[新聞記事] Waning ranks at law schools (The Boston Globe, July 06, 2014)
朝日新聞の隔週土曜日の別冊Globeに連載されている「見出しで読み解く」のもと記事です。
[新聞記事] 見出しを読み解く 法科大学院の志願者減少
「法科大学の学生数の減少―景気後退の影響が長期化の懸念」
もと記事は法科大学の多いアメリカ東海岸の「ボストン・グローブ」紙。
難しい単語が多く手こずりました。
Waning ranks at law schools
Institutions fear recession's effect could be lasting
(The Boston Globe, July 06, 2014)
リーマンショック以降、企業のコストカットは顧問弁護士にも及び、その影響で法科大学を出た新米弁護士の職がなく（２０１３年の調査では５７％しか就職できなかった）ハーヴァードのような頂点の法科大学は別として、ほとんどの法科大学が学生数の減少に苦しんでいるようです。
入学金の減額や、魅力ある授業内容で学生を確保しようとする一方で、教授の報酬カット、事務員のカットなど、コストカットも厳しいようです。
法科大学のこの危機は一時的なものではなく、今後も上昇には至らないであろうという意見もあります。
逆に危機をばねにして、導入が遅れていたIT技術で、弁護士の職務内容を見直すようなカリキュラムの導入を図るべきだという建設的意見もあるようです。
黄色のハイライトは当方の不明単語ですので、気になさらずに。
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Waning ranks at law schools
Institutions fear recession's effect could be lasting
(The Boston Globe, July 06, 2014)
Years after the end of the recession,
enrollment at the nation’s law schools continues to
plummet, a
wrenching shift that has forced many schools to cut expenses and raised
concerns about the long-term financial
prospects of some.
First-year enrollment for fall 2013 dropped 11 percent from the previous year, part of
a
staggering 24 percent decline in just three years, according to the latest figures from
the American Bar Association. At 39,675 students, it was the smallest incoming class
since the 1970s, prompting fears that the legal education system has reached a crisis.
With a difficult job market making students increasingly hesitant to take on
massive
student loan debt, nearly all law schools in Massachusetts ? one of the top areas in the
nation for legal education ? have seen enrollment
suffer.
wane:（人気などが）衰える
ranks:兵士たち
enrollement:入学
plummet:急落する
wrench:ねじる
concern:心配事
raise a concern
懸念［心配事］を引き起こす◆raise concernsというように複数形で用いられることが多い
prospect:予想
stagger:よろめく、ふらつく
massive:大きい
suffer:（損害を）被る
The
persistent decline has forced many law schools to take drastic
measures. Suffolk
University, where first-year enrollment fell 15 percent last year, recently offered
buyouts to all
faculty with
tenure or with renewable long-term contracts, and Western
New England University in Springfield has
pared back its faculty among a number of
cost-cutting measures.
Boston University and Northeastern University have also seen enrollment fall, and
even highly regarded Harvard University had seen applications
dip, before
rallying
somewhat the past two years.
persistent:頑固な、持続する
measure:基準、対策
faculty:（大学の）学部、学部教員
tenure:任期、（大学教師の）終身身分保障
pare:（果物の）皮をむく、（出費などを）減らす
dip:下り坂になる
rally:（勢いを）回復する
By all indications, the decline at many schools will continue this fall. Nationally, the
number of applicants for the incoming class has dropped nearly 8 percent from last
year, according to the Law School Admission Council.
The legal community had hoped that the downturn was largely cyclical and that
demand would rebound with the economy. But with enrollment showing little sign of
stabilizing, there is growing
acceptance of a perhaps permanent shift.
“It’s a complete structural change, and it’s not going away,” said Richard P. Campbell, a
Boston lawyer and former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association who has
closely tracked the issue. “The end result is fewer graduates, and fewer law schools.”
A decline in applications forces schools to compete for a smaller pool of students,
making it harder to assemble a strong class. While top schools still have plenty of
applicants to choose from, allowing them to maintain enrollment, less selective schools
have little choice but to accept fewer students. Some schools may also have to lower
admission standards.
