The Coronavirus outbreak will affect your law school education and legal career more than you can imagine. I’ve done some research and compiled in this post how this virus will change the LSAT, law school application numbers, law school’s grading system, the bar exam, and the legal job market.
The COVID-19 – aka Coronavirus – outbreaks have causes plenty unprecedented consequences for the World’s global economy. Millions of people staying home, millions of businesses stalled, and tons of people out of work. Also, the legal industry at all stages must adapt to our new social-distancing normal.
In this post, I’m going to discuss how the outbreak and resulting public health measures are going to change the game for all pre-law applicants, law schools, and new graduates for this year and maybe many years to come.
The LSAT Has Changed: LSAT-Flex
On April 9, 2020, the Law School Admissions Counsel (LSAC) announced that they will administer the April 2020 LSAT online and remotely. This new LSAT format is called LSAT-Flex.
The LSAC will administer the LSAT-Flex in May, 2020 for those who have registered for the April 2020 LSAT. Additionally, March LSAT registrants will take the LSAT in April.
For any of you who took the LSAT already since September 2019, you know that the LSAT writing section was already online and remote. Test takers had to complete the LSAT writing portion on a computer with remote proctoring technology installed. April 2020 LSAT test takers will take the test on a computer with a webcam and the proctoring software installed. They also will only have to complete three 35-minute scored sections. The test will take, according to LSAC, approximately 2 hours as opposed to the all day affair of the normal LSAT. Also, LSAT-Flex has the same scale as regular LSATs.
A New Era for the LSAT?
Although plenty people have complained about the LSAT-Flex being unfair to other applicants who have taken and will take the LSAT, others online have expressed apathy or even support of this new format.
It is too soon to know if this online option will be a permanent fixture of the LSAT, but it is promising for those who are not able to take the text without significant hardship. Applicants can only take the LSAT a few times each year in limited locations. Further, the test spots fill up FAST. Registrants usually have to register to the LSAT months in advance to secure a spot.
Also, test takers cannot bring their phones, wallets, car keys, or purses into the room in which they are taking the test so they either leave their stuff at home or risk leaving it with their jackets outside the room, leaving their belongings susceptible to theft. Considering this risk, I left my phone and wallet at home. Thankfully, I took the test in downtown DC so I was able to take the Metro home, but others weren’t so lucky.
I know plenty of people who had to book hotel rooms because the LSAT was not available in their hometown or within one hour of their home. Moving the test online for those who are not able take it in person may be a positive step to making the LSAT more accessible.
Law Firms Are Suffering
Courts around the country have closed to the public and restricted what types of cases they are processing. Some courts are operating on reduced hours and millions of employees within the legal industry (including me!) are now working from home, cutting back on travel, and are all adjusting to this change.
Law firms around the country who interface heavily with the Court system have seen their operations, intake, and revenues halt. As you can imagine, this has hit criminal defense, family law, personal injury probate, and civil litigation with pending cases hard. Other practice areas that are usually practiced at big law firms (such as mergers and acquisitions) have also seen their revenues slow down as their clients are tightening their belts.
Therefore, there have been plenty lay-offs at big, midsize, and small law firms or seen their salaries cut. I know a few paralegals and legal assistants who were “let go” in the first week of the outbreak restrictions. One firm has already suspended its summer associate program for 2020. While some practice groups in bankruptcy may see an uptick of work immediately, the industry is seeing a squeeze in incoming cases.
All is Not Lost?
However, I have also seen many lawyers online maintaining optimism in fields such as divorce law, employment, and criminal defense. These fields have historically seen upticks in times of economic downturns or in the immediate aftermath.
Either way, your job prospects as a recent law graduate or current law student looking to work in law firms this summer seem null as long as the Coronavirus outbreak restrictions continue. I have already talked about 5 things to do for college graduates who have no post-grad job; the tips and tricks I spoke about may also apply to the class of 2020.
The Coronavirus has not only affected law school education. The outbreak and restrictions have already created a recession. Considering how the legal job market plummeted during the last recession, we 0Ls and current law students need to build up our saving funds and adapt to this new normal to survive this economic collapse as our counterparts in 2008/09 had to do.
Law Schools Have Changed Their Grading Systems
Not only have law schools moved entirely online for the Spring 2019 semester, but they have also changed their grading systems.
That’s right. Law Schools have either mandated fail/pass grading conventions or made it optional for their students. This system will affect current law student’s grades, which will then affect their immediate abilities to secure high-paying and competitive internships, summer associate positions, and clerkships.
Also, for law students who have conditional scholarships, this change may alter their qualifications to keep their scholarships.
Even though the pass/fail systems have been implemented on an emergency basis, and it is safe to assume that law schools will go back to their traditional scale after the coronavirus outbreak subsides, the pass/fail system will be a permanent fixture on current law student’s transcripts. The implications of thousands of student’s having a whole semester of pass/fails on their transcripts have yet to be seen.
We don’t know if some of those implications matter for future law students, but the classes of 2020/2021/2022 are not going to suffer from the unprecedented consequences of the Coronavirus outbreaks without other broad changes to address their history circumstances.
Current law students are engaging their school to adapt to the current economic and public health crisis, and the law school’s responses to the coronavirus outbreak will continue to alter how law schools function in this country for many years to come.
States May Bypass/Postpone The Bar Exam
The State of Utah may let law school graduates who were registered to take the July bar exam practice law without taking the bar exam as long as they are supervised by a licenses attorney for a period of time.
Although law school hopefuls may cheer this proposal, many practicing attorneys disapprove of the measure. Their dissenting comments (here) cite many concerns with bypassing the state bar exam for the class of 2020.
Will this proposal affect Utah’s reciprocity with other states?
Will this affect the quality of Utah’s legal market?
The very lively debate will continue until April 17, 2020 on this page.
Other states such as New Jersey have already allowed temporary diploma privileges for its graduates. The New Jersey Supreme Court has signed an order that 2020 graduates can practice under the supervision of an attorney in good standing with a three-year license.
Utah is not the only state who may approve emergency diploma privileges during he outbreak. Students at Harvard are currently petitioning their school to support diploma privileges across the country.
A New Era For Diploma Privilege?
These states may follow in the footsteps of Wisconsin, which is the only state that broadly exercises a practice called diploma privilege. New Hampshire offers diploma privilege for graduates of The University of New Hampshire School of Law. Every other graduate has to take their State bar examination.
According to Wikipedia, Diploma privilege “is a method for lawyers to be admitted to the bar without taking a bar examination.” Basically, a State may consider the JD degree as the only mandate for practicing law.
Who is to say that these privileges won’t either become permanent or more common for other states now that the Coronavirus has impacted the law school paths of the class of 2020 and others?
If the Class of 2020 can prove that they can practice ethically and sufficiently with these new rules, maybe future classes can practice under another attorney while they study for the bar or forgo the bar entirely.
Law School Applications May Rise
The last recessions saw an increase in applicants to graduate school. The number of registrants for the LSAT and GRE jumped by 20 percent and 13 percent respectively in October 2009 compared to October 2008.
When the economy slows down and jobs are not as readily accessible, people tend to go back to school. Many applicants reason that higher education could increase their job prospects. Plenty are also thinking that during their tenure at whatever school they are attending, the economy will approve. They figure that when they do graduate, the job market will be than before.
It is too early to say with confidence that the number of law school applicants will rise. But considering the statistics from the Great Recession, it is safe to spectate that law school admissions may become more competitive in the coming admissions cycles.
I hope that these factors help to inform you of how the Coronavirus has severely affected law schools and the legal industry. I’ll keep monitoring updates ad they develop because these changes have just begun.
