The proliferation of compliance programs in US law schools over the last several years responds to a fundamental shift in the market for law graduates. The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of jobs for in-house lawyers, far outpacing the growth in government or law firm positions over the same period. The expanding compliance demands on businesses have been a major contributor to that increase. Although today some argue that the growth may have peaked, there is no denying that law schools have needed to respond to the new reality.
The bottom-line is that a significant portion of today’s law school graduates will find themselves employed in compliance rather than in lawyer roles per se. And even if many graduates will still work as legal counsel in a more traditional sense (whether in-house or externally), their practices will almost certainly include, in important respects, involvement in compliance matters. What might these developments mean for legal education more generally? Continue reading