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#Let s NOT Kill All The Lawyers: Why Law School Is Still Worth The Investment

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“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” shouts Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II .

Since the 2008 recession, that’s what some think the American economy has conspired to do.

But let’s hope that what many have deemed a “crisis” for legal education doesn’t drive smart, principled students away from law. That would be a tremendous loss for our country. Our society doesn’t work without well-educated legal leaders dedicated to preserving America’s commitments to the Constitution and fair legal frameworks for dispute resolution.

Democracy requires the effective application of legal principles and rules in political life; capitalism requires legal checks to ensure fair competition in the economic sphere and protect the rights of employees, consumers, shareholders, and owners alike; and, national security requires laws that protect both the safety of the many and the rights of the individual. We need the legal thinkers and practitioners—drawn from every generation—who will sustain these essential commitments.

At the same time, American strength and innovation always requires fresh minds for new thinking. For example, the digital revolution has required the development of new laws to protect individuals from cybercrime and from the public release of private information. Vast changes in health care have required new legal frameworks to protect patients and consumers against fraud and incompetence. Newly-coalesced societal beliefs—like those related to LGBT equality—have required new rulings to extend protections or preserve existing rights.

In America, legal work matters in everything from contracts to property ownership, from international law to criminal justice, and from the protection of our political rights to the guarantee of equal protection under the law.