From: Anaalba [mailto:
Sent: Thu 12/2/2010 11:39 AM
To: ABA Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; Stretch, Charlotte (Becky)
Subject: FOREIGN LAW SCHOOLS --- VOTE AGAINST ACCREDITING FOREIGN LAW SCHOOLS
To: ABA Council
I submit this e-mail in OPPOSITION to the proposal that the ABA accredit foreign law schools. I hope that my comments are considered in time for the vote on Saturday, December 5, 2010 particularly, in light of the fact that this vote has not been well publicized outside of the American Bar Association. I am a member of the New York State Bar Association, New York County Lawyers' Association, and the New York City Bar. I heard no mention about this vote through any of those forums and only heard about this by chance.
I strongly urge the committee to vote against this proposal to accredit foreign law schools. As I am sure you are well aware, there is currently a vast oversupply of lawyers in the United States many of which are unemployed. Even elite, ivy league educated lawyers are included among those ranks. Some of these lawyers have remained unemployed for over a year. Many of these lawyers are now collecting unemployment benefits. This proposal could result in an increased number of American lawyers collecting unemployment benefits.
Additionally, due to the current economic climate many lawyers are choosing to delay retirement and American law schools continue to enroll and graduate a high number of new lawyers each year. Conversely, there is a tremendous shortage of American legal employment due to many law firms reducing their associate positions. These lost jobs are predicted to never return. The number of job openings continues to shrink daily. Consequently, there is simply not enough legal work within the United States for everyone. Adding ABA-accredited foreign law schools would only further compound the problem. This proposal will also exacerbate the dilemma of legal outsourcing resulting in even more jobs lost for American lawyers.
Furthermore, during the recession legal salaries and bonuses have decreased for the remaining legal jobs. This proposal will likely cause legal salaries to decrease further since inevitably more lawyers will be added to an already overly saturated legal market. With lower salaries, it will become increasing difficult for an American law graduate who has law school loans to meet debt obligations while balancing living expenses. These loans often take over ten years to pay off and generally are not dischargeable in a bankruptcy. A situationcould result where only affluent students enroll in law school since poorer students cannot depend on low legal salaries covering future loan payments.
Any foreign candidate that wishes to become an American attorney can and should apply for admission and compete for the available spots that currently exist within American law schools. Instead of accrediting more law schools, the ABA should consider closing down and/or limiting the number of seats within the existing ABA-approved law schools to remedy the oversupply problem.
American lawyers will see no employment benefit from this proposal. There is no guarantee of reciprocity for American lawyers to practice law in a foreign jurisdiction. Thus, the benefit will be only one-sided against American lawyers. Vote against this proposal as it will only cause more harm than good. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Ana B. Alba, Esq.