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The number of people taking the law-school admission test spiked after the Great Recession hit in 2007. But it has dropped more than 16  percent this year, the largest decline in more than a decade.

Many think the drop is an indication that prospective students have realized that the job market for law-school graduates hasn’t been this bad since the mid-1990s. Others think law schools should be taking steps to stop churning out more graduates than the market can bear while at the same time saddling them with huge debt.

“Things have really collapsed in the last two to three years,” said Peter Koltak, 24, of Upper Arlington, who is a second-year law student at Ohio State University. “Paid summer positions for law-school students have gone from 20 to 30 openings to just two or three in some cases.

“And the number of jobs available for new graduates has dropped exponentially.”

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Petro would like to shift some of the state funding that is currently earmarked to help subsidize the cost of teaching law students to Ohio’s medical schools to help fill a national shortage of doctors. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the U.S. is short 13,700 doctors in all specialties. That number is predicted to hit 63,000 by 2015 and more than double by 2025.

Lawmakers rejected Petro’s recommendation during the last state budget process, but he is considering introducing a similar measure in the future. The state needs to help the medical schools increase their enrollments to bolster Ohio’s prosperity, he said.

The overall employment rate for new law-school graduates across the country was 87.6 percent in 2010, the lowest it has been since 1996, according to the National Association for Law Placement. And only 68 percent of the graduates obtained jobs requiring a law degree; 27 percent of the jobs were temporary, and 11 percent were part time, said James Leipold, the association’s executive director.

“There is likely more bad news to come,” Leipold said, although he disagrees that the U.S. has too many lawyers.

Despite perceptions that lawyers all make six-figure salaries, the national median starting salary for the class of 2010 was $63,000, down almost 13 percent from the previous class. The median salary in Ohio is just below that.

Most new graduates also are still paying off their law-school education, often into middle age, advocates for fewer lawyers said. In the 2009-10 school year, public law-school students averaged $68,827 of debt, and private law-school students $106,249, according to the American Bar Association.

“Many students are gambling the equivalent of a home mortgage on their legal educations,” Dolin said.

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He said law schools often give students misleading information about employment and starting-salary prospects to entice more students to apply and increase the schools’ rankings.

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So why does the average lawyer still charge over $200/hour ? It seems to me that a new lawyer could get a lot of business by charging $100/hour.

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There are so many attorneys that are struggling to earn even $40/hour (before expenses) it's not funny.

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Anybody got 1 million to throw at my start-up?

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So why does the average lawyer still charge over $200/hour ?

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There is no "loser pays" clause in the legal system here, though there is one in the British system upon which ours is based, and every other legal system.

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OK, fraudster, put up or shut up. Find me an experienced lawyer (5+ years experience, say, in a general law/tort practice with trial experience) in West Chester, PA, for $40/hour...or less.

I'll be waiting - either for a name, or an apology.

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because they wouldn't even be able to pay for their required Westlaw subscription or malpractice.

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if Tesla is going to throw out anecdotes, he an be sure I will throw out mine.

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In Florida there are quite a few solo practitioners who are barely clearing $50/hour for their work (before overhead and expenses)