Politics and the job market made law school a hot ticket

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By Sara Merken

What's going on today?

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File photo

Thousands of first-year law students faced stiffer competition than usual to secure a place on campus this fall. The number of U.S. law school applicants surged 18% last year, the highest year-over-year increase since 2002, according to data released by the Law School Admission Council.

"Last year caught us all by surprise," said law school admissions consultant Mike Spivey.

The pool of applicants could be just as big or larger next year. Registrants and examinees for the LSAT in August, September, and October are all up by double digits over last year.

What's driving the surge is a matter of debate among admissions experts and legal educators, but most agree that it's a combination of an anemic entry level job market for recent college graduates and political events vaulting law to the forefront. Strong employment rates among new law school graduates over the past half decade and changes to the LSAT are also contributing to the stampede of would-be lawyers, experts said.

Read more from Karen Sloan.

REUTERS/David Swanson/File Photo

A federal judge blocked President Trump's administration from using the military to fight crime in California, as the president threatens to send troops to more U.S. cities including Chicago.

San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the Trump administration violated a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act with its June deployment of 4,000 National Guard and 700 active duty U.S. Marines to Los Angeles. The law sharply limits the use of federal troops for domestic enforcement.

Read more from Dietrich Knauth and Tom Hals.

First came the theft, then the epic PowerPoint fail: A software engineer stole confidential source codes, jumped ship to chipmaking giant Nvidia, and then accidentally shared the documents on a video call with his former colleagues. The theft and blunder led the man's prior employer, global automotive tech supplier Valeo, to file a trade-secrets lawsuit against Nvidia. Now a federal judge in San Jose, California, has greenlit the case for trial in November, raising thorny intellectual property issues, Jenna Greene writes in On the Case.

China's President Xi Jinping convened his Russian and North Korean counterparts in Beijing for the first time … An armed group that controls part of western Sudan appealed for foreign help in recovering bodies and rescuing residents from torrential rain … Nestle has fired CEO Laurent Freixe after just a year in the job for concealing a romantic relationship with a subordinate … Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr's autism data project has drawn more than 100 research proposals, sources said. Plus, Chinese companies turn to generics as shipments behind the U.S. weight-loss craze fade.

sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com

@saramerken

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