Oversupply of Lawyers

Australian law universities are turning out graduates at record rates. Therefore, I can happily make the assumption that the direct result of this; is creating a heavy imbalance between the supply and demand for law graduates. Obviously, one needs experience to get a job but one needs a job to get experience. This statement raises alarming questions, producing rise to a number of "highly exploitative business model(s)."

For example, recently, law firm AdLawgroup in Adelaide was looking at offering mentoring for graduate law students. This comes at a catch. $22,000 to fund each graduate. Coming out of the graduates pocket, reportedly used to fund supervision, mentoring and educational programs. That is a ridiculous amount of money! I can't think of any other profession that does this.. Up until the last couple days (21st September 2015), this system has been close to implementation. However, thankfully, this has now been abolished, amid obvious scrutiny and questioning of the value of this type of scheme. This is just one example of a huge law firm trying to solve a very inherent problem....

I think that the fact that those law students who want a job; will now need to "buy" themselves a job is just ridiculous. This however, reveals a very alarming problem. The oversupply of lawyers. It seems that too many students are being admitted into university courses for law, ultimately making the market even more fiercely competitive (on top of what it already is). It is reported that more than 2000 law graduates in South Australia have "no immediate employment prospects".  Aspiring lawyers need to be aware that their chances of working as a barrister or solicitor are now very very problematic due to this oversupply of law graduates; and not enough jobs to accommodate this boost. There just simply is not enough jobs going around. The fact that this is appearing to be more and more acceptable; symbolises not only the oversupply of law graduates, but the lack of jobs available and the competitiveness of the market. This problem cannot be fixed overnight. Part of the long term response needs to involve increasing numbers of such jobs, but that is easier said than done.

Reference for Text:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/for-22k-law-firm-will-mentor-grads-to-practising-certificates/story-e6frg97x-1227495639256

Reference for Images:
http://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/need-a-job-LF-300x190.jpg
http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/j/6/y/i/u/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.j6yiw.png/1423685406317.jpg