Educational Debts and the Worsening Position of Small-Firm, Government, and Legal-Services Lawyers

Law school operating costs are up. Tuitions are up. The debts of law students are up. What is happening to the students who have borrowed large sums? Are their debts affecting their decisions about the jobs to seek? Once in practice, are they significantly affecting the standard of living they can afford to maintain? What, in particular, is the effect of debts on those who enter-or contemplate entering-small firms, government, legal services, and public interest work where salaries are lower than in most other settings in which lawyers work? In the preceding essay, Jack Kramer has performed another extremely valuable inquiry into the costs of legal education and the ways they are being met. As ever, he glowers and harumphs and leaves the reader melancholy about the present and the future. This article picks up where Kramer leaves off and seeks to show that in some respects Kramer is not nearly gloomy enough