The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy says North Carolina is "under-lawyered."
Robust growth and new businesses boost the need for lawyers in North Carolina, according to a center report released today. It cites data that North Carolina has fewer private-sector lawyers per capita than any other state (758 people for each lawyer).
But, the report says, state restrictions make the climate difficult for new lawyers to come here, reports Jane Stancill.
The reports says North Carolina allows only graduates of American Bar Association-approved law schools to take the state bar exam, and requires licensed lawyers from other states to have practiced for four of the past six years in order to "waive" in to the North Carolina bar. The rules prevent newly licensed lawyers and those who graduated from unaccredited law schools to practice here.
Read more after the jump.
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The report also compares the state's law schools on key factors such as tuition, bar passage rate, debt after graduation and starting salaries. It says there is only one low-cost option for legal education in North Carolina — N.C. Central University's law school.
North Carolina has seven law schools, including two new ones — Elon University and Charlotte School of Law — that opened in 2006.
Here are some interesting findings from the report:
• 46 percent of UNC-Chapel Hill law graduates leave the state for their first job.
• The median starting salary for a Duke law graduate is $110,000; for UNC-CH graduates, it's $100,000; for Wake Forest grads, it's $70,000.
• N.C. Central law graduates have a low debt load of $17,215, compared to $90,929 for Campbell law grads.
The paper, "Legal Education in North Carolina: A Report for Potential Students, Lawmakers and the Public," is by Andrew Morriss, law professor at the University of Illinois, and William Henderson, law professor at Indiana University.
Comments
Re: Report: N.C. needs more lawyers
February 27, 2008 - 7:39am — FFC1304I believe that NC has FAR TOO MANY loiwyers, and most of them suck. I cannot even get a return phone call on work that was assigned to a loiwyer here in Asheville, 'SLACK CITY'...and he probably aint even a democrackkk like most of them...
Re: Report: N.C. needs more lawyers
February 26, 2008 - 5:42pm — tkd720manThere's a VERY good reason why the NC Bar won't admit folks who graduated from non-accredited law schools: they're guaranteed to be incompetent.
And nothing actually prevents new lawyers from moving to NC and practicing here if they've practiced fewer than four of the past six years - they just have to take the NC Bar exam when they get here.
If the Pope Center wants attorneys who graduate from NC law schools to stay here, they should encourage law firms to pay them more. Firms in New York, as well as some in DC and Atlanta, will pay $160,000 (plus a $30K bonus) to top first-year attorneys. If the firms in Raleigh and Charlotte would pay more than $125-$135K, they could compete for the same talent.
Re: Report: N.C. needs more lawyers
February 26, 2008 - 3:41pm — JosephColettiSimilar recommendations would help with North Carolina's lack of health care providers without expanding the med schools at UNC-CH or ECU.
Re: Report: N.C. needs more lawyers
February 26, 2008 - 2:00pm — susskipgive us a break, we need half as many lawyers, and twice as many doctors, nurses and engineers. Tort reform is needed and far fewer lawyer politicians.
Re: Report: N.C. needs more lawyers
February 26, 2008 - 1:20pm — dahedgehogIt's time for the media to start calling these protections to professional jobs what they are: trade protection. We have learned to lament the 1% tariff on textiles from Cambodia, but we ignore the far more costly protections that serve to protect the jobs (and increase wages) of the professional class (lawyers, doctors, etc.).