California Watch

UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law saw a 4.7 percent increase in applications for its class of 2010, setting a new record for the number of applicants, officials said yesterday.

The school has counted a total of 8,317 applications, compared to 7,940 last year – which, by the way, broke the previous record. In fact, the school has seen a 19 percent increase from 2007 to 2010. Applications had to be postmarked by Feb. 1, so a few more could still trickle in, spokeswoman Susan Gluss said.

Last year's entering class size: 292.

Gluss attributed the rise, in part, to the tendency of more people to apply for graduate school during a recession, and in part, to Berkeley's enhanced loan forgiveness program for students who work for nonprofit public interest groups or government agencies and earn below a certain threshold.

The news comes as several media reports have documented the increasingly tough job market that law school graduates face, a problem that is compounded by law graduates' high levels of debt.

The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) reported last summer that the University of Miami School of Law was offering accepted students a $5,000 stipend if they agreed to defer admission for year and complete some public service hours. Dean Patricia D. White wrote students a letter:

'While I would like to believe that this year’s elevated acceptance rate reflects the great sense of excitement about the law school and its future that led me to become its new dean, I fear that some of it may be related to the shortage of jobs in the current economy,' she wrote. 'Perhaps many of you are looking to law school as a safe harbor in which you can wait out the current economic storm. If this describes your motivation for going to law school, I urge you to think hard about your plans and to consider deferring enrollment.'

In addition to being difficult and expensive, 'in these uncertain and challenging times the nature of the legal profession is in great flux. It is very difficult to predict what the employment landscape for young lawyers will be in May 2012 and thereafter.'

The New York Times reported in August that law students were competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year.

UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge noted on his blog that perhaps law is a mature industry with a problem of systemic oversupply. His proposed solution: Cut supply.

"Lop off the bottom third of law schools and see if that solves it," he wrote.

For its part, Berkeley has taken a few measures to help students in the down economy, Gluss said. The school has ramped up career development staff, launched a post-graduate career development program, doubled the number of post-graduate Bridge Fellowships for third-year students without jobs lined up, and more.