At New England Law School in Boston, first-year enrollment has dropped 40 percent
since fall 2010, while Western New England saw a 28 percent decline. In response,
New England Law School last year froze wages, offered buyouts to some faculty
members, and reduced its administrative staff. The
dean, John O’Brien, took a
voluntary pay cut of 25 percent.
acceptance:受納、（盲目的に）受け入れること
admission:入学金
dean:学部長
voluntary:任意の（？）
Western New England has also frozen tuition, now $39,000, for the next four academic
years, in an effort to attract more students.
“By reducing our expenses and developing new revenue, we are holding our own in a
tough market,” said Eric Gouvin, dean of the law school.
The University of Massachusetts Law School in Dartmouth, established in 2010 as the
state’s only public law school, attracted a class of 114 in 2011. That dropped to 71 in
2012, then rose slightly to 78 last year.
For decades, law school was seen as a springboard to a solid, often
lucrative career. But
after the economic collapse in 2008, the legal job market slowed dramatically, leaving
many graduates out of work.
The class of 2011 faced the worst job market in years, with an overall employment rate
of just 85 percent, according to the National Association for Law Placement. That was
the lowest it had been since 1994.
During the recession, many law firms cut back on hiring, as companies took a hard line
on legal spending and began outsourcing more work, from research to drafting
contracts, legal specialists say. At the same time, advances in technology reduced the
need for junior associates and support staff.
“All of a sudden those jobs just weren’t there anymore,” said Campbell, who created a
bar association task force to study the problem. “The recession brought about a
structural change.”
The job crunch caused students to reassess their career plans, realizing the high price
of a law degree was an increasingly risky bet.
“Students are being cautious, having seen what happened,” said Vincent D. Rougeau,
dean of Boston College Law School, where first-year enrollment fell 14 percent over the
past three years, to 230 last year. “We’ve pretty much become accustomed to
declines.”
The job market has improved slightly in the past three years, but remains tight. Law
schools reported that 57 percent of 2013 graduates were employed in full-time
positions where bar
passage was required, while 11 percent were unemployed or
underemployed.
Not long ago, many top students saw law school as a “natural
progression” from their
college studies that would pay strong
dividends in their careers, Rougeau said. But the
speed and
scope of the current decline suggests those days may be gone, observers
say.
lucrative:（商売・仕事などが）利益があがる
bar:法定弁護士、弁護士の職
structural:構造上の
progression:進歩
dividend:配当
scope:範囲、視界
“There’s a pretty broad consensus that this is something completely different,” he said.
Like other law schools, BC has
intensified recruiting efforts to attract students. The
school hosts more events for admitted students, and faculty members are more likely
to contact students directly.
“We’re not
complacent,” he said. “We take very seriously the idea that students who
apply to us have choices, and it’s our responsibility to make the case for BC.”
Jeremy Paul, dean of Northeastern University’s law school, said declines in entry-level
hiring and flat
funding for legal services programs have made jobs harder to come by,
and law schools are not expecting enrollment to rebound quickly.
“Nobody is acting as if there’s reason to believe there will suddenly be a large spike,”
he said.
In response, some schools are moving to prepare students for a legal world that is
being transformed by technology, in hopes of making graduates more marketable.
Andrew Perlman, a Suffolk law professor who directs the school’s Institute on Law
Practice Technology & Innovation, said schools need to shift their focus to emerging
areas, such as document automation and electronic discovery, which involves software
that searches documents for
relevant information. “It used to be a lawyer went page
by page,” he said. “The real growth is not going to be in traditional settings.”
Suffolk created the institute, along with a new concentration in legal technology, to
train students in the type of technology that has eliminated so many traditional jobs.
“Instead of fighting it, lawyers can
participate in it,” he said.
At Harvard, applications for the first-year class of about 600 are up significantly this
year, a promising sign and part of a national increase among students who score high
on the LSAT.
“The turn-around at the top of the pool shows that people who are serious about law
school are coming back,” said Jessica Soban, assistant dean and chief admissions officer
at Harvard Law School.
Campbell
likened the decline in enrollment to a bubble, a natural outcome of law
schools growing too fast and charging too much. Now some lesser schools may not
survive the jarring transition, he said.
“Before, they had no incentive to cut back on the size of their classes, or the tuition
they charged,” he said. “They had free
rein.”
intensify:～を強める
complacent:自己満足した
fund:～に資金援助する、（一時借入金を）長期公債する
relevant:関連した
participate:参加する
likene:[しばしば受け身で]なぞらえる
jar:振動させる
rein:手綱、支配
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