The election of President Donald Trump pushed Tiffany Boguslawski over the edge.
The 19-year-old aspiring politician knew she wanted to be a lawyer, but the new president, who shares her hard-line stance on immigration and international trade, sealed the deal.
Boguslawski, a triple-major in political science, history and global affairs, is among a group of students across the political spectrum who were so moved by last November’s election that they decided to take the Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT, because they view law school as a means to making a difference.
In the past year, the number of people taking the test, which is administered nationally four times a year, has surged. In February, 21,400 people took it, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier. In June, the number of test-takers was up 19.8 percent year-over-year, to 27,606 people. And the number of people who took the test in September rose 10.7 percent from a year ago, to 37,146 people. As of Oct. 30, registrations for the Dec. 2 exam were up 21.4 percent.
It’s been called the “Trump bump” by some in the legal community who believe strong reactions to the current political climate are spurring people on both sides of the political spectrum into action.
“It may very well be that more recent college grads and early professionals are choosing to pursue careers in which they believe they can truly make a difference,” said Don Rebstock, associate dean of strategic initiatives at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
Legal educators theorize that one of the major motivators for the recent spike in LSAT takers is Trump’s controversial executive order, issued shortly after his inauguration in January, halting refugee admissions and temporary travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. Blocked by the courts, Trump issued two subsequent travel bans. This month a California appellate court ruled that parts of the third travel ban could take effect.
The first travel ban prompted lawyers to flock to airports across the country, including O’Hare International Airport, to offer free legal help to international travelers. Seeing news reports of lawyers camped out at airports around the country, assisting stranded refugees, in some ways shattered a negative stereotype of lawyers and transformed them into empathetic humanitarians, legal education observers say.
“People against Trump are saying, ‘I want to be the judge that stood up to him.’ People for Trump are saying, ‘I could’ve won that case for him’,” said Kellye Testy, president and CEO of the Law School Admission Council, which administers the LSAT. “Young people were saying, ‘Wow, the lawyers are really stepping up to talk back to power and help guard the rule of law and democracy.’ The positive role of a lawyer was made visible in a way that it’s often not.”
Trump’s Washington-outsider status is what drew Boguslawski to him. She voted for him in the primary and general election. “Obviously one of the reasons I really liked him was because he wasn’t a politician,” she said. “His excitement and love for this country is what I liked.” As a first-generation American, Boguslawski said she shares Trump’s passion for her country and that’s driving her to pursue a law degree.
“The election wasn’t the reason why; it made me want to do it more,” she said.
Lynn Page, a pre-law adviser at Northwestern University, has seen a noticeable increase in the number of students coming to her for counsel. Her calendar is full of appointments with students considering law school and she said she has many more applications and personal statements to read than last year. Page recently spent a weekend working to stay on top of the new, increased volume.
The students, according to Page, don’t talk politics with her, but rather, are very clear about the type of law specialties they are interested in — primarily immigration and environmental law. Academic advisers say millennials and Generation Z are considered the most politically engaged generations in recent history.
“If it’s not immigration (law), it’s an interest in public interest law,” Page said. “Most students are interested in civic engagement (and) social justice.”
“They understand that one, the law touches everything, and two, there are a lot of changes that can be affected by lawyers and working in the law,” said Amanda Noascono, assistant dean and director of admissions at DePaul University College of Law.
But politics isn’t the only explanation for the recent surge in law school interest, according to Noascono. Schools are doing a better job of marketing themselves to potential students, she said.
They’ve reduced barriers to application by lifting the limits on how many times a person can take the LSAT. Some law schools have begun accepting the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE, the standardized test used for admission to most graduate-level programs. There are also more tools and resources to help students prepare for the test, Noascano said. “I think that we’ve done a better job of saying there are other things you can do with a law degree,” she said.
Law school applications continue to recover slowly from the plunge they took during the recession and it’s unclear whether an increase in test-taking will translate into higher enrollment. Law schools contacted by the Tribune declined to release the number of applications they received for the 2018-2019 school year. Still, anecdotally, pre-law advisers say they are swamped with students considering law school.
“It is still quite early in the process but I can say that we are outpacing the LSAT test-taker increase,” said Northwestern’s Rebstock.
LSAT registrations last surged in the 2009-2010 test cycle, when 171,514 people took the test in the midst of the recession, when jobs were scarce and many students considered advanced degrees as a way to ride out the tight job market. Since then, that number has steadily declined to its all-time low of 101,689 test takers in 2014-2015. Now, legal education observers expect it will continue to improve, although not to its 2009-2010 high point.
Increased interest in the profession doesn’t necessarily mean the job market is ready for them. Employment of lawyers is expected to grow about 9 percent between 2016 and 2026, on average with other jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But there’s a catch: More people are graduating with law degrees than there are jobs available, making for a competitive job market.
In the Chicago area last year, there were 23,100 lawyers, with an average annual income of $134,200, according to BLS data.
In 2013, 84.5 percent of graduates fresh out of law school found jobs, a substantial decline from headier days. In 2007, nearly 92 percent of law grads nationwide found jobs. Since then, the job market is slowly reaching a new normal. In Chicago area there are 23,000 lawyers, who make on average, $134,200.
The job market is “way better than it was in the worst of the aftermath of the recession,” said James Leipold, executive director of the National Association of Law Placement. “It’s not nearly as good as it was in the glory days before the recession.”
The only real area of job growth has been at the biggest law firms, with 500 or more attorneys. “Hiring at the other (small and midsized) law firms have been flat or fewer jobs,” he said, adding,“The biggest law firms are still hiring about 1,000 fewer associates than they did before the recession.”
For some wannabe attorneys, the numbers mean keeping your eye on the prize, regardless of the political climate.
Robert Baurley, a senior and co-founder of Loyola’s Pre-Law Society, knew he wanted to be a lawyer years before Trump was elected. Baurley, 22, took the LSAT in September and plans to take it again next year to improve his score. He’s interned with an assistant district attorney in his native Pennsylvania, he said, and is working to get into his dream school, the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
As far as Baurley, is concerned, people motivated by the election of Donald Trump should reassess why they want to invest in a legal education. The current political climate Baurley said, is merely a momentary glimpse of time. “For me, I’ve known forever that I wanted to be an attorney.”
crshropshire@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @corilyns
