeaway” is not to think that going to law school is a pre-ordained method to success. It’s not. Consider carefully your other options, as the student loan debt and three years without working makes going to law school an irreversible decision, with financial consequences that literally could ruin your life. The horribly sad irony is that people go to law school to better their life, not to ruin it.